$30K Budget - On the quest for my "end game" speaker

[benanders]

... It’s also the place where I get to listen to those MBL circle speakers...

ASR really needs the laughing-crying emoji…

The sound can be very interesting, room setup allowing. I heard in a dedicated room. Seems a bit of a must with true Omni’s, but I don’t pretend to know the numbers behind the necessity.
Now I’d be more curious to hear them at an expo; I can’t imagine it would sound pleasing. So hopefully you will weigh in on it @Lsc .

 

[benanders]

I've been biting my tongue for quite a while on the Genelecs for fear that I'd be burned at the stake for saying it, but I'm not a fan of how they look at all. In a studio they would be fine. In my home? No thanks, regardless of what they sound like. Go ahead and hate me...

One of the places I listened to them (I won’t type the name again today, lest I do it once too many and a pair pops up next to me Beetlejuice-style) they were a great match in home decor: the guy was an adamant collector of Star Wars memorabilia / decor.

Would a thin coat of paint to the chassis exterior be detrimental for how the outer material works? Perhaps that was addressed in another thread. The “industrial” colored version pictured above looks like it was in a house fire. What’ll be next, urban cammo?

 

[MKR]

The G-word stuff is seriously out of control, the thread has finally become derailed. Oh well, was fun while it lasted. I can’t go on my next audition trip soon enough to get this thing back on track. Next weekend folks, next weekend. Stay tuned …

 

[MKR]

I don't know if the OP could audition the Paradigm Persona 9h. They're at the upper limit of their price range but feature powered woofers (700 W RMS with 1400 W peak) with built in DSP.

Thanks for the recommend … Initially I certainly considered these, but after reading multiple reports that they are (very) tipped up in the HF and fatiguing, as in B&W level “sparkle”, no thanks. Of course if I have an easy opportunity to hear them will of course do so, but not gonna go out of my way. This tip up is readily apparent in the Stereophile measurements of the 5F.

 

[steve59]

I don't know if the OP could audition the Paradigm Persona 9h. They're at the upper limit of their price range but feature powered woofers (700 W RMS with 1400 W peak) with built in DSP.

I had the persona7f, very high ceiling, with the right components they were all you could ask for. They could had a midrange glare if they were close to reflective surfaces, but the tweeter was smooth as silk in my year with them.

 

[FlyingFreak]

Speaking of thread derailment, I just spent an hour with Kef blade one meta. All thanks to (because of?) this thread.

My wife told me after work she wanted to see for herself what I was so excited about. We took the car to Best Buy and spent an hour there listening to our favorite tracks.

Damned. That is some nice sounding speakers!

We were both on the same page: clearer sound overall, lesser recordings much worst sounding than on M106 and good recordings sounded awesome. My wife used to play the viola and was particularly impressed when listening to an orchestra. I was particularly excited listening to my favorite singers and to electronic music.

I have none of the vocabulary to describe sound perception. I could play at hear bleeding volume without the speakers breaking a sweat and I wanted to stay longer is all.

I think I now heard the difference of philosophy between Kef and Revel. My impression is that the Kef would be absolutely awesome for one listener whereas the Revel gives a somewhat less precise soundstage which in turn is much more forgiving of listener position. Sitting next to my wife, I mostly could only hear the speaker closer to me with the Kefs, which isn’t the case with the Revels.

If I’m right about this, I imagine Kefs will not do it for you @MKR. Although 2 Blade one and one Blade two as a center might fix that issue?

Granted neither my set up nor Best Buy’s are great. For Kef the front wall was the longer wall of a rectangle and they were not toed in enough towards the listening position. My living room as no sound treatment and speakers are not ideally placed (to close to side wall, too far from front wall).

On the design: wife told me she imagined them coming up to life and killing us. They sure are impressive.

Back home listening to music on my couch, I m nowhere close to be missing anything I heard earlier, my system sounds great. And I am now considering the possibility of spending that much on a pair of speakers I will first get a pair of subs. I can’t believe some of us are persuaded they don’t need any, we mustn’t be listening to the same music. I want to check those kefs after adding subs here and alone so I can spend more time and be annoying with speaker placement.

(Kef were driven by a Classé delta pre amp and a pair of Classé delta mono amp. They looked great with the Kefs).

Not sure this helped anyone. Maybe just that if you are close to a bestbuy you really really should go spend some time to those monsters?

 

[Absolute]

Shoot, it seems like I need to visit my dealer and listen to the new Blades so that you all can get an accurate and flowery description of the truth.

 

[MKR]

Speaking of thread derailment, I just spent an hour with Kef blade one meta. All thanks to (because of?) this thread.

