Speakers in the 5-6K$ region & their components


Hi all,

This is my 1st post here.
I'm a long time audio enthusiast and even worked in high-end audio sales for a few years a while back, but I've been out of the loop for a few years now. I'm looking now for a new pair of speakers in the 5-6K$ range to replace my current Merlin TSM. The type I'm looking for is a 2 way 6-6.5'' speaker, preferably a floorstander. I know many brands and models and went through a lot of speakers in the past, so my question is a technical one:

I'm looking only for speakers in this range which use high end componenets. which ones are there?

I've already done some research, so here are a few examples of what I mean:

Proac in its response range is using Scanspeak D2604 tweeter (48$/unit).
PMC in its "i" series - Seas 27TFFC (45$/unit).
Spendor, "A" series - Seas 29TFF/W (52$/unit).

I can go on and also bring examples of the woofers used and more speaker brands, but I think the picture is clear. These are all quality units of well acclaimed manufacturers, but are by no means high-end units. Which are?
My research brought me this far to the following (All in my price range):

Kudos audio Super 10/Super20: Seas T29CF-002 tweeter (330$/unit) + a version of Seas W18NX (196$/unit)

Marten Form Floor: Accuton C173-6-095 woofer (over 300$/unit) + a ribbon tweeter I was unable to recognize (anyone?)

Merlin VSM (as second hand only): Dynaudio D330/A tweeter (over 400$ per unit) + Scanspeak 18W/8545-01 (173$/unit).

BTW, my current Merlin TSM is using Morel MDT30 tweeter (80$/unit) + Morel MW166 woofer (124$/unit) and sounds wonderful to my taste, despite a considerable lack of bass (being a sealed- box design). 

So, given all that, does anyone have any more ideas for speakers I should consider?
roylindenfeld

I think of a couple of things:

1) Although premium loudspeaker companies may use drivers sourced from large volume driver makers (Scanspeak, Seas, Focal, etc.), they usually work with the design teams of the driver manufacturers to come up with units to their exact specification. So it’s not just an off the shelf Seas 1" tweeter for example, it has been tweaked. And then the speaker manufacturers tweak the drivers further once they get them in house to perform to their design objectives.

2) There is significant cost in utilizing designers who have gained in wisdom and experience over their years in the business. Just like in any other business, this experience and ’tricks of the trade’ can be invaluable in how the speaker ultimately sounds.

3) There is a significant amount of listening and measurement to produce a certain sound and measurably flat response. Harbeth, Spendor, ATC, PMC, to name a few - use state of the art development software and measurement equipment to achieve ’studio monitor’ requirements. (Which may be different than their ’consumer’ goals). And they have DECADES of experience working with the top European driver manufacturers as materials science has advanced. The PMC PB1i which I own ’appears’ to have a pretty basic 3" Vifa dome midrange. But PMC has tweaked the driver and designed a crossover with very specific parts and slopes to achieve a sound and performance that mates beautifully with their goals to achieve a flat power response and even output for all of the drivers in the speaker. To say the speaker uses a "$60 Seas tweeter and a $100 midrange" totally misses the point. And to say that an $800 ATC dome midrange would be "better" in that design also misses the point. Such a driver may be very inefficient, or have to be driven very loud to achieve it’s optimum sound, etc. Which may not be the goal of a ’consumer’ speaker that needs to sound great at low/all levels.

My advice would be to find a speaker that pushes all of your buttons. There are lots of speakers that are "ok" - but we know in this hobby that "just ok" is ultimately unsatisfying. Probably sooner rather than later. There are some exceptions, of course, but the speakers that are at that next level (which for some starts around $5k/pair) - are probably designed by experienced professionals with industry manufacturing relationships and significant [design and testing] resources. Not by someone that just purchased crossover design software and will buy his drivers from Madisound or other distributor.  Good luck.

Hi Roy - old thread, but curious where you landed on this. I'm in a very similar boat - happy TSM owner for the last 17 years, auditioned a number of things in that time but haven't found anything that pushes my buttons the same way musically. That said, they TSMs obviously aren't perfect, and there's a lot of interesting stuff out there these days.

If you're still looking for something with high quality components and a similar form factor to the TSM, the Dynaudio Special Forty looks very interesting. I'm going to see if I can audition them somewhere.

https://www.dynaudio.com/home-audio/special-forty/special-forty