Best florrstanding speaker match for BHK250? $20,000 or less including shipping - any thoughts, experience?
As you know, choosing speakers is a very personal decision as acoustic and aesthetic tastes can differ greatly among us audio nuts. Room size and preferred music can also have a bearing.
That said, a safe option would be the PS Audio FR10 or FR20. I don’t own them personally but several members of this forum speak very highly of their sound and build quality. Their designer, @Chris_Brunhaver is a genius and one of the most accomplished speaker designers today. Between PS Audio’s generous trade-in policy, 30-day risk-free trial and frequent sales it’s hard to go wrong.
I would expect great synergy between the BHK 250 and Aspen FR series speakers given their lineage.
Let us know more of what you are looking for including tastes and room constraints. I’m confident others will provide other recommendations.
Your question is about like asking someone else to pick your wife for you. There are so many variables (as ViperRGD mentioned) and very few people have really evaluated enough speakers to give you anything but perspective on their own buying decisions. To at least get a response that’s more meaningful, tell us how big the room is, if you have size limitations for the cabinets, where you’ll have to place the speakers in the room and how much wiggle room you’ve got for placement. Do you favor a lush and rich kind of sound or more precise and analytical reproduction?
A BHK250 with 500W at 4 ohm will drive pretty much anything well (short of some crazy low impedance things), so you’ve got lots of options.
The amp is bold sounding in the midrange and with great spatial qualities but slightly on the warmer/darker side of things (to my ears).
What speakers do you have right now?
I had a pair of our FR20 and BHK250, DSD MK2 and stellar gold pre until recently (where I moved to a smaller apartment in the city) and really loved that setup. I am a little biased (as the designer of the speaker) but I had so much fun with it and was listening every night.
might have done better first time around had i listened to my mother
As @ViperRGD mentioned, the FR20 is a safe speaker to choose, and I have not been shy at mentioning just how good they are, but I do have a subwoofer to go along with them.
Good one
am likely to make the FR20 a part of my system, I have dynaudio confidence 20s (upgraded from BMR Monitors that I still love vs any sub-$7k monitor) with a REL S/510 and they are very polite, amazing details and imaging, but sometumes lack punch… not sure if it is the combo or the speakers
Besides FR20 which is a great speaker, there are some speakers I was lucky to hear on PS Audio Pre/BHK 250 combo and they sounded exceptionally well.
The first one was Magico A3, the second was Audiovector Trapeze Ri.
For a smaller or medium room A3 would be perfect.
If you have space and enjoy your music a bit louder, Trapeze is so much fun.
If you got the room this might be worth considering.
I have FR20’s with pair of REL subs - great speakers…amp is Pass XA160.8 mono blocks
might have done better first time around had i listened to my mother
There are many speakers in that price range. Perhaps Speakerheaven is also interesting for you. For example, the model here that sounds very neutral. https://speakerheaven.de/network-tc-5/
Here is a demonstration model at a bargain price. T3K XL SE - Speakerheaven
Also a very interesting loudspeaker. As a DIY, complete with a finished housing. The kit only needs to be assembled: install the crossover, damping material and chassis - done. Saved a lot of money and assembled it yourself. SB Acoustics SASANDU TX Tower Speaker Kit kaufen - SoundImports
Room is 20’ deep, bit long at 50 feet with 14’ to 10’ ceiling front to back (huge window about 8 feet behind the listening seats) the “listening space” is just a 20’x20’ section - so a bit off balance but feels super spacious because of the ceilng config and open layout.
Will be sitting about 12’ from the front wall - and there is an open entranceway front right corner but am having a door put in so can close to keep sound from filtering (wife says thundering) into the other part of the house. Was trying to go with monitors initially in case life became nomadic again, but do miss the gravitas of larger floorstanding (started journey with McIntosh amps and B&W 803). Do love the delicacy of Dynaudio Confidence 20s but too polite at times depending on my mood/music. Sometimes wonder if maybe a second REL would do the trick? Great problem to have. Starting to think FS20s might be a sweet addition.
this is great info… queeried TMR re shipping since i live on an island in the pacific and was not too much… just gotta buy my wife something first, something really nice and then ask what she thinks about bringing the symphony home to us instead of flying to europe or the U.S. mainland to listen in the cold!