Recommendation for a modern Duntech Sovereign 2001 replacement

@pryso
Thanks for your recommendations which I will look into. I have come across your comments in many other threads so I have a high regard for you.

@rcprince
Thanks for your recommendations. I almost bought the 5A (liked the sound very much) but I got a local deal on the Duntech Sovereign. The Kef Blade looks very nice indeed. I have fond memories of the 104/2 and 107s

Re Maggies: had the 1.6Q in another set up for a while (great for the price but not wow compared to the Black Knights) and am sure the bigger 20 is a completely different animal but Pryso is right about the perception of WAF.

My current buyer of the Sovereigns is based overseas, it is a pain in the neck to get them shipped, finding an economical way to have them shipped door to door (they are too heavy for me to haul them to a port and pack them in commercial shipping boxes that goes into a container. Any help greatly appreciated!). 

This prods me to set my new requirement to modern looking floorstanders under lbs 180 each and the pair must both fit into a standard SUV.

@audiotroy
I know where you guys are, please be patient. I still have my current "old" gear for a while.
FYI just gathering ideas here, will start listening to candidates late summer.

As for shipping the Sovereigns, Audiotroy mentioned ABF Airfreight, you might try them; I believe that a friend of mine also uses them when he sells overseas.  As an aside, when I sold my Princesses, I didn't have boxes, so the buyer drove up from North Carolina with a friend who was delivering a boat to Long Island on a 50 foot flatbed, and we wrapped up the Princesses and put them on that for the return trip from my place in NJ.  Don't think that will work over an ocean, though.  :>( 

joth, I bought my Princess new and they were airfreighted to the US and delivered to my door.  But that was in three factory boxes strapped to a pallet.

I see only two alternatives for your situation.  One, contact a commercial shipping business to have them pack and arrange the transport.  Two, if you believe you can pack them adequately yourself and have access to the materials, contact Duntech to see who they utilize for world-wide shipping.

Good luck, hope you can find a good solution.

PS - Don't know your age but I believe it is reasonable to own speakers and amps we are still able to handle.  The Janszens being half the size of the Princess had this point in their favor.  Also, I would take exception to the Janszens being a "retro 50's kind of styling".  To me that means a wide rectangular box.  I find the Janszens with their sculpted front baffle to be quite contemporary, and they don't dominate the room (unless maybe you choose a red painted version!).  ;^)

Pryso we had the Jantzen and they do look retro 50’s with a rectangular panel in the middle with two circles on top and bottom remind people of an Emmes design especially in the wooden finish.

I would also say if someone is looking at keeping a pair of speakers for as long as this gentleman has owned his loudspeakers, he would probably want an even better speaker than the Jantzen, they are a great speaker at the price point but there are a ton of other speakers which are a bit more expensive which will better them in many ways, however, we are big fans of the Jantzen they are very, very good spakers, David Jantzen is a very nice and talented man, and the ZA 2.1 were very musical speakers with a ton of bass in a very compact design.

On our floor the Legacy’s which use an exotic Heil Super tweeter/tweeter and graphite and silk woven midrange, coupled with 2 long throw 10 woofers, sounded bigger and fuller with a bit more upper top end extension and overall for $7k were the hotter ticket, and the Paradigm Persona 3F which are just amazingly holographic loudspeakers with a more extended treble with pure Beryilium tweeters and midrange drivers, offered   a more detailed, faster presentation for $10k were also the hotter property.

As per shipping the gentleman has a few options, hire a local high end audio/custom installation dealer who may have a suitable crew, that can cut and measure carefully and cut and design with wood or find a good handyman or carpenter that does piece work that may want to tackle a day long project and has the man power to move giant heavy boxes easily.

We did this for a client with Wilson X1 the process was simple you wrap the speaker with shrink wrap. With any exposed tweeters you cover them first with pieces of thick cardboard or dense foam, then cut thick foam pink sheets from Home Depot to the size of the speaker and close up the pink sheeting with duck tape and then build a form wooden box to size, paying particular attention to the thikness of the pink sheeting which needs to be 1-2inches and then you use short think screws sunk into 1 by 4 which you put in the corners, shoot the side screws into the 1 by 4 and side by side viola custom crate.

A set of large custom crates with packing matrials will cost $500 plus for pink sheeting, plywood, screws, 1 by 4, and duck tape and labor depending on where you are and local labor rates should add another $500-750 so building custom crates can be expensive, but if you have crated the speakers well a trucking company can pick them up and they will be on their way.

I can totally agree with the wisom of your comments about reasonable size and weight, that concept of practicality can be an elusive quality when it comes to high end audio. I would say with some of the newer loudspeakers technologies you can get stunning sound with a lot less weight. 

Sorry if we were seeming over eager, sometimes people don’t get how close we are to New York state, if we can assist you in any way please let us know.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Thanks gents for the tips on packaging, I was also gearing towards the use of pink sheets and spraying insulation foam before closing the crate to ensure things don't rattle doing the long journey across the globe.
If the grand total shipping costs become cost prohibitive for the buyer, I will probably relist my Sovereigns again.

As for my final shortlist - and I have just started - it will be one where aesthetics, overall sound quality, transportability/handling (we will move in the future) and with a small weighting, ease of resale play a role.

E.g. my wife can live with the B&W 805 D3 and REL combo a friend has,  but I am fighting to keep the form factor to floorstanders.