What would you buy with £3000?

[Jayesh]

I had a similar budget and bought a x3700h, monitor audio silver 300 7g, monitor audio silver c250 7g. I then splurged a little and bought the atmos modules since I was going to use them for movies / tv series / sports.

For your use case I think the bookshelfs would do fine.

I also had the chance to audition the silver 200 7g which are quite slim and small and they also sounded really good.

 

[Gorgonzola]

You don't mind losing the high frequencies? Sadly, that budget is for the entire frequency range, though perhaps more 40hz-20khz than 20hz-20khz

Ah, well, sorry if I misunderstood. Your question was "What would you buy with £3000": I told you. I am very pleased with my current speakers for higher frequencies.

 

[RobL]

I vote for Genelec View attachment 207807

There are grills available for the 1032’s too…if your missus (like mine) doesn’t appreciate the “mini-main” look. These are mine:

 

[Digby]

There are grills available for the 1032’s too…if your missus (like mine) doesn’t appreciate the “mini-main” look. These are mine:

Mmm, they do look nice with the grilles, any difference in sound?

 

[pdjmwj]

Magnepan 1.7i

 

[Zek]

What would you buy with £3000 limit?

Some good used car and I would go to the beach to frolic in the sea ...

 

[LTig]

Mmm, they do look nice with the grilles, any difference in sound?

Can't see it on the pic but if the grilles are metal with lots of small holes like those of K&H / Neumann then the difference can be measured but it is too small to be audible (O tone Markus Wolff, chief developer K&H / Neumann)

 

[RobL]

Mmm, they do look nice with the grilles, any difference in sound?

If there is any difference, it’s minuscule and I can’t discern it. The grills are acoustic fabric over a plastic frame, nothing really fancy but they hide the “utilitarian” look of the speakers and protect the drivers from little fingers I suppose.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Ascend Sierra LX's+SVS SB2000 Pro+Audiolense XO.

 

[MrOtto]

Polk R700 speakers, Buckeye Hypex NC252MP amp, SMSL DO100 DAC.

 

[Rja4000]

There are grills available for the 1032’s too…if your missus (like mine) doesn’t appreciate the “mini-main” look. These are mine:
View attachment 208332

I was looking for those ones for some time, but then I gave up .
Too expensive

 

[Rja4000]

Genelec 1032a

I have a pair of those.
Really nice for close to midrange monitoring and listening.
Loud and straight.
I got mines for 1.3k€ (for the pair)

For longer range, I really like my Focal 948 (+ Dirac)
1.7k€ for the pair (some time ago)
But you said "no floorstander".
And on the floor they stand, that's a fact.

 

[RobL]

I was looking for those ones for some time, but then I gave up .
Too expensive

They cost me CAD$101 each. Enough for what they are, but they had to come from Finland so really pretty reasonable I think. I did have a 5 month wait though.

 

[audio2920]

Some good used car and I would go to the beach to frolic in the sea ...

He/she/they are in the UK, so it's probably raining.

I'd imagine on ASR you're likely to get analytical suggestions. KH310 is not too "bad" in that regard though...? But Genelecs for example, while very much flavour of the month, I always find a little bit more fatiguing than others of similar FR. Maybe it's just me, and I'm certainly not going to win friends on ASR by criticising them! But in any case, I wouldn't personally describe them as warm. The Wharfedales might be worth looking in to? Or if you've got EQ in the signal path, just tilt it down more on any speaker, I guess

Hypex are definitely my amps of choice right now if you go passive. I was sceptical for a long time, but have very much come around to them.

 

[Rja4000]

Genelecs for example, while very much flavour of the month

That one is funny.
I know Genelec since early 2000...

 

[audio2920]

That one is funny.
I know Genelec since early 2000...

Ha, ok, you got me, I meant on ASR (and in terms of people using them more at home, maybe even as result?)

But since I assume you just meant to make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about, I also first used them in the 1990s, so I'm no stranger to them. I expect there's people here who came to them in the 80s, or even earlier!

 

[Head_Unit]

I'd prefer a speaker I can put on stands, as I usually sit in an office chair or walk around, so that rules out floorstanders.

Because of height? Isn't it a bit difficult to get really tall stands? Unless you're going to wall mount. Yeah I also prefer sound coming from the same height or above my head, not below my ears. Then again walking around I'm not so picky. I can personally testify Focal 936, Monitor Audio Silver 300, Wharfedale Lintons, Wharfedale Diamond 11.4 sound quite fine walking around. That's not to disagree with your original list; I've always like Genelec at audio shows. I'll also agree 3-way is better, that was our conclusion after listening to a lot of stuff, at least for our tastes and ears. Crossovers tend to have a dip in power response, it's due to the physics/math of the power summation. So there is a bit of a phantom-ness to the midrange sound from a big woofer to a dome tweeter. Doesn't mean they can't sound lovely but my personal taste is for the discrete midrange.

 

[Head_Unit]

A immaculate pair of Infinity Kappa 9

How much are those these days? Yeah, those look like SPEAKERS and my recollection was of a clear sound, might be considered bright by some but not offensive to me.

 

[Rja4000]

Ha, ok, you got me, I meant on ASR (and in terms of people using them more at home, maybe even as result?)

But since I assume you just meant to make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about, I also first used them in the 1990s, so I'm no stranger to them. I expect there's people here who came to them in the 80s, or even earlier!

I didn't mean anything like that.

There is, in my opinion, a fundamental difference between the brands that mainly act and succeed through marketing, and the companies that take pride in seeking for the very best product for their customers, year after year, and just deliver sustainably.

The fact that, eventually, and thanks to objective evaluations like Amir (amongst others) is doing, they get the recognition of a larger audience, is the proof that this mindset is paying.

And we should all thanks Amir for this, by the way.
It just makes HiFi and audio world better.

 

[audio2920]

I didn't meant anything

Apologies, didn't mean to sound quite so aggressive in my response! I agree on your thing about the measurements.