Speaker Recommendation: 20K range

"Jbl 4367"

Yup!

Hi chandybe,

The SoundLabs mentioned by Kalali are magnificent. I say that as a longtime owner and dealer. Currently I’m currently neither, but would consider it the highest compliment if someone said my speakers were "almost as good as the SoundLabs" rather than "better" than pretty much anything else.

Given that you are "hoping to find a line that clearly beats [very good] speakers in the ~10K range" and that "the listening space is quite large"...

You might consider straying from the beaten path and investigating small manufacturers who sell direct. Some of us little guys are pretty competent and bring a fair amount of innovation to the table. And without dealer markup, we usually offer pretty good value. Gedlee, Daedalus, and Volti come to mind. The downside is, more travel to get an audition.

Note that power handling is only one part of the equation when it comes to filling a large room. Efficiency also comes into play. What an 87 dB (that’s about average) speaker can do with 500 watts, a 97 dB speaker can do with 50 watts - but in the latter scenario, speaker and amp will be not be stressed. (This is a bit of an oversimplification but the trend described is correct).

"I just want my jaw to drop when listening to the speakers with any genre at all volume levels, if that’s possible :) "

Given a good recording and a good room and good system matching, and not being too literal about "ALL volume levels", imo that’s possible. (There will always be a volume level at which something becomes the limiting factor.)

Duke

dealer/manufacturer/one of the little guys

Dave and Troy raise some interesting questions:

1: Is the size and look of the loudspeakers important?

Few small speakers can fill a big room at high SPLs without significant thermal and/or mechanical compression.  Briefly, having a fair amount of speaker headroom above the loudest anticipated peaks helps to keep those peaks uncompressed.  Uncompressed peaks = better dynamic contrast = more emotion from the music, because musicians use dynamic contrast to convey emotion.  I like to shoot for 10 dB of speaker headroom above the loudest anticipated peaks. 

2: Are you willing to look at fringe brands you can not easily demo?

It's probably not worthwhile buying a plane ticket to audition a $1000 speaker.  However it might be worthwhile buying a ticket to audition a  $10,000+ speaker IF it seems to meet your criteria exceptionally well and the only real question left is how it sounds.  I used to sell fairly expensive speakers (Sound Labs) and most of my customers bought a plane ticket to audition them.   

3: Are you the type of person who would prefer getting the sevice and support of a larger manufacturer vs dealing with some of the issues with smaller companies?

I disagree with the implication here that small manufacturers do not offer customer service every bit as attentive as the big boys (and maybe ever moreso sometimes), though I will admit that our delivery times are usually longer.  But there is one thing a big company with a dealer network CAN offer you that us little guys usually cannot - the DEALER!   If you find a dealer who takes good care of you and who sells a speaker that meets your criteria and makes the magic happen for you, then by all means offer him your business!  And if not, well, you still have options.

Duke

dealer/manufacturer/on both sides of the fence

@tomic601, good observation!  With a small direct-selling company, in effect the manufacturer becomes the dealer.  But I think having a local dealer would usually be preferable, all else being equal.

Most of my work is in prosound.  Agreed that 500 watts is a lot, easily enough to cook most home audio speakers (and most ears) of one is not careful.   Like Peter Parker's uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. 

Headroom is a nice thing to have, a luxury seldom enjoyed in abundance in prosound, at least not in small to medium venues.  Seems like most musicians want just enough amp & speaker to get by, because they'd much rather put their money into instruments and effects. 

I guess 500 unclipped watts doesn't intimidate me all that much.  I'd have to beef up some of my crossover parts, but my drivers can handle it.  I use similar drivers in prosound cabs that get pounded by 500 watt amps two or three nights a week. 

Duke

Chandybe, thanks for the additional information. I totally understand preferring to go with a mainstream brand.

High power handling in and of itself will not insure "zero chance" of speaker damage if you clip your 500 watt amp. Clipping sends a burst of maximum-power high frequency energy to the tweeter. At some point in time - and it may be milliseconds - the heat has built up so much faster than the tiny tweeter can dissipate that something overheats and fails.

Also, damage from overheating is cumulative, even if the drivers don’t fail the first time you clip. The old adage "that which does not kill you makes you stronger" does not apply to speakers.

In addition to power meters and restraint, higher efficiency can help a lot. For each 3 dB increase in efficiency, you cut in half the amount of power needed to reach a given SPL.

The tradeoff is, for each 3 dB increase in efficiency, you double the box size needed to maintain the same bass extension. This is a problem if you don’t want big speakers.

The solution is to hand off the low end to a low-efficiency (and therefore compact) but high-powered low-bass section. This can either be built into the main speakers (as with the Legacy Aeris), or done with external powered subwoofers. A separately-powered low bass section is the sort of approach I’d suggest for your situation.

Best of luck in your quest!

Duke