My wife told me after work she wanted to see for herself what I was so excited about. We took the car to Best Buy and spent an hour there listening to our favorite tracks.

Damned. That is some nice sounding speakers!

We were both on the same page: clearer sound overall, lesser recordings much worst sounding than on M106 and good recordings sounded awesome. My wife used to play the viola and was particularly impressed when listening to an orchestra. I was particularly excited listening to my favorite singers and to electronic music.

I have none of the vocabulary to describe sound perception. I could play at hear bleeding volume without the speakers breaking a sweat and I wanted to stay longer is all.

I think I now heard the difference of philosophy between Kef and Revel. My impression is that the Kef would be absolutely awesome for one listener whereas the Revel gives a somewhat less precise soundstage which in turn is much more forgiving of listener position. Sitting next to my wife, I mostly could only hear the speaker closer to me with the Kefs, which isn’t the case with the Revels.

If I’m right about this, I imagine Kefs will not do it for you @MKR. Although 2 Blade one and one Blade two as a center might fix that issue?

Granted neither my set up nor Best Buy’s are great. For Kef the front wall was the longer wall of a rectangle and they were not toed in enough towards the listening position. My living room as no sound treatment and speakers are not ideally placed (to close to side wall, too far from front wall).

On the design: wife told me she imagined them coming up to life and killing us. They sure are impressive.

Back home listening to music on my couch, I m nowhere close to be missing anything I heard earlier, my system sounds great. And I am now considering the possibility of spending that much on a pair of speakers I will first get a pair of subs. I can’t believe some of us are persuaded they don’t need any, we mustn’t be listening to the same music. I want to check those kefs after adding subs here and alone so I can spend more time and be annoying with speaker placement.

(Kef were driven by a Classé delta pre amp and a pair of Classé delta mono amp. They looked great with the Kefs).

Not sure this helped anyone. Maybe just that if you are close to a bestbuy you really really should go spend some time to those monsters?

Thanks for your impressions! I have yet to hear anyone state anything really negative about the Blades, or any KEF for that matter. They are clearly very well engineered loudspeakers, the folks at KEF know what they are doing. Whether or not they will be my cup of tea we shall see. Given your comments on dispersion vs Revel, maybe not.

What I do find interesting is even after that experience, you still stated you really didn’t miss the blades vs your current setup, except you are apparently missing the lower octaves. So the humble M106 bookshelf speakers in your opinion give up nothing to the basically now legendary Blades, is that what you are saying? (except LF which is obvious given the M106 is -3dB at 60Hz, certainly not in the same league as the Blade)

Add some subs to those M106 just as you are now considering and I suspect your urge to upgrade may not be so strong any longer

 

[FrantzM]

Speaking of thread derailment, I just spent an hour with Kef blade one meta. All thanks to (because of?) this thread.

My wife told me after work she wanted to see for herself what I was so excited about. We took the car to Best Buy and spent an hour there listening to our favorite tracks.

Damned. That is some nice sounding speakers!

We were both on the same page: clearer sound overall, lesser recordings much worst sounding than on M106 and good recordings sounded awesome. My wife used to play the viola and was particularly impressed when listening to an orchestra. I was particularly excited listening to my favorite singers and to electronic music.

I have none of the vocabulary to describe sound perception. I could play at hear bleeding volume without the speakers breaking a sweat and I wanted to stay longer is all.

I think I now heard the difference of philosophy between Kef and Revel. My impression is that the Kef would be absolutely awesome for one listener whereas the Revel gives a somewhat less precise soundstage which in turn is much more forgiving of listener position. Sitting next to my wife, I mostly could only hear the speaker closer to me with the Kefs, which isn’t the case with the Revels.

If I’m right about this, I imagine Kefs will not do it for you @MKR. Although 2 Blade one and one Blade two as a center might fix that issue?

Granted neither my set up nor Best Buy’s are great. For Kef the front wall was the longer wall of a rectangle and they were not toed in enough towards the listening position. My living room as no sound treatment and speakers are not ideally placed (to close to side wall, too far from front wall).

On the design: wife told me she imagined them coming up to life and killing us. They sure are impressive.

Back home listening to music on my couch, I m nowhere close to be missing anything I heard earlier, my system sounds great. And I am now considering the possibility of spending that much on a pair of speakers I will first get a pair of subs. I can’t believe some of us are persuaded they don’t need any, we mustn’t be listening to the same music. I want to check those kefs after adding subs here and alone so I can spend more time and be annoying with speaker placement.

(Kef were driven by a Classé delta pre amp and a pair of Classé delta mono amp. They looked great with the Kefs).

Not sure this helped anyone. Maybe just that if you are close to a bestbuy you really really should go spend some time to those monsters?

