$10,000 loudspeakers

Lets look at all the available loudspeakers NEW and USED, at and below $10k and figure out what are keepers at the price and what could be bettered for less money? Totally selfish thread since i'm looking for a $10k speaker investment and want to narrow down the list of contenders. New focal Kanta, Dyna C60, revel F228 be. Used Salon 2, sopra 2, 207/2, Sasha 3, etc. Obviously speakers respond to different electronics differently and rooms always present challenges, but lets see what you would spend $10k lottery money on a pair of speakers.

 

I bought a pair for myself and use it in my roughly 50sqm bedroom. Well, I used to have more expensive speakers in my room except all my free dough went into the blue tower you're leaning against Hahahahaha!

I use these speakers to play a wide range of music. I listen to Hard Bop or Dance Music to get me going in the morning. Vocals and Jazz Standards while reading, soft classical while studying for hearings and small ensembles at night. I listen to Classic Rock while dressing up to go out at night. They play well softly but can also rock.

Typically when new electronics come in, I bring them up and they go through delivery inspection in my room. I've used them with the KR850 and KR900 (100w and 90w tube integrated respectively), Calypso Eclipse and Atlas Sig, KR P130 and KR VA 910s and KR P135 and KR VA200. Server is an Aurender W20 and DACs used are TechDAS D7i Supreme and Light Harmonic Da Vinci Dual. They can take a lot of power but big power as provided by the Atlas and VA200s are not a requisite to get my blood flowing in the morning or before going out for sports or recreation. They have an easy time just being soothers when called for that type of duty projecting well into the listening space either way. Something I attribute to the aperiodic loaded bass. Bass is similar to the Unified 3 in quality but there's more on tap as far as quantity.

I like these speakers not just for the sound but also because they are visually unobtrusive. They disappear with both staging and sight. While not as revealing as its stablemates like the Unifield 3 and VR-55, I find that given the price point and gear most likely to be used with these speakers, one could look at it as welcome forgivingness. That said as illustrated above, they do not embarrass themselves instead only get better with better sources and amplification.

No surprise these have garnered quite a few show awards.

Now, don't let this go to your head Leif! LOL

There is a drawback. These like to get banged hard if you want then to sound their best right away. I cycled these with a class D Bel Canto integrated. Two cycles of 4 hours each day of wide dynamic range material for about a week. That's all it took to loosen the drivers up. These cycles were banging and limited to 4 hours to keep the amps getting too hot. Fortunately my home is such that neighbors won't be bothered as my windows and balcony doors are sound proof. In an apartment or condo, you'd have to fall back on the old dealer's trick of facing the speakers at each other wired out of phase to cancel output energy in the lower octaves and cover the speakers with a heavy blanket. At moderate volumes or normal listening they will break in eventually but doing what I did will just bring max fun faster.

 

I bought a pair for myself and use it in my roughly 50sqm bedroom. Well, I used to have more expensive speakers in my room except all my free dough went into the blue tower you're leaning against Hahahahaha!

I use these speakers to play a wide range of music. I listen to Hard Bop or Dance Music to get me going in the morning. Vocals and Jazz Standards while reading, soft classical while studying for hearings and small ensembles at night. I listen to Classic Rock while dressing up to go out at night. They play well softly but can also rock.

Typically when new electronics come in, I bring them up and they go through delivery inspection in my room. I've used them with the KR850 and KR900 (100w and 90w tube integrated respectively), Calypso Eclipse and Atlas Sig, KR P130 and KR VA 910s and KR P135 and KR VA200. Server is an Aurender W20 and DACs used are TechDAS D7i Supreme and Light Harmonic Da Vinci Dual. They can take a lot of power but big power as provided by the Atlas and VA200s are not a requisite to get my blood flowing in the morning or before going out for sports or recreation. They have an easy time just being soothers when called for that type of duty projecting well into the listening space either way. Something I attribute to the aperiodic loaded bass. Bass is similar to the Unified 3 in quality but there's more on tap as far as quantity.

I like these speakers not just for the sound but also because they are visually unobtrusive. They disappear with both staging and sight. While not as revealing as its stablemates like the Unifield 3 and VR-55, I find that given the price point and gear most likely to be used with these speakers, one could look at it as welcome forgivingness. That said as illustrated above, they do not embarrass themselves instead only get better with better sources and amplification.

No surprise these have garnered quite a few show awards.

