I would get a pair of subs and the remaining 7 speakers for a 5.2.4 setup...
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What can you get for 10K?
Hey all,
I recently ran into some money (bless you mom!) and I have an opportunity to really upgrade my sound system.
I'm wondering if the leap from my 4K speakers to 10K speakers is worth money, or if the difference would be minimal?
I also have a lot of other questions and I'll begin with the fact that I currently have a pair of Focal 936 speakers powered by a Denon AVR-x3700h, in a 12X16 room. If I were to make a leap to the next level of speakers, would I need a better AVR and/or a larger room? I've never even sampled any speakers in this range so I really don't even know what I'm looking at currently.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
I recently ran into some money (bless you mom!) and I have an opportunity to really upgrade my sound system.
I'm wondering if the leap from my 4K speakers to 10K speakers is worth money, or if the difference would be minimal?
I also have a lot of other questions and I'll begin with the fact that I currently have a pair of Focal 936 speakers powered by a Denon AVR-x3700h, in a 12X16 room. If I were to make a leap to the next level of speakers, would I need a better AVR and/or a larger room? I've never even sampled any speakers in this range so I really don't even know what I'm looking at currently.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
1 - 20 of 33 Posts
Congratulation unless it is a result of your mom passing away and then my condolences.Hey all,
I recently ran into some money (bless you mom!) and I have an opportunity to really upgrade my sound system.
I'm wondering if the leap from my 4K speakers to 10K speakers is worth money, or if the difference would be minimal?
I also have a lot of other questions and I'll begin with the fact that I currently have a pair of Focal 936 speakers powered by a Denon AVR-x3700h, in a 12X16 room. If I were to make a leap to the next level of speakers, would I need a better AVR and/or a larger room? I've never even sampled any speakers in this range so I really don't even know what I'm looking at currently.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Either way I'm sure your mom would want you to enjoy the money.
Crutchfield has some speakers in your price range and best of all, just $75/pair to return within 60 days.
Revel F228Be/226Be, Wharfedale Elysian, Elac Vela.
No guarantee they will sound better to your ears as you have very fine speakers already.
I should have stated that I have a Focal center and Focal ceiling speakers, and an SVS sub, and B&W rears. I'm looking to upgrade the mains.I would get a pair of subs and the remaining 7 speakers for a 5.2.4 setup...
In this price range, there is no substitute for listening. This can be accomplished by going to a large city and listening at various high end dealers or by having speakers sent to your home where you can really hear how they will sound. A few return charges along the way are the price you pay for the certainty that you have made the right decision.
In addition, in a 12x16 room, two subs would be advantageous to combat room modes.
Lastly, if the room has not been treated, that would be a good investment in sound quality.
In addition, in a 12x16 room, two subs would be advantageous to combat room modes.
Lastly, if the room has not been treated, that would be a good investment in sound quality.
Hi,
Going from $4k speakers to $10k speakers could be a lateral move and mostly just paying for a specific brand or novelty, and not necessarily an actual quality that is noticeable other than suspended belief and placebo. Is it possible to get better for your money? Yes. But it won't happen from listening to speakers. Your ears can easily be fooled by something that costs $1.5k and think its better. Lots of research shows this to be true. So your leap from $4k to $10k will mostly be for the sake of ownership, style, brand name, finish, etc, more so than actual sound quality. And if this is for home theater, I wouldn't even bother, I would just flesh out better subs unless its a small room, then it just won't matter much. Where this money would make an impact is in two channel listening with a mostly analog or all analog setup where things get pricey fast and quality of every component comes into play. So it really depends on your purpose. And it greatly depends on if you care how they look, etc, not just how they sound.
$10k for a complete surround setup for home theater will get better than entry items (subs and source alone will eat up $4k fast for just two really good subs and one decent source item; leaving $6k for mains which is really not much different than what you have; and frankly you're talking about two decent main speakers and a bunch of fairly common stuff like a lower tier SVS sub and a Denon receiver). $10k for two channel audio will get you really end-game level stuff.
$10k can get you nice speakers. I would be looking at something from Salk Sound with whatever finish you prefer instead of some commercial mass produced stuff running from a little AVR. This is where you get a nice pre-amp, two mono block power amps and some really nice speakers and complete the entire system. And of course, you should already have treated the room, if not, my god, treat the room now.
