Floor standing speaker under 1.3L

[vikramdesigner]

Hi Friends,

My current setup :

KEF Q300 (Reason to choose this speakers cos Im into vocal and detail but time to upgrade)
LUXMAN -L3 ( Love warm sound and its signature)
Technics 1200 MK3D ( New addition from Technics 1900 , have good vinyl collections )
Pioneer BDP-160 - (I have loads of CDS & blurays)
DAC - Schiit Bifrost or Audio GD , will be getting soon for HD tracks from my Laptop. but more into CDS so not spending too much on this)

Planning to upgrade my BS speakers to FL. (Budget 80k to 1.3L) room size 12x14.

I listen to Vocal and instrumental Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country, Dance Music, Easy Listening, Electronic. (But very smooth, relaxed,meditation, fluidic, chill, deep and tight bass not hard hitting or bang or bang.) and Bollywood too . may be Im somewhat laid back type lol.


Here is list of speakers i auditioned. Just my thoughts may be Im wrong.

Focal aria 926 with Marantz - Very sweet sounding and refined, can play all sorts of genre and every thing is balanced equal. good separation( booms in some songs and very huge).

KEF R300 - R500 with Marantz - More inclined to this speaker cos i love the vocals , detail ,clean mids sound but bass depends on matching amp and power. i tired with my LUXMAN some what i liked it better than DENON, NAD but well matched with marantz. its deep but some times muddy bass. Imaging is WOW when playing jazz and House Music. Thanks to Terrance and RaghuB for audition. some what laid back but i like it.

PSB X2T with NAD - This is superb for all rounder but very energetic and bang on but not clean as KEF and FOCAL on vocals and detail.

Not Auditioned. but i heard these are good too. so i m confused to do the right choice.
Q Acoustics Concept 40
B&W 684 or 683 S2
Focal chorus 800 series
Dali - comparable models ???
Spendor - comparable models ???


Need your suggestions b4 landing on KEF or FOCAL.
May be there are best speakers compared to KEF and FOCAL which Im missing ???

 

[afj]

add monitor audio silvers to that mix

 

[aashish351]

Why have you decided on only Floorstanders, especially, for a room size of 12 by 14. I think the kind of bass you want and the music you want to enjoy will be negatively affected if there is too much bass. And, 12 by 14 is a room size that can easily lead to over-emphasized bass, UNLESS, your room is full of absorbing material and is sucking bass.

I am not surprised that you are inclined to the R300 which is a stand-mount speaker. I think you will enjoy the end result much more with a good stand-mount and decent stands. And there are many highly rated options there: KEF LS50 Anniversary Edition, Spendor S3/5R2, Harbeth P3ESR, Dynaudio Excite X14, PMC twenty.21, ATC SCM11, Sonus Faber Venere 1.5, ProAc Studio 118 and more.

 

[vikramdesigner]

@aashish351 , yes you are right about the current space. but i don't want to keep upgrading my speakers as i move to bigger space max 14x16. it's just one time investment and will be using same speaker wherever i go ( or my wife will kill me :sad. maybe i'll have issue now but will manage with low volume.

Why have you decided on only Floorstanders, especially, for a room size of 12 by 14. I think the kind of bass you want and the music you want to enjoy will be negatively affected if there is too much bass. And, 12 by 14 is a room size that can easily lead to over-emphasized bass, UNLESS, your room is full of absorbing material and is sucking bass.

I am not surprised that you are inclined to the R300 which is a stand-mount speaker. I think you will enjoy the end result much more with a good stand-mount and decent stands. And there are many highly rated options there: KEF LS50 Anniversary Edition, Spendor S3/5R2, Harbeth P3ESR, Dynaudio Excite X14, PMC twenty.21, ATC SCM11, Sonus Faber Venere 1.5, ProAc Studio 118 and more.

 

[mpw]

try a small subwoofer in your present setup - sealed type.

can be cheaper than a FS option as well.

 

[raghupb]

If I remember our conversation when Vikram visited my place, he is going to be moving to a larger place with a decent enough listening area.
So the pendulum swing between small beauties and big monsters. Make a one time investment and be done with.

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[Her Master's Voice]

Some time back I visited The Listening Room in Bangalore to listen to a new Trigon amp that Jochen has on demo. I also had a short audition of the Blumenhofer FUN 10 horn speaker. Incredibly natural and agil sounding small floorstander it is. It was offered a special price of less than a lakh. Go and find out if it's still available.

 

[Hassan Khani]

For your listening taste would recommend picking up Harbeth SHL5 on sale in this forum. Would be equally good to use in small and bigger room.

 

[vikramdesigner]

But thats 2L above

 

[vikramdesigner]

@raghubp

 

[SoundCraft]

Vikram have you considered or checked some of the other offerings ?? Are you firm on branded stuff ??

Since you are from,I strongly suggest you visit some of the local offerings or such before taking a plunge.

Although he's no commercial seller or such but he's speaker specialist and is from Bangalore,Erstwhile member (he still is but stopped posting eons ago) called Soundsgreat. He has some TL based speakers and what not,So a must visit if you want to experience a true sound (IMHO).

A listening session might actually be a revelation or sorts and you are sure to get the right idea for whatever that you want from your speakers (reading the above you already have some good leads but this will add to the info or knowledge).

Now Am not at all suggesting you buying anything (neither he is selling anything),I just think you'll throughly enjoy it and might even change your perspective.

 

[milestoneseeker]

With R300, the challenge is the relative muddy bass and it appears even more stark when heard next to R500. R500 had awesome tight bass in my view and I am only apprehensive if it is too harsh. But I believe it is more due to my recordings than the speaker itself.