Passive Tower Speakers to pair with Stellar M700 amp

Loudspeakers
1

Hello,

This may have been asked countless of times, if so, please forgive me but here it goes.

I am curious and looking for opinions on what would make a good pairing with my soon to arrive Stellar M700’s.
My preference is to definitely not rely on a subwoofer and try to stay under $2k for a pair of speakers.
Would also prefer that they can work with all genres of music as I listen to most kinds. The look of the speakers is not as important as their performance. The room is an acoustically treated rectangle of 15ft W by 20ft L.
Some of the options I’ve been contemplating so far are, in no particular order of importance:

  • SVS Ultra Towers
  • Goldenear Triton 5
  • B&W 805 D3 (I know is considered bookshelf, but it has a low range that the room can accommodate)
  • Emotiva AirMotiv2
  • KEF R900
  • B&W 802 D2s (of course some of these are used)
  • B&W CM9

I will be playing both analog and digital sources and occupying every input that the Stellar Gain Cell DAC has to offer.

If you have happen to already have any of those above in your setup, I’ll be very thankful if you share your experience or any pairing close to my criteria as well.

Warm waves,

Mr. Q

2

Do you have a symmetrical room or asymmetrical regarding boundary/corner relative to your placement?

3

I am going to suggest the Triton3+ even though its $2500. Individual sub adjustment is invaluable.

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4

It is symmetrical. The back of the room is open and it goes on for an additional 20 ft.
My seating will be at 12 ft. from the toed in speakers in each corner…

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5

How wide can you separate the speakers?

6

Going for 12 ft. apart, but will probably fine tune if I find any reverb/reflect or add more pads.

7

Any dedicated lines possible?

8

If you mean electric power line, I’ll have a Panamax M5300…

9

I was more referring to dedicated circuits from your breaker.

10

Sorry, my mistake. I don’t believe so, unless I experience any issues.

11

Maybe keep in mind for future. FYI I could easily hear the difference between my common line and a new dedicated 20A line with a Denon receiver and $400 polk towers :slight_smile:

It’s not subtle.

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12

Thanks for sharing the insight. Definitely open to that possibility. The house is about 2 years old so hopefully the wiring is optimal. Will find out. No issues with other existing equipment so far…knock on wood.

13

Not so much the wiring is problematic but more so that noise from all your other gear is going into your other equipment. Secondly, your equipment will be getting lower quality power due to your other stuff negatively affecting the line voltage and negatively impacting the sine waveform. Your conditioner will not do a thing to rebuild the waveform or improve the voltage at the wall.

14

I appreciate your perspective and had not fully considered the EMF footprint from the sources. I will optimistically hope that the interaction between the components and line connections is well shielded/isolated. Won’t know for sure until I hit play and hear what is audible.

15

I see multiple speakers on your list that, even on the used market, sell for alot more than 2K. Are you flexible with price?

Many excellent loudspeakers in the price range but many of them are not full range. A full ranger that comes to mind is the Vandersteen 3A signature. It’s a well balanced speaker that will likely have very good synergy with the M700s.

Also, what do you treasure in a speaker? Do you like high amounts of detail and for the soundstage to be slightly forward, or do you like a more relaxed, laid back presentation?

2 Likes
16

Thanks @DarrenMyers , ok 3K would be my ceiling to be honest.
There are some good deals currently, but won’t let those hurry me to a hasty acquisition.
I’ve actually been very curious about the Vandersteen’s and will try to locate a pair to audition in my FL area.

A full and wide soundstage, rich midrange, somewhat revealing, analog sounding is the signature I’d like to get. I lean more to relaxed.

To this date the closest sound that has stuck in my head was from a pair of B&W 805 D3 , ran by a McIntosh MC452, it could very well have been the amp opening those speakers, but that was the signature I would like to get close to.

I have a song that I like, and it happens to be a very complex and difficult to reproduce for most slim profiled towers.
The song is Truth Lies Low By Andrew Bird. It’s one of my reference tunes in case you have a chance to run it on the MR2 IRS’s to see how it reproduces.

17

I’ll strongly second the Vandersteen recommendation. I have the M700’s paired with my 2ce Sig II’s and I love the combo.

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18

Thanks, that’s 2 for the V’s.

@padreken have you tried any other pairs on your M700’s?

19

quintanilla, thanks for the song recommendation. I think I’ve seen the tiny desk concert of Andrew Birds and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ve owned the 805D2 and 805D3 and I would not describe them as relaxed. IMO they are forward in the upper mid-range and tend to highlight detail and speed rather than top to bottom balance. They are very revealing, however.

My concern is that you liked the synergy between the Macs slow, warmer sound and the B&Ws analytical traits. A more transparent and revealing amplifier like the M700 may not be as good of a match.

Either way, our preferences are all different, and what matters is that you find a speaker that’s going to allow you to enjoy the music as much as possible. If you decide to go the 805 route, I would highly suggest an audition with your gear before pulling the trigger.

-Darren

20

@DarrenMyers. Thanks for describing best what I perceived hearing. I also believe that it was the macs character what came through.
By no means it has made my mind but it’s a sample signature to consider as comparison.
If the M700 are revealing, I’ll definitely have to run several pairs to find the happy match. Vandersteens will be first to audition for shure. The full range is a big appeal to me and I won’t discard the recommendations.