Speakers to mate with McIntosh gear

I also have the Mcintosh MC-402 and I have a MX-119 for a preamp/processor. I am using the Vienna Acoustics Mahlers for the fronts, Waltzs for the rear surround and a Maestro for the center. I am using three bridged channels of a Mcintosh MC-7106 for the center and surrounds at 320 wpc.

I do most of my listening as two channel and with the MC-402. I love my Vienna Acoustic Mahlers. They retail for $10k, but I was able to buy a mint pair at $3900. There are deals out there especially on this website.

A long time ago I did own a pair of JBL 4343 speakers, I loved them, and they were very special to me. I foolishly sold them when I went back to school, but they were nice. They were a very different speaker than the VA Mahlers though!

My wife will tolerate the Mahlers, but just barely! (They also sound a lot better in many ways!)

The JBL speakers are great and if I was able to rock out and was single I might be look for a pair, but I am at a different stage in life and am seeking something with a little more refinement that can still kick ass (bust discreetly of course!)

Another possibility is Revel´s F32 or F50, which you could easily find on the gon for your budget, and which both offer the richer sound you are craving for.

There's a pair of Eggleston Rosa's for sale ($4,600) here on Audiogon that would be a good match. I'm very happy with my MacEgg combo in a similar size room.

I have a McIntosh MA-6500 SS int. amp and I use the new Sonus Farber Dolmus Concerto two-way floorstanders with Nordost Solar Wind non-bi-wire cables and I think they are just smashing together. The speakers take about 500 hours to fully break-in and the wires about 30. The speakers list at $3500 and the wires are about $400. (spkrs. are very good looking too!)

XieKitchen, Not to be disrespectful of the Cornwall Speaker, nor of anyone who owns, or likes them, as I do feel this speaker is a timless classic.

They're quite large too, not exactly a "bedroom" speaker, that's for sure.

In my life, I've heard a few pairs of these, and one pair quite extensively over the years (my best friend's), but I will say this in their defense, the equipment that he was driving these with weren't exactly state of the art, very dated, and I'm very sure an Amp like a Mac 402, would certainly sound multitudes better extracting the best that the Cornwall has to offer.

Still, I feel the 4300 Series by JBL was in a completely different league altogether, being a professional product, and one I feel that JBL has never really quite duplicated since.

As they say, hindsight always has 20/20 vision, and my regrets are that I didn't buy a couple-few pairs of these 4300 Series Speakers years ago when they first hit the market.

One company that I took a bit of interest in a couple of years ago, was a Speaker Company called Gold Sound in Colorado. This business makes monitors that are somewhat "clones" to the old 4300's, with custom Oak Cabinets, and usually a choice of either JBL Pro, or TAD Drivers.

I believe there are indeed still in business, do sell kits with assembled cabinets, and sell all the needed Drivers, x-overs, etc, and did sound like a reasonable value for what they were. I believe their largest enclosure was too large to ship though (With an 18"JBL Bass Driver) and for this model they only offered the Cabinet Plans.

I have no idea if Gold Sound sold the Enclosures seperately, but it might be a possibility, and would save some cost if one had the required JBL Pro Drivers lying around? Mark