Help with speaker choice

If you are willing to buy used and interested in silverline, there are a pair of bolero used for sale now (not mine) well within your price range. much more speaker than the sonatina and match your criteria well. easy to drive and look great. fwiiw

gary

I second Gary's comment! The Boleros are probably my favorite speaker, certainly my favorite under $15K. The current version lists for $12K, so the pair for sale are a steal. They are efficient, so your amp will drive them just fine. They are abit euphonic, with a little Gundry dip in the upper-mids/lower-treble, but they are not dark sounding, nor do they lack detail. Heard them years ago and the sound really stuck in my mind. Totally smooth, yet dynamic and involving.

I have also heard the Hyperions and agree with Kijanki. I would also consider Ohm Walsh 4000s, which might need more juice than your current amp, but offer airy highs and really solid, deep bass, based on my experience with the 2000s, which I own.

I've heard the AZ Adagios - also a great speaker, and another one that would be better with a heftier amp. the highs were very smooth, IMHO.

Let us know how you make out!

how about Zu Essence? should be fine with that power level and they are supposed to sound good given how often they show up in demo stands at shows. Leaves $1500 left over for cables/DAC/whatever?

Check out the Salk line of speakers. I think the HT2 or the HT2-TL might be a good choice. You can check them out at

http://www.salksound.com/speakers_veracity_ht2.shtml

I own a pair of HT3 and loved them however with $5K to spend there are some amazing speakers out there both used and new. The people here on Audiogon will offer you some of the best advice you can find.

Good luck.

Thank you all very much for your advice and suggestions.
I'm going to travel to LA next Saturday to audition the VMPS so I should have a better idea how they stack up against the more conventional design. Also, I actually did hear the Gibbon 9 from DeVore Fidelity a few years ago when I lived in NYC. I wasn't looking for speakers at that time so I didn't really concentrate well enough to fully appreciate the speaker, but I remember it to be very transparent, detailed and "clean." However, I also found it to be a little lean and given it $6500 price, I think the speakers in my original list, especially the Vandersteen, might be more of what I'm looking for.

I too find the Hyperion look to be rather unattractive. Their reviews are superb, however, and they are selling "B stock" of the speaker at 50% discount on their website. I emailed Hyperion asking what "B stock" meant in reference to this particular speaker, and whether there were Hyperion dealers in California, but the response I received was quite disappointing. The manager completely ignored my inquiry about B stock and simply apologized for not having dealers in California where they are based, which I must say I find very strange. I asked again and my email has been ignored. At this price point, it is simply unacceptable and extremely unprofessional, and I won't be buying Hyperion speakers any time soon if that's the level of customer service I can expect.

I wish there was someone on the forum who owns the Sonatina as I absolutely love the look of this speaker and if it sounds as good as it looks, it might be the winner.

The search continues...