Best speakers for Classical music under 10k used

I have had Wilson Benesch speakers for 2 years. Very satisfying for all types of music. I am mainly a classical lister. The WB speakers are coherent, still detailed and very dynamic.

For classical only Quads are superb.

Billhound,

The Orions, being active speakers, seem to just get louder as the orchestra swells. As much as I loved my Thiels they seemed to contrict a bit when things got loud. That may be due to the 1st order crossovers which put lots of strain on the tweeter. The Orions bass is really impressive, not just low down but in the sense of air pressure in the room. They have a very layered sound most likely due to being dipoles. They are very clean and lack the slight brightness that most Thiels seem to have. But, as noted, I had to invest in a TacT room correction preamp to get them to really work in my room. When I first set them up they did sound better than the Thiels but not as much as I had hoped after hearing them in Don Berringer's house (Linkwitz's partner). Now who knows how much better the Thiels would have been if I had used the TacT on them.

Tim

Great to see so many classical music listeners posting!
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You have a lot of options if you're willing to spend $10k, but there are unfortunately few speakers costing less than $20k that can reproduce full-scale orchestral music without compression.

Assuming you have a large room and a powerful solid-state amp to drive them, I would suggest Vienna Acoustic Mahlers. I own Mahlers and Revel Salons, and listen to a lot of orchestral music. Like the big Sonus Fabers, the Mahlers have a warmth that gives body and life to stringed instruments and voices. They image really well and have an unusually wide and deep soundstage, which contributes to the realistic protrayal of a large orchestra spread out on a stage. They also have enormous dynamic range due to their use of two 7" midranges drivers (the same midrange drivers used in the Wilson Maxx II) and two 10" woofers. I actually prefer the Mahlers in many ways to my Salons, which are twice the price (the Mahlers cost $10k new and $4k-$5k used). Their name, "Mahler", was deliberately chosen and sums up their classical music abilities quite well.

If you are interested in learning more about the Mahlers, I suggest that you read the Anthony Cordesman review for Audio and Robert Deutsch review for Stereophile that are found on the website of Vienna Acoustics' U.S. distributor, Sumiko (www.sumikoaudio.net). Both reviews are accurate and confirm my experience with the speakers.