Speaker ideas circa £5K
Discussion
Hello hello...
Looking to purchase some speakers, been a while since I have purchased any hi-fi and my good friend who used to know all about these things has gone to the big listening room in the sky. Anyway, looking to buy some floor standing speakers for about 5k'ish and wondered where would be a good place to start looking? Or any brands to look at.
Always fancied some Nautilus's, but pretty sure they are out of my budget.
Cheers,
smele.
Looking to purchase some speakers, been a while since I have purchased any hi-fi and my good friend who used to know all about these things has gone to the big listening room in the sky. Anyway, looking to buy some floor standing speakers for about 5k'ish and wondered where would be a good place to start looking? Or any brands to look at.
Always fancied some Nautilus's, but pretty sure they are out of my budget.
Cheers,
smele.
Do you already have an amp? What are you connecting them to? What sort of music do you listen to (assuming we are talking a stereo pair for music?) do you want a sub? How big is the room? Etc.etc.
People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
talkssense said:
Do you already have an amp? What are you connecting them to? What sort of music do you listen to (assuming we are talking a stereo pair for music?) do you want a sub? How big is the room? Etc.etc.
People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
The Meridian look good, I am all in favour of digital.People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
Yes, I know it's an opened question, just looking for ideas, but anyway, a few answers:
Stereo pair only, not interested in a sub.
All types of music, classical to electronic.
Room is about 60ft x 30ft.
At the moment not sure about the amp, probably change this at the same time. Especially if going digital.
Yes, I reckon a home demo will be important, as it's a large loft apartment.
Another to add to your list is PMC: I think some of the Fact range might be within budget, the 'Twenty' series probably a fair bit under, so perhaps not so much a competitor to Meridian. There is a dealer who is a PH member called Vipers who runs 'HifiLounge' and he sells PMC and other speakers too, might be worth a call.
I always get home demos myself since they always sound so different in the shop; my old PMCs I had the shop demo pair over a weekend against a credit card deposit before I ordered ones to match my room. The MK 150 series I recently replaced them with I had for two weeks since I wanted to be really sure when committing to a similar spend to yourself.
PS. I haven't included MK in my recommendation though since they specifically are designed to work with a subwoofer, otherwise I'd have said to look at the MK S150 or perhaps the new MK S300 (the later being probably out of budget once a suitable sub is included).
I always get home demos myself since they always sound so different in the shop; my old PMCs I had the shop demo pair over a weekend against a credit card deposit before I ordered ones to match my room. The MK 150 series I recently replaced them with I had for two weeks since I wanted to be really sure when committing to a similar spend to yourself.
PS. I haven't included MK in my recommendation though since they specifically are designed to work with a subwoofer, otherwise I'd have said to look at the MK S150 or perhaps the new MK S300 (the later being probably out of budget once a suitable sub is included).
smele said:
The Meridian look good, I am all in favour of digital.
Yes, I know it's an opened question, just looking for ideas, but anyway, a few answers:
Stereo pair only, not interested in a sub.
All types of music, classical to electronic.
Room is about 60ft x 30ft.
At the moment not sure about the amp, probably change this at the same time. Especially if going digital.
Yes, I reckon a home demo will be important, as it's a large loft apartment.
Big space to fill fill then. Have you got neighbours below? Yes, I know it's an opened question, just looking for ideas, but anyway, a few answers:
Stereo pair only, not interested in a sub.
All types of music, classical to electronic.
Room is about 60ft x 30ft.
At the moment not sure about the amp, probably change this at the same time. Especially if going digital.
Yes, I reckon a home demo will be important, as it's a large loft apartment.
What sources are you looking to use, cd, FLAC, mp3, cassette tape etc.?
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I'd vote for B&Ws too.For your budget you can pick up some immaculate condition used B&W 802s. Those are considerably larger than the 804s.
Just like toxic's penchant for Beyer headphones I also concur my enjoyment of the Nautilus range. I've had 804, 803 and for the last 8 years or so 802s.
For the size of room you have, I'd go for the 802s. I also wouldn't be shy of going for used as well. When you compare the difference between getting the original 802s at £3500 to £4000 compared to the newest iteration at £13000 list price, the diamond tweeter is a taste thing. I certainly will not 'upgrade' and spend £10k more to get the diamond tweeter.
The Meridians will fill that no problem, and the benefit of them being DSP is they sound the same whether you are playing them at -30db at midnight when eveyone is asleep or paying them at -0db when you are having a party.
I went from Levinson pre with Classé power and Dunlavey Audio Lab speakers, totalling around £15,000 to a pair of DSP5200 at £3500 ex demo and have never looked back.
The DSP7200 are sublime but they are now £15,000, but there are some ex demo and used ones around for near your budget.
PM me if you want a few contacts.
I went from Levinson pre with Classé power and Dunlavey Audio Lab speakers, totalling around £15,000 to a pair of DSP5200 at £3500 ex demo and have never looked back.
The DSP7200 are sublime but they are now £15,000, but there are some ex demo and used ones around for near your budget.
PM me if you want a few contacts.
talkssense said:
Do you already have an amp? What are you connecting them to? What sort of music do you listen to (assuming we are talking a stereo pair for music?) do you want a sub? How big is the room? Etc.etc.
