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Help me choose a floorstander

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Deleted member 33784

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Hello guys, beginner hifi enthusiast here, looking for a budget pair of floorstanding speakers that sound nice and measure okay. I primarily listen to Avantgarde / Post Metal as well as a little bit of classic hard rock. A lot of the stuff is very dynamic, so I'm after a high sensitivity speaker (90+ db). I normally listen to music at around 85-90 db at 2 meters with my current setup, but I occasionally crank up the volume to around 95 db / 2m. My Audiolab 6000a 50w per channel into 8 ohms is going to be driving the speakers. I also have dual PB1000 pros so deep bass isn't what I'm looking after.

Here are the floorstanders I'm currently considering (in order):
1. Klipsch R-820F. Measured here. Overall pretty good response, compared to the RP line. The tweeter becomes tame when in 30 degrees off-axis and that's exactly how I listen to my current setup. They look a bit cheap, but that doesn't really bother me.
2. Focal Chora 826. No measurements, sadly, but here is the 806. The only thing that worries me a little bit is the specified minimum impedance of 2.9 ohms.
3. Dali Opticon 8. Measured here. A bit over my budget, but very elegant. I honestly love the look. Dali suggests that one listens with no toe in and I enjoy listening to speaker off-axis. One concern is the lower sensitivity, I'm worried that my amp won't be able to drive them.

Bonus:

4. Wharfedale Linton Heritage. Measured here. Cool retro vibe. Described as warm, I don't have the option to audition them sadly and I haven't heard how they perform with Metal.
5. KLH Model Five. No measurements. I'm interested in this speaker because it's sealed. A lot of reviewers have been praising it recently. Described as the opposite of the Lintons. I do prefer the look on the Lintons tho.

Anyone who owns one of these speakers, feel free to share your experience with them. I appreciate any input.
 
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Deleted member 24508

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Was looking in this price range last year, just before COVID thank god, so got around. Heard 3 out of your 4 fairly extensively. First Focals for me were much too bright, Klipsch were even brighter bordering on painful. Lintons were as dull as dishwater, not heard KLH. I eventually upgraded to a pair of Audio Physic Sitara 25. Great speaker for smaller room, I use with 2 subwoofers however. Balance of bright vs dull for me was near perfect, soundstage tremendous. At the price range of your selections i looked at, B+W 704's I thought were good, 6 series OK but not special, I also see AP Classic 8's on line on special at about same price now they are nice. Looked at Triangle Elaras as I have a bookshelf pair of Triangles, however also a little bright. Looked in depth at Monitor Audios as always fancied a pair, they were OK but not lively enough until you got very expensive. As a side story I took by older AP Yarra 2's to a MA dealer, he let me listen to all the MA's he had in a special MA demo room and compare. We put them in the demo room and listened, he then took me to a different demo room, we were there for quite a while listening when a younger salesperson came in and asked what the 'new' speakers were in demo room 1, the sales person with me asked why he wanted to know, the young man said he had a customer wanting to buy them, customer thought they were the best speaker in the store?
 

amicusterrae

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Most ears probably would report the Klipsch as quite bright. The in room response is not going to be SS’s 30 degree axis plot.

What about Revel F35 or F36? Much flatter response and efficient. I found the F36 to be an exciting speaker, though a tad bright in a small room.

I have been intrigued by the Focals and wanted to demo them when I settled on the Wharfedale Evo large towers.
 

HorizonsEdge

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Digby

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To make some use of the thread, I often wonder what people do to get deleted.

I noticed on threads from years past on AV forums you sometimes have the comical effect of something like 30% of members on a page being deleted members; members and mods must have some fun over there.
 
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