what replaced your Aerial 7B speakers?


Looking to upgrade from the Aerial 7B. Would like to have just a little more bottom end. No, I don't want to try a sub. My room is 13 x 16. I have a Bat vk 500 and a Mac 2500 pre. My max budget would probably be $4500.
dpm2340
Egglestons are great speakers but they’re not going to offer anymore low end in a room that is 16ft deep than a pair of 7b’s. A 16’ deep room is going to go down to 35 Hz and that’s about it, which for most of us is fine because unless you’re listening to a pipe organ a full upright bass may hit 40 Hz. You could throw the largest Egglestons or whatever in there and it’s not going to change the physics of a 13’ x 16’ room. Also remember the OP is wanting to stay in around $4500. Maybe some room treatment or bass traps might be in order here.


EXCEPT DPM2340 was emphatic- he wants different speakers. Used Egglestons come up frequently and they are killer speakers, with one of the best tweeters ever manufactured, and a crossover designed by A.V. Schweikert. The driver integration is something you have to hear for yourself. They nail pipe organ music in my largely untreated living room.
I would agree the Aerials are more forgiving than some designs and are not something I would get rid of without careful thought, and I would try to audition everything I could. I have echo busters which are pretty good,
but I refuse to take all my pictures down and remove all the furniture.
I tried corner-busters and they looked like hell. One guy I know turns off his refrigerator and his air conditioner (this is Florida), has foam packing from boxes taped to the walls (real snazzy), and turns off the ceiling fan, too. Everything is suspended on little pieces of scrap wood. You can only listen for about 15 minutes before it gets so hot and humid in the room you can't stand it anymore. I have a different approach. I saved up (it took many years) and finally got to a nice level. My tastes are what they are. But when the time comes, I hate to cut corners. So maybe you spend 20% more than you wanted to originally- it might be worthwhile.
I would ALSO say that bass response is not that important, and it's really not. But then I would be hypocritical because I have a lot of pipe organ music.  
@french_fries Agreed, the Op said he wanted different speakers...but, he also gave a single fairly narrow reason that might be easily remedied. I think that is where the extra conversation has come from.

I do not listen to a lot of pipe organ music. But our church has a newly refurbished ($200,000+) 100 year old pipe organ. It is spectacular and so is our organist who I have known all my life.

I also do not have a dedicated music room and am unwilling to make our den/TV room into one by ruining its other functions.

Which is all to come around to the point that I own a good CD recording or Saint-Saenz organ symphony. And in my modest room with my 7Bs positioned properly the finale will blow you away. You can feel it in the floor and in your chest and even then it remains tight and legible and not even remotely boomy.

Before I got into hi-fi with the 7Bs I though bass meant boomy. Because these speakers are not boomy I assumed they had poor bass.

Now I'm a bit of a bass fanatic....but not in terms of boom or mechanical force. It is all about the tightness and clarity. And maybe 'speed' but still not sure what that is.
Look folks, I will BUY his speakers from him (if he gives me a good price!) because I am confident they sound good. But $4500 is a sizable amount of money, so, not being a psychologist or anything, he wants to make a change. If you bolt the speakers to a SOLID foundation and if there is a back wall behind your head, you will hear tons of bass. I had a similar dream a long time ago. I had an absolutely SUPERB pair of ADS L-810-II on stands and two things were lacking. They had limited dynamic range due to the fragility of the tweeters (they had fuses in the back which would blow to prevent damage), and #2- the bass went down to about 35 Hz. A dealer in town had B&W-801 MATRIX speakers.
The rest is history. But those ADS speakers were gorgeous, covered in real walnut, and they sounded incredible considering they weren't "studio monitors" and all that. You can't buy a pair of 810-II because no one will sell them. So sorry for the long speech, but when it's time to move on, you lose but hopefully you gain, also. 
Yep, when we want something new we want something new. And it feels more reasonable if we can rationalize the purchase and it doesn't feel so good if our rationalization proves not to be so rational...which is almost always the case with me....at least as far as my wife is concerned.

Probably better just to say "I want something new because new and different is always more exciting than what I already have".