I've been looking for floor standing speakers with little success!

These speakers certainly seem somewhat contriversial. I auditioned the GoldenEar Triton One against numerous speakers in the $5K range, including B&W, Focal, and others, and went with the GoldenEar; I'm very happy with them and think they sound wonderful in my home. After also hearing it, I didn't think the GoldenEar Reference was enough of a difference to warrant the extra money, and if my budget had been $10K I might have gone with something else. They may be worth hearing to form your own opinion.

 

Must have been northern audio.

 

I am on the exact same quest as you. Currently a Magnepan 1.6QR owner. Over the past year I've listened to:

1. Focal Kanta No. 2: Beryllium tweeter. Heard with both Naim and McIntosh electronics. Both times wanted to gouge my ears out. Horribly irritating and fatiguing.
2. Revel Performa 228Be (same shop as above): Also a Beryllium tweeter, but this was surprisingly more listenable. Neutral, not annoying, but also overall kind of forgettable. Probably my second favorite pair I've heard, which is saying something about how bad I think most other speakers sounded. More thoughts below.
3. Paradigm Persona 3F (different shop now): Not only Beryllium tweeter, but Beryllium mid as well. Impressive resolution, but after 5-10 minutes also wanted to gouge my ears out. Even worse than the Kantas. Have heard these on my Ragnarok and a Plinius SA-103 Class A monster amp. Same impressions, though better on Plinius.
4. Spendor D7: Less bright and revealing than Paradigm. Too much bass rolloff. Not great soundstaging (sound came more from speakers). Forgettable.
5. Aerial Acoustics 6T and 7T: By far my favorite. Conveyed the emotion of Dvorak's cello concerto. Sounded great on Weezer - Blue Album. Comparatively good bass response to the other speakers I've demoed, especially the 7T. More details below.
6. KEF LS50: Given Stereophile raved about with the Ragnarok, wanted to hear with mine. Sounded fine at lower volumes. Compressed at anything approaching normal volumes, too metallic sounding, and too much bass roll off (expected this).
7. KEF R11: Heard in different room than ##3-6, and on Parasound integrated. Sounded anemic, though better bass than LS50. Similar metallic sound. Don't think I'm a KEF guy.
8. Klipsch Forte III (same room as #7): Loved the sensitivity. Did sound more like a rock concert. Unfortunately, I hate how rock concerts sound and always wear Etymotic earplugs. Don't think pairing with Parasound was good.
9. Sonner Legato Duo (different room, on Luxman gear): Sounded fine. Seems similar to the Aerials, but like a cheap knock-off of it due to the crappier cabinet. Made in NH. Similar drivers, but uses Seas for woofers instead of Scanspeak. Pass.
10. Audio Physic Avanti (different dealer; Naim Atom integrated). Crap bass extension, small woofer sounded disjointed compared to the 8" paper radiator they have somewhere in the cabinet. Tweeter didn't sound natural. Knew within 10 seconds they weren't for me, but humored the place for 20 minutes.

More thoughts below.

Revel has a 60-75% dealer markup. Screw you Harmon Kardon. The F228Be is the $10,000 model, and it is the only speaker I've heard with a Be tweeter that didn't make me want to gouge my ears out. That said, I'd describe the sound signature as neutral, boring and forgettable. All I remember about it is thinking the drivers looked cheap and it didn't bug me like the Kanta. I won't give HK my money.

Dynaudio Contour 60 should definitely be on your short list. It's still on mine. Paging @murphythecat.

Think he meant D9. D7 isn't what Chris is looking for. Too much bass roll-off, and likely the metal tweeter would be grating over time. Haven't heard the D9, and don't care to.

Aerial Acoustics 7T are by far the best speaker I have heard on the list above. 6T won't have the extension or kick we're looking for. 7T have great soundstaging and bass extension (based on information I can find, each 7" Scanspeak driver used has an Fs of 25Hz). The cabinet quality is impeccable. The sound is natural and resolving, without being etched or fatiguing like nearly all the rest of the speakers I listed above are. I think this is in large part due to the soft dome tweeter and papyrus cone midrange. These are the only speakers I've heard that I would consider replacing my Maggies with.