Great, honest post.
I don't think it derails the thread. IMHO

Peace.

 

[mglobe]

Thanks for your impressions! I have yet to hear anyone state anything really negative about the Blades, or any KEF for that matter. They are clearly very well engineered loudspeakers, the folks at KEF know what they are doing. Whether or not they will be my cup of tea we shall see. Given your comments on dispersion vs Revel, maybe not.

What I do find interesting is even after that experience, you still stated you really didn’t miss the blades vs your current setup, except you are apparently missing the lower octaves. So the humble M106 bookshelf speakers in your opinion give up nothing to the basically now legendary Blades, is that what you are saying? (except LF which is obvious given the M106 is -3dB at 60Hz, certainly not in the same league as the Blade)

Add some subs to those M106 just as you are now considering and I suspect your urge to upgrade may not be so strong any longer

I think a subs with standmounts vs Salons and/or Blades would be an interesting comparison. That assumes the subs are well integrated of course. Would be particularly interesting as a true blind test.

 

[MKR]

Great, honest post.
I don't think it derails the thread. IMHO

Peace.

Agreed! In fact @FlyingFreak got us right back on track! Well done sir, well done (I wasn’t sure it was possible given the recent G-word wheels falling off the bus detour )

 

[FlyingFreak]

Thanks for your impressions! I have yet to hear anyone state anything really negative about the Blades, or any KEF for that matter. They are clearly very well engineered loudspeakers, the folks at KEF know what they are doing. Whether or not they will be my cup of tea we shall see. Given your comments on dispersion vs Revel, maybe not.

What I do find interesting is even after that experience, you still stated you really didn’t miss the blades vs your current setup, except you are apparently missing the lower octaves. So the humble M106 bookshelf speakers in your opinion give up nothing to the basically now legendary Blades, is that what you are saying? (except LF which is obvious given the M106 is -3dB at 60Hz, certainly not in the same league as the Blade)

Add some subs to those M106 just as you are now considering and I suspect your urge to upgrade may not be so strong any longer

Sure thing! It was a lot of fun.

I ll try and be clearer. I am listening to music all the time. For easy listening (under 70db for me), I think the revel do perfectly/might already be overkill. Plus given my perception of those killer blades, I don’t think I would just fire them up any time (fair enough I had this experience with luxury products before and tend to get over myself quickly). It’s like comparing a tv to a projector, I think twice before putting the projector on, tv sometimes stays on for background images.

The other thing is how surgically precise the blades can be. It was quite a trip to be able to follow Estas Tonne fingers on the guitar or to be able to visualize how close Shirley Horn was from her mic at any given moment. My impression is that that type of listening would be more demanding. The revel on the other hand offers me clear sound without that much intense in your face here is exactly what happened feeling. With poor recordings such as Greenday it sounds terrible but I knew it. Now on the Blades Billie Eilish first album and Kid Cudy Day n night sounded nothing interesting. Like someone dropped all the sugar and spice in my oatmeal, and I don’t put sugar with my oats. Those are music I like to dance to and with the blades I wouldn’t put them on.

Bottom line of this little experiment: I need a (large) dedicated listening room and then get the Blades (or equivalent/better) for my amazement. It’s better than going to a concert. Forgot to try on movies … I’ll have to go back In my living room in the modest size space I’m living in and my listening habits (80% easy listening or dance, 20 % attentive listening) my bookshelves do great.

 

[steve59]

Thanks for the equipment update, sigh, an offroad around the world motorcycle adventure or endgame stereo system? I guess it'll depend on if I can convince somebody to go with me. Betting on the bucket list adv though.

I suppose the Blades 117 max db spl could be appealing, but I imagine the room would have to be pretty large for the fidelity to hold together at that volume. KEF makes A reference level center channel speaker that would surely compete and work well with the blades. TBH for a HT system where most people will be focused on the video on the screen in front of them I think all these statement speakers are overkill, the video will create the illusion while the audio fills in the involvement.

 

[bo_knows]

Sure thing! It was a lot of fun.

I ll try and be clearer. I am listening to music all the time. For easy listening (under 70db for me), I think the revel do perfectly/might already be overkill. Plus given my perception of those killer blades, I don’t think I would just fire them up any time (fair enough I had this experience with luxury products before and tend to get over myself quickly). It’s like comparing a tv to a projector, I think twice before putting the projector on, tv sometimes stays on for background images.

The other thing is how surgically precise the blades can be. It was quite a trip to be able to follow Estas Tonne fingers on the guitar or to be able to visualize how close Shirley Horn was from her mic at any given moment. My impression is that that type of listening would be more demanding. The revel on the other hand offers me clear sound without that much intense in your face here is exactly what happened feeling. With poor recordings such as Greenday it sounds terrible but I knew it. Now on the Blades Billie Eilish first album and Kid Cudy Day n night sounded nothing interesting. Like someone dropped all the sugar and spice in my oatmeal, and I don’t put sugar with my oats. Those are music I like to dance to and with the blades I wouldn’t put them on.

