Speaker Recommendation: 20K range

@steve59

Sorry, but no, going off the Stereophile measurements, Vienna Acoustics are terrible for the money, way overpriced, just look at his listening window measurement for their Klimt the Kiss speaker, utterly atrocious, not even $100 speakers are as poorly tonanly balanced as those, and it’s directivty is super poor as well.

Focal Sopra 3 and Rockport Atria will pair well with your Mc452 amp & C2600 tube preamp. 

Op

Our shop Audio Doctor in NJ has four  reference speakers lines in that price range for you to audition. 

We have the Legacy line on display and the Legacys are an unbelievable buy for the amount of loudspeaker  you can get for the money they excell at deep bass, have a warm midrange, good detail and create a very large soundstage.

We have both the Aeris and the Focus lines on display.

The Paradigm Personas which offer stnning clarity and a very holographic image, they rate very high on the waf factor and would sound fantastic with the Mcintosh gear which tends to sound a bit on the warm side in tems of clarity and imaging they will beat many much more expensive loudseakers. 

We also have the entire Kef Reference line we just setup a set of Ref 5 in California and they did so many things right and again they would pair very well with warmer electronics. The Kef's are very attractive, throw  a huge soundstage, have very good bass and an excellent midrange. 

We also have the Dali line which are also extremely musical and we have a demo pair of the $20k Epicon 8 for $12k which is a fantastic dealer for a $20k reference loudspeaker.

Our shop is located just 15 mins from NYC and our selection of components is largger then any of the NY or NJ dealers. We have over 60 lines of equipment on display. 

We would welcome you in for a visit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NPIn3pEmI4

This is a 3 year old video before we added: Mytek, T+A audio, Legacy, ATC, Naim reference, Light Harmonic, Micromega, Anthem STR Quad, Rethem howerver, you can get a nice feel for the shop. 

Sincerely,


Dave Lalin, Owner, Audio Doctor 

The other missing information is how big is the room, how far away you are sitting and how loud you want to play is it occasionally loud or loud much of the time

Most high end loudspeakers are not designed to handle massive amounts of power without blowing up.

The Legacy Aeris and Focus models can handle that kind of power and can easily fill a large room. 

The Paradigm Persona 7F can handle that kind of power as we already had a client pass that kind of power. The Kef Blades can handle that kind of power although we did have a set of Ref 5 that got the uni-q damaged with 1,000 watts into a 4 ohm load.

So with all of these issues you have a few questions to ask yourself:

1: Is the size and look of the loudspeakers important?
2: Are you willing to look at fringe brands you can not easily demo?
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?

Dave and  Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Well even with moderately efficient speakers your amp is more than capable of damaging what’s left of your hearing
no need to change your amp
just your power handling expectations....
many of the pro sound setup I hauled around the country ( when I was young and invincible but stupid ) would melt under that amp...
i am going to stay away from recommend of a secofic brand or three.. at this price level expert setup and a relationship with dealer is essential.
my short list would include Audio Connection in Verona and make a trip down DC way...