I've noticed a correlation with listening fatigue and metal tweeter composition. Add a metal midrange driver and the fatigue factor increases exponentially (screw you Persona 3F).

For drivers, it looks like the 7T uses:

• customized version of 1" soft-dome ScanSpeak Discovery R2604/8330 Dual Ring Radiator Tweeter (link).
• customized version of 6" SB Acoustics SB17NRX2C35-4 6” with paper cone (link).
• two Scanspeak 7" woofers. From the website: "Twin 7.1″ (180mm) with cast magnesium frame, rigid bilaminate composite cones, large magnets, 1.5″ coils, long and linear Xmax". Maybe a customized version of the 18W (Fs of 25 Hz)?.

I'd be happy to share more information about these that I've collected. If you search online, you'll likely find a thread on these forums and AVS Forum created by a disgruntled former dealer named Craig Shumer of TheaterMax. His dealer agreement was terminated, so he went on a public smear campaign under the false pretenses of claiming fraudulent behavior by Aerial as their "T" line cabinets are now made in China and not their original Danish cabinetmaker (who went out of business). I have more information about this loser I can share if you're interested as well. He's still up to his pathetic antics on Audiogon, so ignore the "customer trade-in" ads for the 7T and 6T that he consistently refreshes, where the speakers are supposedly stored in customer storage facilities...

If you're looking for a rock speaker, I wouldn't recommend Maggies. Maggies excel in transparency and clarity in the midrange. They lack dynamics and bass punch. The bigger ones do better at this, but I wasn't too impressed by the demo of the 30.7 in Boston on the recent tour. Certainly not worth $30,000.

-----

tl;dr:

• Definitely add the Aerial Acoustics 7T to your audition list
• Definitely add the Dynaudio Contour 60 to your audition list. I hope to hear the Contour 30 soon, but my local dealer doesn't have the 60.
• Definitely add the Legacy Focus SE to your audition list. I hope to hear one later this year. I do worry about listener fatigue with the AMT tweeters, but I've heard they are a warmer speaker and have great bass and dynamics.
• Another local dealer recommended I add the Canton Reference line to my audition list. I may, but am worried about the ceramic/aluminum hybrid tweeter and midrange drivers.
• I've read recommendations for Tyler Acoustics, but am not familiar with the line and don't love the looks so will probably have to pass.

 

My audition today for a pair of classic AR9's went very well. I have never heard those speakers before today, although I have read great things about them for years. Those speakers are truly excellent and they are really, really close to what I'm looking for, I'm just having problems buying speakers that are so old. The current owner of them recently had all 4 of the side woofers re-foamed and they go really deep! I knew the minute I arrived that he was a cool seller, as he had a stack of CD's sitting there and they were all Steely Dan and my favorite, Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". Nice guy and I'm sleeping on whether or not to buy them!

 

Great, GREAT roundup of some that I have heard and some that I have not! Isn't it damned frustrating that there are this many speakers out there and so many of them truly don't deliver??? I feel your pain, friend!

I will address a few that you mentioned.

Revel Performa 288Be: You nailed your review on them! They are a "nice" speaker, but far from great, especially for $10,000 (although I could have got them for $8,000). I left them feeling that while decent, they are mostly forgettable!

Paradigm Persona 3F: I have auditioned a slew of Paradigm speakers since buying my beloved and still in daily use, Studio 100 v2's and I have yet to hear anything that they have to offer even remotely close to those old Studio 100 v2's.

Klipsch Forte III: The first time I heard them I said YES! A week later and I took my wife with me to the same store with the exact same audition CD and we both said NO! Go figure???

I've already auditioned the Legacy Focus SE and I really like them, but dollar for dollar, those AR9's that I heard today did almost everything that they do, but about $9,000 less!

I'm definitely going to go back to the Dynaudio dealer in Michigan and revisit that "Contour" line, No doubt that Dynaudio makes a quality speaker!

I'd also LOVE to audition the Canton Reference K line, the 3's may be in my financial ballpark?

Thanks again for your post and best wishes to you in your quest for your holy grail speakers!