Your room is not large, it's not tiny, but it's a fair size, this only matters for listening distance and for bass response due to room response. A smaller room will be easier to get pressure for bass in. And it will limit how far you can sit from the speakers which helps with efficiency.
Yes, a powerful source for full range speakers other than an AVR is probably a good idea at this point. Like something 200~400 watts. If you're doing 2 channel audio, get two high powered mono blocks and just enjoy it.
Getting $10k speakers won't fix poor source material, so make sure that your audio is of the highest quality recordings. It's not just the medium, sampling, etc. But the actual recording. Some recordings are simply better than others with more dynamic range. They're hard to find, takes ripping and analysis to find them. But this is more important than any speaker upgrade.
Also, room treatment matters. To get the most of your speakers, no matter the budget, room treatment is part of it.
Otherwise:
You can get a lot of high quality recorded material to enjoy on your system, a comfy chair and some great bourbon or whatever you prefer, and use the money to buy time to sit and listen to it all like a dragon on a pile of gold.
Very best,
Going from $4k speakers to $10k speakers could be a lateral move and mostly just paying for a specific brand or novelty, and not necessarily an actual quality that is noticeable other than suspended belief and placebo. Is it possible to get better for your money? Yes. But it won't happen from listening to speakers. Your ears can easily be fooled by something that costs $1.5k and think its better. Lots of research shows this to be true. So your leap from $4k to $10k will mostly be for the sake of ownership, style, brand name, finish, etc, more so than actual sound quality. And if this is for home theater, I wouldn't even bother, I would just flesh out better subs unless its a small room, then it just won't matter much. Where this money would make an impact is in two channel listening with a mostly analog or all analog setup where things get pricey fast and quality of every component comes into play. So it really depends on your purpose. And it greatly depends on if you care how they look, etc, not just how they sound.
$10k for a complete surround setup for home theater will get better than entry items (subs and source alone will eat up $4k fast for just two really good subs and one decent source item; leaving $6k for mains which is really not much different than what you have; and frankly you're talking about two decent main speakers and a bunch of fairly common stuff like a lower tier SVS sub and a Denon receiver). $10k for two channel audio will get you really end-game level stuff.
$10k can get you nice speakers. I would be looking at something from Salk Sound with whatever finish you prefer instead of some commercial mass produced stuff running from a little AVR. This is where you get a nice pre-amp, two mono block power amps and some really nice speakers and complete the entire system. And of course, you should already have treated the room, if not, my god, treat the room now.
Your room is not large, it's not tiny, but it's a fair size, this only matters for listening distance and for bass response due to room response. A smaller room will be easier to get pressure for bass in. And it will limit how far you can sit from the speakers which helps with efficiency.
Yes, a powerful source for full range speakers other than an AVR is probably a good idea at this point. Like something 200~400 watts. If you're doing 2 channel audio, get two high powered mono blocks and just enjoy it.
Getting $10k speakers won't fix poor source material, so make sure that your audio is of the highest quality recordings. It's not just the medium, sampling, etc. But the actual recording. Some recordings are simply better than others with more dynamic range. They're hard to find, takes ripping and analysis to find them. But this is more important than any speaker upgrade.
Also, room treatment matters. To get the most of your speakers, no matter the budget, room treatment is part of it.
Otherwise:
You can get a lot of high quality recorded material to enjoy on your system, a comfy chair and some great bourbon or whatever you prefer, and use the money to buy time to sit and listen to it all like a dragon on a pile of gold.
Very best,
Jeez this sounds familiar! One system I listen to a lot is 936/CC900/SR900 and a dash of SVS SB-2000 Pro on the side.I should have stated that I have a Focal center and Focal ceiling speakers, and an SVS sub, and B&W rears. I'm looking to upgrade the mains.
Focal Aria 936 loudspeaker
- Been thinking about an outboard amp, but I want it to be for all three fronts not just two. And efficient. And really low noise. And for truly more power than an AVR, 300+ watts at FOUR ohms per channel are necessary. No candidates so far.
- Somewhere in another thread was a suggestion about a peak-hold voltmeter to figure out if the AVR is clipping. If no clipping then you might feel outboard amplification sounds better. BUT maybe NOT Denon vs Parts Express, round 1
- You have run Audyssey? I really recommend the app, take out their midrange dip, and we boosted the CC900 one decibel. That's in a big open space.
