Try Revel Performa F 228 Be. Also see if you can find Sonus Faber. Olympica III are over your budget, but they can be found (new!) on sale for about $10000 from time to time. They are definitely worth a listen.
As an earlier poster suggested, call in advance and make sure you can bring your own CD. Many, if not most, of the places try to demo with Tidal. Anything I tried was not actually there.
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skyscraper,
Tidal is a music streaming service via Internet. Many people here (Audiogon) use it and seem to be satisfied with music quality. It does contain fairly large collection of music, but most of what I wanted was not there.
I mention this as, a few months ago, I went through a few shops in Washington, DC area bringing my two CDs. Wherever I went, they brought an iPad (that is how you interact with Tidal) and asked what I wanted to hear. At first, I asked for a CD player, but it happened that nobody had it already hooked up. They did offer me to come at some later time when they would set it up. You are going for a shorter trip so you may not have that much time to waste. Call ahead, that is all I can say.
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skyscraper,
I will echo others. Bring with you what you will be listening to once you take speakers home. If it is Sheffield drums, so be it. Otherwise, you seem to have quite a large collection so pick your favorites and just go with them. Who cares if speakers can pull all the obscure Japanese percussionists just right when you really like Hotel California and Barry Manilow? I will second the opinion about Steely Dan, especially on SACD. They are a nice challenge for the system. I use it to feel good about how it sounds but, I admit, it is not what I ever listen to otherwise. Nothing wrong with the music, just not my favorites.
It is probably anathema to mention Barry Manilow on an audiophile forum and he was just an example, nothing personal I promise. On the other hand, someone has bought all those records he put out.
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I would like to point out that Evolution AV was an unusually low-pressure and friendly environment. They, pretty much, left me in the room with iPad (Tidal control), offered to come back once I needed them, and closed the door. It was not abandoning, it was leaving me in peace to do my own thing. I, eventually, did not buy from them (I settled on a different product) but am wholeheartedly praising them and would not think twice to give them my business.
Of note, they were one of those places that had only Tidal ready. Call ahead.
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skyscraper,
These days, you can live smack in the middle of Manhattan and it won’t help you much when picking equipment. Hard to find a walk-in store, to begin with. In fact, it seems to me that Washington, DC area is much better in that sense.
Let us know how you progress and what you eventually settle on. All of us here are curious and virtually playing...with your money.
Charles, I am not sure if you are related to Legacy, but you did an excellent job and I will make sure not to miss their room.
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ieales, Reading your two posts above is humbling and relieving at the same time. I would dare to say that most of us have not even close to as much understanding of technical details as you do. I, personally, can be described just as skyscraper described himself. Enough knowledge to be dangerous. That was the humbling part, accepting reality that I am clueless. Relieving part was that, despite the black hole of ignorance, I function on the simple level. "I hear it, I like it, here is my credit card." If I knew all you do, it would drive me crazy. To understand that I am buying something so imperfect would be a torture. Like this, I walk out satisfied. Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and, apparently, there are many blessed ones here.
"However, I’m not buying furniture."
You surely are a hard-core enthusiast. Many speakers are bigger than some of the furniture in the room they are placed in so they are hard to ignore. Once you do not care about that, you have really arrived. Consider yourself lucky. |
From the context, I would guess that "squids" are Dahlquist speakers. Just a guess. |
"Most playback is so unbelievably and egregiously incoherent as to be unlistenable." This is puzzling, to say the least. Millions of people listen to their AirPhones daily and have no complaint. We all may have different expectations. |
skyscraper,
I know I am repeating myself to the point of obnoxiousness, but...
JS Audio in Bethesda is another of the stores that brought me iPad and asked me what I wanted to hear on Tidal. Young man was very friendly and we had a nice chat. Some time before that, I would say years so it may not matter anymore, the place was kind of snotty.
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skyscraper,
Thanks for your trip report. I guess we all felt like we were getting ready for the road trip with you and are now happy when the mission has been accomplished. You are making me want to go and audition Magicos which no review so far has incited me to do. And all the reviews were really good.
I am with you on being cautious about products from China but will echo whoever mentioned that Revels are from Indonesia. I have no idea what that practically means and I think Magicos are obvious better choice in your case (don't you see how happy you already are and you do not even have them yet?), but I do have Revels although 208 and not 228. No quality issues whatsoever. Everything seems to be done as good as it gets. I did audition 228 recently and they are even better when it comes to build. And sound, of course. I am writing this just in case someone is looking for speakers and having similar doubts. And I dismissed Sonus-Fabers as a piece of low quality junk (build, not sound). I am sure Magicos are in their own league, though. Congrats!
Being 66, you will love your Luxman. Admit it, you liked the looks. I confess, I have one, too and it hit the receptor that still has Rotel RA-414 of my childhood carved as "the amplifier". Decent sound does not hurt, either, but I just love looking at it while it is playing.
In some crazy self-indulgent way, I am glad you found my warnings about streaming true (I was the one who repeatedly mentioned that "problem" earlier in the thread). The dealer you had bad experience with is the one that made me decide to let you know about it in the first place. Well, I did not buy from them, either.
How do you manage to wait until February? You even have a new amplifier. You are way more stoic than many of us would be in your shoes, I guess. I will follow your other thread and chime in if there is something useful I think I could contribute.
Congratulations again!
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