Bottom line of this little experiment: I need a (large) dedicated listening room and then get the Blades (or equivalent/better) for my amazement. It’s better than going to a concert. Forgot to try on movies … I’ll have to go back In my living room in the modest size space I’m living in and my listening habits (80% easy listening or dance, 20 % attentive listening) my bookshelves do great.

Shirley Horn huh? I guess I'm not the only one using her to test the speakers. First two tracks from the "THE BEST JAZZ IS PLAYED WITH VERVE" album are my personal reference. There's a lot going on the first track and second one has a lot of small details that I listen for.

 

[stevenswall]

No, @stevenswall . I quoted your phrase about soundstage / Genelec. And I surely didn’t apply your logic to speakers in general.

Genelec speakers are speakers that have those qualities, thus there are speakers with those qualities that have an unstable soundstage per yourself. Insert "some" if you'd like instead of assuming "all."

no one owes you an outline, because you haven’t really offered one yourself.

I agree, you are not contractually obligated to outline a valid counterargument. Also: Please see the post that started this outlining and detailing my take.

...I didn’t misinterpret your initial post, lol

Please actually see the post that started this.

Probably better at this point to ignore further posts from me, I'm not seeing us getting anywhere with you ignoring the goalposts and the field.

 

[FrantzM]

Thanks for the equipment update, sigh, an offroad around the world motorcycle adventure or endgame stereo system? I guess it'll depend on if I can convince somebody to go with me. Betting on the bucket list adv though.

I suppose the Blades 117 max db spl could be appealing, but I imagine the room would have to be pretty large for the fidelity to hold together at that volume. KEF makes A reference level center channel speaker that would surely compete and work well with the blades. TBH for a HT system where most people will be focused on the video on the screen in front of them I think all these statement speakers are overkill, the video will create the illusion while the audio fills in the involvement.

True that! (emphasis is mine).


Peace.

 

[MattHooper]

The other thing is how surgically precise the blades can be. It was quite a trip to be able to follow Estas Tonne fingers on the guitar or to be able to visualize how close Shirley Horn was from her mic at any given moment. My impression is that that type of listening would be more demanding. The revel on the other hand offers me clear sound without that much intense in your face here is exactly what happened feeling. With poor recordings such as Greenday it sounds terrible but I knew it. Now on the Blades Billie Eilish first album and Kid Cudy Day n night sounded nothing interesting. Like someone dropped all the sugar and spice in my oatmeal, and I don’t put sugar with my oats. Those are music I like to dance to and with the blades I wouldn’t put them on.

I think that brings in what each of us is looking for from our stereo system. My main goal is to enjoy music through my system, not a sort of protestant-ethic of subjecting myself to whatever awful sound quality might come along "because It's The Unvarnished Truth." To that end, I've put together a system that allows me to enjoy the maximum range of recordings. Amazing recordings sound amazing, but I find that (almost) nothing sounds what I'd describe as "terrible." I can enjoy virtually everything I put on, sonically, to one degree or another. Personally I don't want a system that would send me scurrying to find only "good" recordings to play in order for me to enjoy listening. I went through that a long time ago, seeking out the audiophile recordings, and I've been there, done that. I can't do any more Patricia Barber "because it's a great recording."

Since I have a collection that includes pretty extreme variations in recording character and 'quality,' I need to be able to enjoy whatever I put on and not worry much about recording quality.

(Which isn't to say I don't really love it when I'm hearing a gorgeous recording!)

 

[Purité Audio]

What exactly does your system add to each and every recording?
Keith

 

[RobL]

What exactly does your system add to each and every recording?
Keith

Or what does it take away?

 

[MattHooper]

What exactly does your system add to each and every recording?
Keith

(I'm presuming you were asking me...)

I don't know necessarily about what it "adds" but I carefully selected my speakers/amps and room set up so that dynamics are well represented, a sense of density so even "thin" recordings have some pleasing palpability and drive, and generally speaking the system presents upper midrange/highs that sound both "open/extended/airy and realistic when called for" yet "relaxed" and easy to listen to. So some of the recordings that have an "ouch" factor on other systems are still pleasing on mine, and I can crank my system higher and still relax and enjoy, vs many others where I'd be more hesitant to dial up the volume.

Ultimately though it's going to be subjective. What may "still sound good" to me may not to you, but again the point is a system on which I find music more pleasing to listen to, not necessarily others.