- Changing from older Focal 2-way forward facing rears to the two-face SR900 really improved the rear sound in that space. I urge you to experiment with that.
- I'm not at all certain that $10k will get you amazingly better sound. Maybe. If you got recent used models like the top Revel Ultima Salon2 or maybe Magico towers (whatever we heard at Brooks Berdan, dang "Take A Walk On The Wild Side" sounded like a completely new and different song!!!) more likely...however probably not returnable.
- We'd like to see your ROOM which has a tremendous influence. Treatment can make a difference depending on aesthetic and practical limitations.
- Spend some of that money on surround titles, there is some really nice stuff out there depending what you listen to.
On second thought, just sell all this junk and get some Bluetooth earbuds...
If I had $10k to spend on speakers right now, it'd either be a full set of Ascend Acoustics (Sierra Towers with RAAL, Horizon with RAAL and the Sierra 2EXs) or bump my KEFs up to the R series (R2c, R7s and R3s - or the R2c and just two pairs of R3s, which will allow for a second subwoofer).Hey all,
I recently ran into some money (bless you mom!) and I have an opportunity to really upgrade my sound system.
I'm wondering if the leap from my 4K speakers to 10K speakers is worth money, or if the difference would be minimal?
I also have a lot of other questions and I'll begin with the fact that I currently have a pair of Focal 936 speakers powered by a Denon AVR-x3700h, in a 12X16 room. If I were to make a leap to the next level of speakers, would I need a better AVR and/or a larger room? I've never even sampled any speakers in this range so I really don't even know what I'm looking at currently.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Or I'd get an 8K TV, an Anthem AVR, and second subwoofer.
You really need a second sub. Two subs set up properly even out the bass for the whole room. I would put some of the money there rather than trying to change your main speakers. The difference between $4k and $10k speakers is generally not great if we are talking about moving from already good speakers.
Especially if music in 2.0 or 2.1 is not part of the mission for the new speakers.You really need a second sub. Two subs set up properly even out the bass for the whole room. I would put some of the money there rather than trying to change your main speakers. The difference between $4k and $10k speakers is generally not great if we are talking about moving from already good speakers.
You know, I have a basement of the same size and an 150w NAD 2 channel Int amp that I’m not using. Maybe I could use this and some new speakers for an audio system only?? Hmmmm..Hi,
Going from $4k speakers to $10k speakers could be a lateral move and mostly just paying for a specific brand or novelty, and not necessarily an actual quality that is noticeable other than suspended belief and placebo. Is it possible to get better for your money? Yes. But it won't happen from listening to speakers. Your ears can easily be fooled by something that costs $1.5k and think its better. Lots of research shows this to be true. So your leap from $4k to $10k will mostly be for the sake of ownership, style, brand name, finish, etc, more so than actual sound quality. And if this is for home theater, I wouldn't even bother, I would just flesh out better subs unless its a small room, then it just won't matter much. Where this money would make an impact is in two channel listening with a mostly analog or all analog setup where things get pricey fast and quality of every component comes into play. So it really depends on your purpose. And it greatly depends on if you care how they look, etc, not just how they sound.
$10k for a complete surround setup for home theater will get better than entry items (subs and source alone will eat up $4k fast for just two really good subs and one decent source item; leaving $6k for mains which is really not much different than what you have; and frankly you're talking about two decent main speakers and a bunch of fairly common stuff like a lower tier SVS sub and a Denon receiver). $10k for two channel audio will get you really end-game level stuff.
$10k can get you nice speakers. I would be looking at something from Salk Sound with whatever finish you prefer instead of some commercial mass produced stuff running from a little AVR. This is where you get a nice pre-amp, two mono block power amps and some really nice speakers and complete the entire system. And of course, you should already have treated the room, if not, my god, treat the room now.
Your room is not large, it's not tiny, but it's a fair size, this only matters for listening distance and for bass response due to room response. A smaller room will be easier to get pressure for bass in. And it will limit how far you can sit from the speakers which helps with efficiency.
Yes, a powerful source for full range speakers other than an AVR is probably a good idea at this point. Like something 200~400 watts. If you're doing 2 channel audio, get two high powered mono blocks and just enjoy it.
