I'm craving new speakers. This hobby is worse than smack.

Buying expensive speakers is a hobby?

 

I know I said brick and mortar only, but this has my attention.

Focal - Aria 926 Tower Speakers | Shop Music Direct

 

That's too bad and to be honest your loss. I've had Ascend Sierra 1s and they are an excellent speaker. From Ascend I went to Salk speakers. The Salk's are an incredible speaker that I bought sight unheard. Was not disappointed in the least. So happy with Salk speakers I moved up their line twice. I felt the same way you did about internet direct speakers. I'm so glad I changed my mind as there's no way I could afford the quality (sound and build) of speakers sold retail when compared to Salk speakers.

 

I am too old to fool with packing up speakers and sending them back. I will get what I can get and have help putting it in the car. I can get help getting it into the house. I can drive fine, I just cant walk far. I am ok with my choices. I am sure the Ascend and Salk speakers are fine choices, just not for me.

 

The B&W 705 S2 is reputed to be an excellent speaker. I read it in a magazine, so it must be true. Fits your budget too.
I fully support your insistence on actually hearing the speakers you plan to buy. Good luck and have fun!

 

hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

 

What I don't understand is why people just can't answer the question that was asked by the OP, he has certain reasons for asking the question and I don't understand why you are wasting his time with answers he is not interested in, just the certain speakers in question, nothing else.

 

The OP mentions nothing about being unable to move speakers easily, re-pack and ship speakers back to non B&M places (what happens if he buys from a B&M and finds out they don't work so well in his room?), or even the fact he wants to buy B&M? What if, like so many of us who are into this hobby they don't know everything that's available from not-so-physical locations one can drop in on? Was your recommendation for OP hiding under your soapbox?

Point is, these are discussions, not fast food orders.

OP, I've owned Focal in the past and currently have Dynaudio, specifically Focus 260s downstairs and Excite bookshelves upstairs in our home theater. The 260's are towers and work very well in small rooms, even rear-ported, and present an honest, neutral sound that, if anything, can be a tad forward. They require a lot of power to extract the most from them. I was never able to try Focals in my current listening room but upstairs in a much larger room than I have now, they acquitted themselves well and didn't require a huge amount of power to sound great at all volumes.

 

Yeah but don't do that, bookshelf speakers in the end just can't do that low bass.* Oh, some of them can be quite good for their size but, like car engines, there is no substitute for cabinet volume and woofer area. Definitely check out those Reva 4s-or if Crutchfield doesn't have them on display, ask if they can set them up. If not, buy them and be happy, they're great. (And if you're not happy, I *think* CF is easy on returns). There's really just no substitute for a midrange driver-a woofer-to-tweeter system just can't be perfect due to the drivers and crossover. Adding a mid doesn't make things perfect either, but at least the vocal range and mids can all come out of one cone.

*Nobody has B-stock or demos of the Adantes?

 

NO, the point is to answer the persons question pertaining exactly to what he is asking. Now get off YOUR soap box. He absolutely said he wanted to know if anyone had experience with a certain few speakers, that he wanted to buy from a brick and mortar shop and NOT buy and return speakers on-line because he would have no problem with local help with moving them to and from the B&M shop. Read the whole thread.

 

And many floorstanders in this range can't touch a good 2-way standmount when it comes to imaging and coherency.

There's always tradeoffs.

 

“Financially crippling addiction” is another euphemism

 

Harbeth C7ES3. Should be able to deal a pair for $3K or so. So much better than anything you have mentioned.

 

you get what you pay for.

 

For most music, you are probably right. Every now and then, I get all liquored up and put on AC/DC. Not so sure Harbeths would be the choice.

 

It seems you just need to get out and listen. I agree with Steve H. that if a speaker sounds good in the showroom, it's likely to sound good in your room. I prefer in-home auditions, but if I don't like the speaker in the dealer's room, I'm not going to bring it home.

Luckily your amp isn't terribly heavy. I suggest you bring it along. Ask the dealer to do the heavy lifting for you, that's why they're there. Once you've picked out the top contenders, try to arrange an in-home audition with a no-hassle return period.

 

There's your answer. Take your time, hear them and decide for yourself.

 

Sorry to hear that you are having difficulty getting around. Good luck with your journey and I hope you get exactly what you are looking for!

Because options are good to hear. I asked similar questions on speakers a number of years ago. At the time I had no interest or knowledge of internet direct speaker companies. Fortunately I eventually tried speakers from internet direct companies and couldn't be happier. Maybe to the OP and you the suggestions for ID speakers are a waste of time but to some viewing the thread maybe not.

 

Based on my experience with the their GS 20s (similar woofers to te Silver 300s, no separate mid) I think you'd be a happy camper. VERY easy to drive, my 150wpc Adcom amp is orders of magnitude more than powerful enough to drive them. Very clear extended non fatiguing highs and adequate bass. Give Andy at Saturday Audio a call. He may have some demos he'd be willing to part with. Also, he's got the Silver 8s and 10s on sale.

 

Confused here. Are you questioning the Focal Aria or the retailer?

 

I want to check these out. They are beyond my budget but probably worth stretching for and could be my last speaker purchase. My only concern is having enough space for them. Although some things I have read claim that they work very well in small rooms.

 

That is confusing. If there is one retailer that I would break from my brick and mortar stance, it is Music Direct. I have bought a bunch of albums from them, including the Beatles and Stones mono sets. Good prices and great service.

 

Well, this speaker hunt just took a twist. My Rega dealer Bill(KT88) saw this thread and has given me some very intriguing options. Sounds like he is going to make it very hard for me to not give him my money.

 

Let me morph what you said into a popular blanket statement: "standmounts are more [pure]"
That is a popular conventional wisdom which I really dislike. I highly question how true it is as a blanket statement. I think it is one of those ideas originating from truths in the past, which then propagates unquestioned, aided by a visual/intellectual component: the stand mounts are smaller, so "should" have better dispersion (which is not really true), and their design is "more focused" on mids and highs so they MUST inherently be better for that (as a loudspeaker design engineer, I'll call BS on that). They LOOK smaller so somehow that visually correlates to smaller frequencies. But I would bet money that, as with other conventional wisdoms, a significant number of the folks who parrot this idea have NOT actually made real A/B comparisons on a scale to justify the statement-or at all!

Now, I think there are sometimes of course cases where this wisdom is true, and the price matters too. At $500 yeah it is tough to find great towers-it used to be manufacturers would have a two way stand-mount and then just make a tower version with the same drivers for a little more. That seems to be rarer today; the step-up towers are often a lot more expensive.

Me and my friend recently listened to a number of standmount versus towers: Dynaudio, KEF, Wharfedale, and another brand I'm blanking on. And at a couple of shows, the ELAC models.* I didn't get any feeling the stand mounts were superior to the towers in any way, and definitely were more strained in bass and midbass capacity.

*It would be interesting to ask Andrew Jones if he feels stand-mounts are superior to towers for imaging and coherency etc. And maybe interesting to start a thread about this...

 

Without listening first? Hopefully he's not one of those "all sales final" guys.