Best speaker under $10K, for a smaller room (Condo living room)

I would consider DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93. Mayby even the 96, if you find a lightly used pair.
They are fairly sensitive and small, and quite stylish IMO.

I have not heard these, and the suggestion is a bit off the beaten path, but the Magnepan MC1 ($850/pair) plus a DWM bass panel or two ($800) looks interesting. http://www.magnepan.com/model_MC1

The MC1’s are designed to be wall mounted. More of a Home Theater type of product, but they look to be easy to integrate into a small space. Maggies generally outperform their price point in terms of SQ, but I think you’d have to find a HT dealer to hear them.

I was crawling around the attic today (stupid roof leak) and found the original box, so I grabbed the LS50 bungs out of it and installed them based on the recommendations in the manual (because I’ve always suspected my speakers were too near the rear wall and corners based on the stupid room I have for listening) and WOW. With the little KEF Kube sub taking care of the bass (side firing) and the bungs in, they’re like new speakers.

Now I feel stupid.

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Hope you get the roof leak fixed. Major pain. If you live in Chicago today you’d have a lake in your house. Think we broke a record for rain and gloom!

Grew up in Oak Lawn. Mom still lives there; we were up to eat great food, I mean visit the family, the last few days. Daughter had Italian Beef three out of three meals. :roll_eyes:. In Dayton now, thanks to a great Air Force career. Rain enough for me.

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I was stationed at Wright Patterson for 5 years. Went to graduate school at UD and AFIT!

Both my girls were born at the hospital there. Great memories.

Me too! Wright Lab 1992-1995, AFIT, 1995-1996. My oldest was born in the hospital in 1994.

I’m retired and a govie civilian now.

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Just missed you at AFIT. Think I graduated in 92. It’s all a blur. Loved the AF. I’d do it again in a millisecond. Retired out of the IL Air Guard. 11 years active and 10 years guard.

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Cost Analysis. Good times. Loved AFIT. Met my wife at Wright Patt. Enjoyed the Air Force and got to do some great stuff. Got training from Illinois guardsmen at Fort Hood prior to Iraq. They were nice to me because I was an Illinoisan too. Good years.

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Just did a demo locally of some Golden Ear Triton One R…very nice speakers and sounded fabulous off of some BHK 300s

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Well done, it is always worth experimenting again.

They are excellent speakers and a fabulous buy.

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Question. Has anyone used the Apertas from Iso Acoustics? I’m contemplating adding them between my stands (Target Audio FS-60 filled with lead shot with the speakers on them with BluTack) and my LS50s, primarily because that extra few inches of height seems ideal for me re: tweeter height. However I’m worried about making things too tipsy. Do they make much of a sound improvement? Should I be concerned about the tipsiness of the speakers/stands?

FWIW Sandy Gross, the owner of Golden Ear uses a pair of BHK 300s to power his Tritons.

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Yes, I have them on KEF stands with the Aperta support plates. See photo. No issues with “tipsy-ness” for me. Very stable, plus it was a not-so-subtle SQ improvement to my ears. Recommended!

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@abeiklou You could try picking up a pair of these used [AGA Reference 3.5 Speaker Review]. They will throw a better (i.e., deeper) sound stage if given some room to breathe away from the front wall, but they will also be great closer to the wall and they have a pretty small foot print, are relatively easy to drive (but love lots of power) and are, most importantly, remarkably “full range”. You can live without a subwoofer if space is an issue, especially if you elect to add a supplemental amplifier to drive the second set of voice coils in the side-firing low frequency transducers. I have been living with the the earlier 3.1 model for 12 years or so, and have yet to get to a point where the speakers are a limitation to better sound quality, despite significant upgrades to source components and room acoustics over the years. These are very revealing speakers that, like the current (all-the-rave) Golden Ear speaker line, punch way above their fighting weight and are an absolute bargain on the used market. Good luck with your search.

Thanks. I did order a pair last night from Music Direct. 60 days to decide if they’re worth it.

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$10,000 US gives you an awful lot of choices!! The best speakers I’ve hear that DID not need to be away from the wall were from Audio Note. Check them out and make sure to check out their section on speaker placement. For some models they recommend sticking them in a corner!

http://audionote.co.uk/

If it were me, I’d seriously consider the new Sonus faber Sonetto VIII. Less than $7k for the pair, bottom firing port, and has received nothing but great reviews. Again… If it were me.

It is a very expensive speaker. If you are really considering buying a set of Audio Note then stop for a moment. Instead, buy a used set of SNELL J3.
Now remember the reason why the Audio Note speakers should be placed in the corner. What does the bass do