Getting $10k speakers won't fix poor source material, so make sure that your audio is of the highest quality recordings. It's not just the medium, sampling, etc. But the actual recording. Some recordings are simply better than others with more dynamic range. They're hard to find, takes ripping and analysis to find them. But this is more important than any speaker upgrade.
Also, room treatment matters. To get the most of your speakers, no matter the budget, room treatment is part of it.
Otherwise:
You can get a lot of high quality recorded material to enjoy on your system, a comfy chair and some great bourbon or whatever you prefer, and use the money to buy time to sit and listen to it all like a dragon on a pile of gold.
Very best,
A separate 2 channel system is an excellent idea. Right tool for the job! Look at Maggies for that application. Add a sealed sub or two and a high current 2 channel amp, perhaps a tube-based pre?
as @MalVeauX pointed out this might be a lateral move. Is there something you don't like about the Aria? It is a sound i like a lot personally. I almost went with them, but liked the weee bit more costly Elac Vela over them. (I like me ribbons tweets tho.)
Focus on the sound you like not the cost.
here are some non-speaker suggestions.
1) get a good external amp for your speakers. I was using tube AMPs but my wife yelled at me every day about how she hated turn and off the tubes. I'm super happen with the NAD M28 - but there are tons of good options. If you want good sound you are going to need to feed your speakers. (same thing goes with a better AVR, but i like the idea splitting my AVR from my AMPs.)
2) power? I'm not a super fan conditioners. I have them and seemed to do little. But What about running some dedicated 20amp lines behind your system. (again, that was another covid project for me)
3) Is this just for HT? gaming? What about music? Get a sexy dac? (again, another project for me that i did. I went with a Rockna Wavedream.)
but the real answer is a 77" OLED
and spend the rest on some fancy cables
I personally always wanted the focal utopia speakers... but i'll have to live with just the headphones of the same name.
The Focal Sopra are nice too, but each one is your budge... hrmm.. Sopra... maybe i need me those...
Focus on the sound you like not the cost.
here are some non-speaker suggestions.
1) get a good external amp for your speakers. I was using tube AMPs but my wife yelled at me every day about how she hated turn and off the tubes. I'm super happen with the NAD M28 - but there are tons of good options. If you want good sound you are going to need to feed your speakers. (same thing goes with a better AVR, but i like the idea splitting my AVR from my AMPs.)
2) power? I'm not a super fan conditioners. I have them and seemed to do little. But What about running some dedicated 20amp lines behind your system. (again, that was another covid project for me)
3) Is this just for HT? gaming? What about music? Get a sexy dac? (again, another project for me that i did. I went with a Rockna Wavedream.)
but the real answer is a 77" OLED
and spend the rest on some fancy cables I personally always wanted the focal utopia speakers... but i'll have to live with just the headphones of the same name.
The Focal Sopra are nice too, but each one is your budge... hrmm.. Sopra... maybe i need me those...
Onkyo and Pioneer are getting back in the game with Dirac support, so the Anthem might not really be worth it soon. Forget 2 subs, for that kinda dough i would get 4 (assuming the WAF approves)Or I'd get an 8K TV, an Anthem AVR, and second subwoofer.
I'd get the front 3 and the sub situation straightened out .. The rest is fluff..
I vote for a used pair of Paradigm S8s version 2or3 and a Rythmic FV25HP sub and a good amp. Maybe a pair of refurbed Adcom 565 monoblocks. That would sound incredible and kick some serious butt.
Those are impressive 5k+ costing mains , you could easily spend 10-14k and not improve quality much .I should have stated that I have a Focal center and Focal ceiling speakers, and an SVS sub, and B&W rears. I'm looking to upgrade the mains.
really? they are getting into dirac? hrmm. Maybe i'll take a peep at them. I'm on the hunt for something with eARC and DIRAC. (hdmi 2.1 is kinda pointless on the AVR if i can't pass Gsync through them.. but eARC fixed that need.)Onkyo and Pioneer are getting back in the game with Dirac support, so the Anthem might not really be worth it soon. Forget 2 subs, for that kinda dough i would get 4 (assuming the WAF approves)
I don't love Audyssey. I do wish Denon would switch over. I'd but that new $6000 unit in a sec if it had Dirac. The build quality is amazing. (that said, it is pretty much the same as the x8500 which i have now.)
1 - 20 of 33 Posts
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