Now, don't let this go to your head Leif! LOL

There is a drawback. These like to get banged hard if you want then to sound their best right away. I cycled these with a class D Bel Canto integrated. Two cycles of 4 hours each day of wide dynamic range material for about a week. That's all it took to loosen the drivers up. These cycles were banging and limited to 4 hours to keep the amps getting too hot. Fortunately my home is such that neighbors won't be bothered as my windows and balcony doors are sound proof. In an apartment or condo, you'd have to fall back on the old dealer's trick of facing the speakers at each other wired out of phase to cancel output energy in the lower octaves and cover the speakers with a heavy blanket. At moderate volumes or normal listening they will break in eventually but doing what I did will just bring max fun faster.

Probably too late lmao

I just put the Constellation Centaur in and set my E-3MkII's up next to the E-5's. They really do love scaling up with the more expensive electronics but I love them on the Alchemy gear too. Over the last couple of years we have been doing pre assembly break in on the drivers to help speed the burn in process up. I think the internal MasterBuilt Signature wire takes quite a while to burn in as well. Most tube guys want us to keep the speakers for break in to save the tubes lol. I don't blame them. Can't wait to get your feedback on the MkII version

 

Are we still in the $10k range? Kanta 2, paradigm persona5?, the new f228be from Revel, and contour 60 all come in at $10k but, I see a pair of Vienna Acoustics 'The Music' going for $10k that would probably smoke anything else in this price. Anybody want to drive from Utah to CHI?

 

Eclipse TD712zMK2 or Vivid Audio V1.5 floor standing loudspeakers for $10k price point

We have been recommending two lines of speakers at this price level:

For nearfield listening, we recommend a pair of Eclipse TD712zMK2. They are $10.6k new. We have a pair at $8.5k ex demo in silver at excellent condition. https://onahighernote.com/shop/speaker-systems/eclipse-td712zmk2/

For a small room but a larger sound stage, the Vivid Audio V1.5 floor standing loudspeakers new at $8k have been discounted to $5.5k (new stock with manufacturer's warranty). Their B1 floor standing ones are $19k new but we have them new at $12k. Both models have used with extra discount. https://onahighernote.com/vivid/

Full disclosure: we had been the N. American distributor of both brands and these are out close out inventory. Both lines have received numerous awards and great reviews. Visit our site at www.onahighernote.com for more details or ping back here with questions.

 

We have been recommending two lines of speakers at this price level:

For nearfield listening, we recommend a pair of Eclipse TD712zMK2. They are $10.6k new. We have a pair at $8.5k ex demo in silver at excellent condition. https://onahighernote.com/shop/speaker-systems/eclipse-td712zmk2/

For a small room but a larger sound stage, the Vivid Audio V1.5 floor standing loudspeakers new at $8k have been discounted to $5.5k (new stock with manufacturer's warranty). Their B1 floor standing ones are $19k new but we have them new at $12k. Both models have used with extra discount. https://onahighernote.com/vivid/

Full disclosure: we had been the N. American distributor of both brands and these are out close out inventory. Both lines have received numerous awards and great reviews. Visit our site at www.onahighernote.com for more details or ping back here with questions.

Philip, I have a friend who owns the Eclipse TD712zMk2....it's an excellent speaker for a very small room. No bass below about 55Hz's and a tad restricted in the ultra high freq's, but nonetheless sounds amazing in the imaging dept and in the near field ( as you pointed out). Would be my recommendation for someone who wants a great little speaker for a very small room as well.

 

Another option are Aerial Acoustics 7T at a little less than $10K. Until I bought the Magicos they were the stereo speakers, and sounded great. Now they are in the spare stereo/HT as fronts, and work great there also.

 

Philip, I have a friend who owns the Eclipse TD712zMk2....it's an excellent speaker for a very small room. No bass below about 55Hz's and a tad restricted in the ultra high freq's, but nonetheless sounds amazing in the imaging dept and in the near field ( as you pointed out). Would be my recommendation for someone who wants a great little speaker for a very small room as well.

Thanks. They make a noise cancelling subwoofer that is a superb pairing with these speakers. The small one TD520SW ($3,600) and the larger one TD725SWMK2 ($6,400) also on our close out list. Reach out for special pricing.

 

Zu Audio Druid VI $10k.

 

Are we still in the $10k range? Kanta 2, paradigm persona5?, the new f228be from Revel, and contour 60 all come in at $10k .............................

AFAIK, the Persona 5F is $17K

 

I must have been thinking of the Persona 3f. I'll have to sneak a peek at the 5f

 

Bang for your $, Usher BE10D or BE20D, same woofers as used in $60K Avalon speakers only Ushers are twice the weight and built like a tank (BE20D = 300lbs each). I'd put them up against Magicos and Wilson all day long at 2x their MSRP. Apparently some reviewers think so too.

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/from-usher-with-love/

 

For new speakers :

Elac Adante Series designed by Andrew Jones :
https://www.hifivision.com/threads/...ac-adante-af-61-floor-standing-speaker.68269/

And of course the new Magico A3.