People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
Couldn't have said it better myself People will be along to tell you their favourites, but whether they are what you should buy is down to you , your ears, and all the factors above.
At £5k make sure you get a good demo, ideally in your own room.
We can help with the shortlist for a huge room though........
http://www.neumann-kh-line.com/neumann-kh/home_en....
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb09/articles/kle...
Meridian
PMC OB1i
Proac Response 40
KEF reference 203/2 or the R900 might just fit the bill http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/kef3/1.html well under budget too.
S/H active ATC SCM50 or SCM100 as suggested above
S/H B&W 802D as above
S/H Wilson Audio Watt Puppy
Edit : The Hornings suggested below are a great call for a very big room.
Edited by Crackie on Friday 10th January 13:52
If you have a BIG space then Horn Loaded Speakers could fit the Bill. They also do not need a sky high wattage amp to run them. Aspara Acoustics and Horning could be a good stop off point. The Bigger Tannoy Dual Concentric speakers are also a great room filler. Something like a Westminster or Canterbury. Then of course The Audionote E series or the Snell's they were orginally sourced from could also sound good. The Snell A is a nice big speaker that is easy to drive. At this level looking second hand usually gets you a well looked after example. Pricing is tricky as once you go beyond a certain level it depends on the speakers finish. Some Exotic woods can double the price of the basic speaker. Hence pricing is dependant on you contacting the dealer.
These are Kensington's in your budget.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tannoy-Kensington-SEs-Ju...
These Aspara's are also in Budget
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASPARA-HL1-horn-LOUDSPEA...
These are Kensington's in your budget.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tannoy-Kensington-SEs-Ju...
These Aspara's are also in Budget
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASPARA-HL1-horn-LOUDSPEA...
Edited by telecat on Friday 10th January 09:17
You need to try the PMC Ob1i this will be in budget and is a great speaker, partner with a Bryston 4b and it would be a ver nice setup. If you could also try the ATC scm 40 they are also very nice. I find both the meridian and B&W 800 range to be very un natural sounding and I have had many hours in front of both and never been impressed.
Power Junkie said:
You need to try the PMC Ob1i this will be in budget and is a great speaker, partner with a Bryston 4b and it would be a ver nice setup. If you could also try the ATC scm 40 they are also very nice. I find both the meridian and B&W 800 range to be very un natural sounding and I have had many hours in front of both and never been impressed.
Depends what you want from your system though, yeah Meridian is warm and liquidy sounding, but you can listen to them 24/7, I loved the big PMC's but they needed a decent amp to get them really rocking, in the end I had a Cinepro 3k6SE, running the big studios tri wired with 425w each channel and they were sweet. But less than that and they could sound a bit harsh. Merdian for me wins because you have a speaker that is also the amp, dac and can take a pretty basic source and sound amazing. That is it, no more boxes around.
Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
gizlaroc said:
Merdian for me wins because you have a speaker that is also the amp, dac and can take a pretty basic source and sound amazing. That is it, no more boxes around.
Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
That's what I was looking at. Seems like a good solution. Don't need any other hardware, suppose I can extend the budget.Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
Some of those other speakers look like church organs; not for me.
smele said:
gizlaroc said:
Merdian for me wins because you have a speaker that is also the amp, dac and can take a pretty basic source and sound amazing. That is it, no more boxes around.
Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
That's what I was looking at. Seems like a good solution. Don't need any other hardware, suppose I can extend the budget.Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
Some of those other speakers look like church organs; not for me.
Dynaudio are consistently good in my view. They would certainly offer room filling sound. I have tried all sorts in the past, but the Dynaudio Contour S1.4 have stayed the longest and replaced some sizeable floor standers from PMC, JM Lab Focal and Pro Ac...
I like the fact that they make their own drive units which seem to be over engineered, and that they generally use a fabric dome tweeter which as a generalisation tends to treble that is not harsh or annoying at high levels.
Meridian DSP might be out of budget?
All personal preference really, one thing is for sure, you can make an expensive mistake if not careful.
Some people offer Home Demo's
Personally I would be looking at buying something used that originally cost 10K or more if you have a big enough room, and a suitable amplifier.
I like the fact that they make their own drive units which seem to be over engineered, and that they generally use a fabric dome tweeter which as a generalisation tends to treble that is not harsh or annoying at high levels.
Meridian DSP might be out of budget?
All personal preference really, one thing is for sure, you can make an expensive mistake if not careful.
Some people offer Home Demo's
Personally I would be looking at buying something used that originally cost 10K or more if you have a big enough room, and a suitable amplifier.
Edited by urquattroGus on Friday 10th January 15:10
smele said:
gizlaroc said:
Merdian for me wins because you have a speaker that is also the amp, dac and can take a pretty basic source and sound amazing. That is it, no more boxes around.
Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
That's what I was looking at. Seems like a good solution. Don't need any other hardware, suppose I can extend the budget.Get a Meridian Media Core 200 on the front and you have a complete system that rocks and is tiny.
Some of those other speakers look like church organs; not for me.
telecat said:
Generally buy Speakers on how they sound not how they look!
I have yet to hear anything that sound better than Meridian to my ears though, and the looks are not to everyones tastes, my wifes comments were 'do we have to have those things in here, it is like having R2D2 and his mate round for the evening!' She had a point!
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