Speakers less than 10K - preferably not veiled / smokey / dark / mysterious / laid-back / neutral - Page 4

Mr. Kingdom,

The Klipsch LaScala is under your $10000 (MSRP). A different animal would be the Martin Logan Montis. I love electrostats...

Another, slightly more cash, would be Dynaudio Confidence C1s and a JL AUDIO F 112 sub. A great combo. If interested PM me. I know a guy who knows a guy...

Thanks for the thought. The Seaton SubMersives and the Paradigm's are out of the range of our budget. To increase the range of the budget, I'm looking at used Depth i for ~$1,250.00 and if buying used or demo Depth i's doesn't work out, I'll go with a pair of SVS PB12-NSD's as they have a very good spectrograph. I can only push so hard on this subwoofer string and I've pretty much settled on either the Depth i or the SVS PB12-NSD. I'm getting very tired doing research on all the different subwoofer possibilities.

Not to throw another monkey wrench in the works but the Danley DTS-10 kit is back on sale and is absolutely hands down unbeatable for the price.

Thanks for the thought as there's no argument on my part. I'm the kind of personality that fixes things only because doing so is the right thing to do and in doing so, constantly impresses the wife which helps add those every so elusive "atta-boy" points to the atta-boy kitty. As every married man knows, one oops, wipes out a thousand atta-boy points. Maintaining uniform aesthetics in her living room, for me, helps keep the peace. And as most wives characterized here, she's the type of personality who shows bloodshot eyes and raised veins on her neck and she's only a hundred and sixteen pounds. Kinda scary when you think about it.

"Yes, dear, I'll be right there!"

Second, it's gotta look good in the living room as we don't have a dedicated home theater room. As an example, despite the great looking spectrographs of the SVS subs, they have a low aesthetical approval factor. Even in rosewood, the 12" Hsu subs are on the edge of aesthetical approval and the 15" Hsu subs are a bit too big due to locked in, corner furniture placement; bedroom opposite the speaker wall; wide kitchen opening, plus pass-thru window on the opposing wall. Great for getting rid of standing waves but terrible for ideal speaker/subwoofer placement. If the Danley DTS-10 weren't so big, boxy and bloated in size (which, of course, is what gives them their zing), a pair of those would be one of the tops choices.

As to choices, to no avail I've tried to find ways to up our budget so as to improve quality and available choices. To open up the wonderful world of possibilities, I've given consideration to quality, used subs, purchased one at a time as opposed to buying down, new, two at a time. In doing so I'll be guilty of having an asymmetrical subwoofer setup and I have no idea if mixing un-matched subs will kill the bass sound field. ???

With the above financials and aesthetics in mind, I'm letting spectrographs and waterfall charts be my guide. Surprisingly, from our perspective, everything seems to constantly boil down to either a new pair of SVS PB12-NSD or used, purchased one at a time, a pair of Martin Logan, Depth i's. And according to Data-Bass provided information, I find the SVS PB12-NSD, hands down, has the best spectrograph in the smaller ID subwoofers and if the spectrograph of the Paradigm, Sub2 is an indication, at a much greater expense, the Depth i (can't find a spectrograph on the Depth i) will better/best the PB12-NSD; in size/performance characteristics vs price.

Out of curiosity, did we lose the OP?

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Edited by BeeMan458 - 9/13/12 at 7:15am

A few additions to some recent posts here.

1. LaScalas are easily found in the used market for about $1k. THAT puts a whole new spin on value.

2. I would argue that the DTS10's could be hidden in a living room more easily than most of the "cube" options. The 16" dimension allows for easy placement behind a screen or behind drapes or built into a bookcase, etc. I've seen examples of all three of these that make the DTS10 practically disappear.

I'll sell anyone three LaScalas PM me.

I would recommend a pair of Klipschorn so long as you have 2 available corners. To my ears after 30+ years, no other speakers can match a live musical experience the way these can.
I always reference live music. What I note is dynamic range, transient response, and broad frequency response. These are qualities found in things like acoustic guitars to even cymbals. Those qualiies are the KHorns strengths and a testament to over 50 years of survival when many other fad speakers have come and gone.

Having said that, I don't own a pair. I didn't have that kind of cash and I didn't have the corners. I settled for Magnepans 1.6's several years ago. Excellent speakers but nothing near the true to life dynamic capabilities of the Khorns or just live music.

Having the corners is important but you can always create corners (per the Manual)

Don't be totally swooned by Discpaul's suggestions, the Klipschorns definitely blast music without out even "busting a sweat."

You know that feeling, when you are listening to music, and you know the music gonna get loud so you prepare for the harshness or dive for the volume control?

Well rest assured that the music comes thru with no effort, no harshness, no distortion, just loud and clear :-)

That being said, there are others out there that can do the same thing. I think some one already mentioned the Legacy Audio Focus (all versions 20/20, SE, and HD) and Zu Audio. Which these are new designs that have been made in this century not the last...

When used in home theater and crossed to a capable sub, LaScalas give up very little to Khorns.

No. I disagree.

First, finding the right Sub that sounds they way you want it or "right way" is a challenge. - For all Klipsch Heritage models.

Second, there is a big and better difference when using a the Klipschorn with and of course with out a subwoofer when comparing it to any other Heritage.

I appreciate your enthusiasm for LaScalas and they are the bee knees, but the Klipschorn is truly a high end full range loudspeaker.

I completely forgot about Paul Klipsch's "Swan Song" design , the Jubilee!! Well under 10k (Purchase direct from Klipsch - you gotta call them)

I had no idea you could still get the Jubilees!

Hey, that looks familiar, visiting San Antonio this weekend? Looks like Wardsweb's setup (one of them anyway)

I have a close buddy with a Khorn based theater that I compare to regularly with my LaScala based theater. Both systems crossed at 80hz to Danley DTS10's, I don't hear any advantage. If I did, I'd be shopping Khorns. Without sub, no arguement. With sub, I'll have to be shown otherwise.

Now, I may one day have a Jub based theater! Hope to.

That was my point about the Khorns. Natural, not hi-fi sounding. Anyone familiar are simply exposed to live acoutical musical performance know the sound is very dynamic, transient, with each instrument covering more than a few octaves. All qualities the Khorns excel in.

I'll second the Tekton Pendragons with the Mundorf Cap upgrade. With money left over from your budget, get a good, high current amp and a good source. For a price similar to the Pendragons, you can look at Zu Omen Def. When delivered, I believe you will already have a 600 hour burn-in on the speaker. Both Pendragons and Zu are known for having a very live sound, but not fatiguing. Further up the price range, you can look at Daedelus Athen and Audio Kinesis Jazz Modules although I would be reluctant to describe either speaker as "forward", dynamic, yes, but that depends on what you mean by that term. And if horns are really in your picture, take a look at Volti Audio.