How much are you willing and able to spend on speakers?

[boxerfan88]

My main listening room is my "work from home" room, with a biggish desktop setup, with a pair of Neumann KH 310A (150 cm listening distance). I didn't buy their DSP sub because I don't seem to need one, and use the DSP in my RME DAC. Almost perfectly happy with it (apart from wishing the Neumann had auto standby).

Ooh nice … similar setup. Work from home room too. KH310A too. With 3rd party sub tho. 4m square room. 230cm listening distance. Self designed FIR filters for crossover & room correction. Speakers driven by Topping DM7 directly.


Work seat is offset to the right and facing 90 degrees to the right, but system sounds darn good there too.

 

[respice finem]

My room symmetry is not perfect either, but I did quite a bit room treatment (mix of absorbers and diffusers).
Subjectively at least, this did more for sound quality than everything else.

 

[kemmler3D]

My vote is entirely theoretical, contingent on a situation where I have the space and budget for an upgrade, basically what I feel like I could realistically raise and justify if the window was open.

 

[Bleib]

So far around 3000 Euro (normal price around 2000 Euro more)

 

[sergeauckland]

If they're Bad Boys, then I wouldn't want them at any price.

S

 

[Mart68]

I did this last year, budget of £20K. In the end I didn't spend even close to that.

With the speakers that cost close to that price limit I just didn't think the value proposition was there. Although obviously I could not audition every speaker up to that price.

 

[whereisbrian]

When I wanted to buy my columns, I looked in the classified ads. I found a pair sold new for €1,600 and I saw an ad for €200. In fact, the seller's wife found them too bulky and had a huge smile when I took them away. It was the right purchase price

 

[PristineSound]

Able and willing should IMHO be two separate answers.

I am able to spend more, but (at least for now) not willing. My main listening room is my "work from home" room, with a biggish desktop setup, powered by a pair of Neumann KH 310A (150 cm listening distance). I didn't buy their DSP sub because I don't seem to need one, using the DSP in my RME DAC. Almost perfectly happy with them (apart from wishing they had auto standby).

It's meant to be a Boolean and on purpose. For example, If you have the ability to spend $5k but only willing to spend $1,200, then that is what you vote for. If you can only spend $3k, but willing to spend $10k, then you vote for what you can spend.

 

[respice finem]

On the other hand, separate "able" and "willing" votes would deliver additional info if I spend a given amount because of my budget, or because I don't see a reason to spend more.

 

[boxerfan88]

If there are more participants, this thread can become a good resource for speaker manufacturers.

Just by looking at the data as-is currently, the 3 highest votes, are well covered by Neumann’s KH150, KH310, KH420. Was that just a coincidence?

 

[PristineSound]

If there are more participants, this thread can become a good resource for speaker manufacturers.

Just by looking at the data as-is currently, the 3 highest votes, are well covered by Neumann’s KH150, KH310, KH420. Was that just a coincidence?

I actually had this idea when I put this poll together. I'm not a dealer nor a manufacturer, just a consumer, but I was trying figure out what is the market for loudspeakers is for no other reason other than curiosity. How much are people able and willing to spend on a hobby like this, how much is too much, what are the extreme cases, etc.

 

[Todd k]

I voted 10-15k because if I had to replace my revel salon2’s that would be my budget to get back to that level of sound quality. Side note I bought my salons used for 9k 5 years ago. I think most of us on this forum have learned that the single most important component is the speakers. Seems like amps, dacs, and the like are so good today for low cost that spending more on speakers has the greatest return on investment.

 

[Bjorn]

Thanks for starting this poll. Great interest for us who are manufacturers.

 

[rdenney]

I paid $700 for a used pair of Revel F12's. But when they were new, they were about $1600 a pair, as I recall, so that's how I answered.

If I had to buy current models, I don't know exactly what I would do, but I doubt I'd be willing to spend more.

Rick "the great is the enemy of the good" Denney

 

[JRowland]

I recently tried for myself to see if stepping up in price from the more mid-budget level speakers from Cerwin Vega, Polk, and Klipsh that I've had in the past would be noticeable enough to justify the cash. I went with KEF R7 metas based on what I learned should work well with my room during homework, seeing white papers available as well as engineers from the company on this forum helpfully answering questions with lots of detail (and showing pride in the work), and independent tests of similar enough models. I did not find this level of detail readily available for many other speakers and it made me a little more comfortable about trying this purely on a whim. For me (and my wife) the upgrade has been more than worth it. I'm very interested now in their Reference 3 meta (curious again if it's worth the cash difference) and that's how I answered the poll but have no intention currently of scratching the itch as I'm still very much enjoying the honeymoon.

 

[Scytales]

There's thousands and thousand of discrete multich recordings, I personally have around 500 in my library
Apple, Amazon, Tidal, and Youtube stream multich.

I concur.

And, probably to the bewilderment of many, it may be that there are hundreds if not thousands of discrete multichannel recordings made in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and beyond that still sleep in the vault of disc majors, awaiting to be distributed in a digital format of some kind.

As for the survey is concerned, I lost touch with the market and cannot answer. I would have to listen to seriously good and convenient to use speakers in order to be convinced to buy something new.

 

[JeffS7444]

Me with money:

Am feeling bearish about making luxury purchases right now, to be honest.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

$200 - $500. I'd like to spend more but eating and living indoors come first. I'm probably not your target demographic.

 

[MattHooper]

I’m actually surprised at the results so far in the poll:

$10,000 - $15,000

Has the highest number of so far.

I voted in that category myself.

But in terms of my actual spending habits, that was a one off - I only spent between that much once in my audiophile life (my current speakers, the last ones I bought ) and otherwise I would’ve voted below $10,000.

Also, it was a “ retro vote” since I’m not going to be purchasing speakers anytime soon.

 

[Madlop26]

To me there are 2 important factors, sound quality and looks:
For sound quality alone around $1000
For sound quality and looks around $2000