Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers


I'm going to take a several hour road trip to the Washington DC/Baltimore area to demo some speakers in the $10,000 range for a once in a lifetime purchase. I plan on listening to some Magico A3's, Aerial Acoustic 7T's, and Spendor D-9's. One of the dealers also has Paradigm Persona 3F's on the floor, so I'll take a listen to them too. While I'm up there are there any other speakers in that price range you'd recommend I try to locate and take a listen to. I'm open to and welcome your suggestions and will take the time to research each one as well.

I'm not in the market for used equipment. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Mike



skyscraper
Prof, good point and I will be doing just that.

Googoogjoob. trust i've already squeezed out a few more thousand than I should with the $10,000 mark. 

Jeffersondavis, will do. The Aerial 7t's are high on my list for their small footprint alone, along with excellent reviews. 

Thyname, thanks for the heads up on what speakers the stores you mention carry.. That info goes on my spreadsheet.

Slimpikins5, Ill search out a location to hear the Bryston Model T and do some research on them. I've got a 16 foot high vaulted ceiling in my listening room to deal with and have to have the speakers fairly close to the walls too as a limiting factor. 

Glupson, appreciate the heads up on Evolution AV's service.

Charles, I'm very likely to go to the Capitalfest and will ask for you at the Legacy Room if I do. Thanks for the friendly invite.

Co93, good idea to bring my own amp/preamp but I will be retiring them once the speakers and my new turntable are paid off.

Ieales, I'll find those three recordings you suggest and appreciate your candor. I would prefer to listen to vinyl records,at demos, as that is what I have for the most part, although I will tote along some CD's. You seem to be a pretty forthright person. What are some $10,000 speakers would you personally recommend at that price point, and if you want to be even more candid, which of those recommended.above wouldn't make it through your listening test. $10.000 dollars is a significant sum of money for me out of my life savings so I'd appreciate your honest recommend on exact models. Please, be blunt and don't be shy with your specific recommendations. I'd like to hear what you think

I wish I could afford to spend $40,000 at one shot to get a well matched system I could demo at home and have dealers close enough to loan equipment for me to demo at home. There are trade-offs for not living near NYC anymore and not having that type of availbilty is one I have to work around. My first trip(s) will be to rule in the contenders for further listening.and rule out the others. 

I've got my turntatble/cartridge already, as aforementioned, and am trying to match speakers to them as well as possible, having to forgo the electronics to a later date. I will be researching what preamp/amps are recommended to match up well with each speaker demoed during the final cut. I thought about contacting the manufacturers for their recommends in this regard. I read were Magico liked some particular Scandanavian integrated amp to go along with their A3's for example.

I'll try to get speakers matched with equivalent valued equipment. I'm curious to how you would allot your resources if spending $40,000 total.

Ggc, the Devores you recommend are now on the list.




I also recommend Martin Logan  Impression ESL 11A at 10,000$.

It is very attractive speaker with beautiful high and good soundstage.

If you go to its homepage, you can find dealers around Washington DC

https://www.martinlogan.com/en/dealers
skyscraper
I am looking forward in reading more about your Audio journey.Baltimore MD is a magical place for such things. I started my Audio journey in that city and it really set the pace for greater events in my life.
Happy Listening!
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.
I’d appreciate your honest recommend on exact models
skyscraper, I could not presume. I know next to nothing about your environment, level you listen, range of programme AND your particular peccadillos.

For example, minimum phase error from sub 30Hz up is ne plus ultra for yhs. Accurate sound staging, rock solid focus that does not wander, accurate hall delineation, merciless exposure of recording engineer gimcrackery, proper vertical height and location. See http://www.ieLogical.com/Audio and read the Audio pages under PASSIONS menu.

Many models recommended here fail miserably in that regard. Multiple woofer/mid drivers and mid & tweeters on a flat baffle fail impossibly on that metric. Ported systems have horrible low end phase coherence.

Since retiring, I’ve made several road trips having avoided HiFi Dens for 15 years. I have a friend with an amazing B&W 803 D3 system north of $250k. No dealer had a pair setup that came anywhere near exhibiting their potential.

One loudspeaker mentioned has a "perforated phase-aligning lens" over mid and tweet. The $12.5k model failed miserably on phase coherence, sound stage and imaging.

Another $8k 2-way had the kick image smeared along a front to back slope. The point was in front of the speakers and the heft behind and out of phase! Vocal was an indistinct cloud. I recorded and mixed ref #2 above and have listened to it for 35 years.

Many here will poo-poo my modest system. It fails not on my parameters because has been assembled with specific goals.

My recommendation would be to have the ’squids rebuilt, get some great electronics that mate them well and match your bias. Decent cables would be nice. So would a pair of good subs - NOT PORTED!!! See http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/SubTerrBlues.php for trials and tribulations of sub integration.

Bonne chance!