Music preferences are everything (literally) except country (yuck).
So ... Opinions on the above choices? Anything not on the lists that I should consider?
I would say my bias is that you should definitely look at the used market. In this class of speaker, the used speakers are usually very well taken care of.
1) Magico S5 mk2
Sidebar 3: Measurements
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Along with the Revel, Magico is going to be at the pinnacle of the tweeter/woofer box design. Kal Rubinson was selling his Revel setup
The nice thing about Revel is that it is easy to integrate into a home theater with options for rear speakers, etc. The Magico is visually going to be a more impressive speaker and likely measure better.
2) Sonus Faber Stradivari
Sidebar 2: Measurements The drop-dead gorgeous Stradivari Homage is specified as having a very high 92dB voltage sensitivity; to Sonus Faber's credit, my estimated figure was even higher, at 93dB(B)/2.83V/m. However, the speaker asks the partnering amplifier for a lot of current capability, its...
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If you genuinely listen to every type of content, a bit of euphonic coloration might be in order. The Franco Serblin generation has a little bit of smiley face tuning without the super crazy exaggerated colorations. You know what else? Sighted bias can also be used in your favor.
3) KEF Blade One Meta
Closest to the perfect measurements due to the combination of science driven design and coaxial drivers. The reason everyone isn’t using coaxial drivers is that some people don’t prefer it. So you should try it…
4) JBL M2/Genelec
The M2 was still preferred by some people consistently over the Salon2 in the blind test. Die hard JBL fans have said that the old school XPL200 with active crossovers sounds better than the M2 when dealing with compromised recordings.
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When you are cross comparing speakers, instead of comparing vanilla, French vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt and soft serve from different vendors, you probably want to try a few different STYLES of speakers too.
Not included in this list are the omnipolar designs like MBL’s. Buying a cheap Canon wide dispersion speaker off eBay is very insightful. Even Amir commented that the dispersion makes a negative scoring speaker sound much better than you think. The MBL brings that kind of dispersion with quality transducers.
Sidebar 3: Measurements
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Last, although I think speaker brand matching is less critical than companies suggest, it still helps for home theater. Going with Revel, KEF, JBL, Genelec will make it easier to build a surround sound system. Going with Magico, Magnepan, MBL changes your options for matching your speakers.