 

Those usher's are gorgeous, do they like SS?

 

Those usher's are gorgeous, do they like SS?

I think so, I have a pair. ;-)

I've had them on big tube amps and several SS and what I've found is - they really like power. I just biamped with an older MF A3CR on the woofers and a Wells Audio Innamoratta on the mids / highs and the sense of ease, dynamics and detail are incredible. You can sometimes find them for ~$10K used, and to my ears there are few that compare. I opted for the GR Research xover / wiring upgrade and the detail retrieval jumped levels.

Also, I bought mine as demo units from the ex - N.A. Usher dealer who highly recommended Pass Labs amps. I concur as I recently had XA100.5s and again, they love the power. I ditched the Pass because the bass control was sub optimal at best. The bigger Pass and .8 series supposedly rectify the bass control issue.

So while they like power, with my Wells amp they still sounded excellent which is 150W /ch @ 8 ohms. Net is - they are best IMO with solid state and while not necessary, more power is better.

 

If I was in the market for speakers at $10,000, I would definitely be looking at second hand.

My reasoning:

Speaker technology has not really improved that mush since the 1930's. Sure there have been recent advances in material science with some exotic cones and cabinets, bu these are well outside the $10K budget, and the best sounding drivers I have heard are Supravox field coils which are 1930's technology.

State of the art is getting more expensive. 20 years ago the contenders were mainly between $20K and $50K. Today they seem to be between $100K and $300K. I don't believe that todays speakers are 5 times as good as they were 20 years ago.

For less than $10K, you can get most of those speakers second hand. I have seen some unbelievable bargains on Audogon and Ebay.

If you don't want to buy 20 year old speakers, even second hand current speakers can often be had for less than half price.

Sure there is no warranty with second hand, but mechanical devices are usually much less likely to fail than electrical devices.

 

If I was in the market for speakers at $10,000, I would definitely be looking at second hand.

My reasoning:

Speaker technology has not really improved that mush since the 1930's. Sure there have been recent advances in material science with some exotic cones and cabinets, bu these are well outside the $10K budget, and the best sounding drivers I have heard are Supravox field coils which are 1930's technology.

State of the art is getting more expensive. 20 years ago the contenders were mainly between $20K and $50K. Today they seem to be between $100K and $300K. I don't believe that todays speakers are 5 times as good as they were 20 years ago.

For less than $10K, you can get most of those speakers second hand. I have seen some unbelievable bargains on Audogon and Ebay.

If you don't want to buy 20 year old speakers, even second hand current speakers can often be had for less than half price.

Sure there is no warranty with second hand, but mechanical devices are usually much less likely to fail than electrical devices.

I think $10k might be the magic number when it comes to buying used as you say sota inches along while the affordable gear has make huge leaps, just listen to revel f208 at $5k then listen to whats new and used at $10k and I see virtually anything I want used can be had.I see gear priced to sell taking awhile to move so the amount of buyers at $10k is relatively small, and $10k speakers tend to be larger making shipping a significant expense, but there's a pair of VA 'the Music' list $30,000 available for less than $10k and still in production, many examples and most in showroom condition.

 

I think $10k might be the magic number when it comes to buying used as you say sota inches along while the affordable gear has make huge leaps, just listen to revel f208 at $5k then listen to whats new and used at $10k and I see virtually anything I want used can be had.I see gear priced to sell taking awhile to move so the amount of buyers at $10k is relatively small, and $10k speakers tend to be larger making shipping a significant expense, but there's a pair of VA 'the Music' list $30,000 available for less than $10k and still in production, many examples and most in showroom condition.

It seems to be at all prices.

I saw a pair of Alon Circes (retail 12K in 2004) with significant upgrades (Nordost Valhalla wire and superior crossover caps - extra $4K), all for $1750.

I could see how collecting used audio gear could become an addiction .

 

any love here .............

http://www.tektondesign.com/double-impact.html

these came up in discussion the other night, I know nothing about them.

 

Just read the HT review and the reviewer ordered a pair after comparing them to some pretty good speakers, unfortunately none i've heard myself but I often wonder what the actual markup is on speakers at B&M retailers especially when it's not to difficult to get decent discounts without working at it. My basement currently has 3 pair of floorstanders in it so until something sells I won't be ordering them. Aesthetics is a big deal and part of the enjoyment of the experience and getting a high gloss finish adds another 25% to the cost...Axpona is next weekend so maybe i'll get an opportunity to hear them.

 

Those usher's are gorgeous, do they like SS?

I used to display my front end (Pyramix workstation, Studer deck and Merging converters) in a lot of rooms that had the BE-20 speakers. I think the best sound was with either a pair of Berning amps or Cary.