 

@Chris C If you can demo Canton locally to you and like the Reference 5K, you may be able to score them for around $8,000 new (slightly less for black). Think they're running a September promotion, per my local dealer in Boston area. 5K have dual 8" bass woofers. I'd love to try the AR9, but unfortunately for me my quest also includes the extra criterion of living-room aesthetics and my wife hates boxy speakers (e.g., Klipsch Heritage) and any wood finish.

 

SOUNDS FUN, THANKS!

 

Thanks and I completely get the "wife" thing, although she is currently allowing me BOTH Klipsch Cornwalls and Chorus 1's. The Cornwalls are probably going up for sale soon, as she has finally came around to loving my Chorus 1's, especially after we tag teamed replacing the crossovers and diaphrams with Bob Crites updates and they really do sound great!

 

Have you looked at upscaleaudio.com? Just to get an idea what you can get for $10k.

 

While they may be smaller than AR-9s and were marketed as a 'bookshelf speaker' in their heyday, (though they were not really small or even lightweight) have you considered a pair of AR-3's or AR-3a's or maybe even AR-91's or 92's I forget which is which.


EDIT: Ok I just saw the post about AR-9's 'maybe' being too old, so nevermind on the suggestions of 3's or 3a's then, they're even older...LOL

 

That goofy guy gives me the same creepy feeling that I get when I see a Michael Fremer review. Who made those two the go-to guys in the audiophile world???

 

Thanks. Fascinating.

 

All current Spendors use a soft-dome tweeter. The D-line simply has a metal diffuser grill in front of it.

I have a pair of Spendors and recently acquired a pair of Maggie 0.7s. The Spendors disappear nearly as well as the Maggies, even more so in some respects. If the D7s didn't manage this in your audition it was completely due to setup and/or partnering gear.

 

Thanks for the clarification Chris. I'm not sure what the US price on the new Franco Serblin Accordo Essence would be, but I doubt they'd be anything less than wonderful with your MC452. The Harbeth M40.2, the Martin Logan Classic CLS 9 or (if you could find a deal on an ex-demo) Magico S1, would also be well worth hearing.

 

The AR9 is one of the all time classics. If I had the opportunity. It would be hard not to jump on a pair. That said, I think modern speakers are miles beyond the beloved classics of that era.

But then I am one of those tone deaf guys that auditioned Spendor, DynAudio, B&W, and others, had no budget issues, and came home with my GoldenEar Triton 1.R's. No regrets at all after several months. Funny, that I think the thing that makes them work for me is similar to one of the things that made the AR9 so good. The ability to work in rooms that are less than perfect. My den is an acoustic nightmare. It has been a long journey to find something that works well, and that's a pretty bold statement, considering my fondness of swapping gear.

 

Ironically, the guy who has the AR9's for sale, I'm convinced, is the all-time KING of speaker swappers, as he has had (and proved it to me with pictures of damn near each pair in his house on his cell phone), three hundred different speakers, LOL! He said that he has tried almost all that were within reach. His favorite was some model that I was unfamiliar with by AR (I think he said something that had two numbers like 9/10's?) and his least favorite (You Wilson Audio fans better sit down as I know that there are a LOT of you on this forum), but it was the Wilson Audio Sasha Puppy, which he paid $12,000 dollars for from the original owner. My jaw hit the ground when he said that, as I know that this guy knows great audio, especially from all of the other high-end speakers that he was zipping through on his cell phone. I asked him what he didn't like about them and he said "everything"! He tried them in different rooms and on different amplification and he couldn't wait to get them out of his house. At the end of the day the speaker that is his go-to, is clearly are AR9's as he said that the pair that he is wanting to sell me is his third pair!!! He has two pairs upstairs in his bedrooms and this third pair are in his bar. He said that his brother also has a pair of AR9's at his house. No doubt that this speaker "visually" screams "old school" and believe me that is one of the main reasons that I'm a little skeptical to buy them, but at $1,800 dollars and the knowledge of what hell that I have gone through trying to even get remotely close to the speaker that I'm trying to find, this almost seems too good to pass up? Are their better speakers out there for me to discover, with the things that I'm searching for (non-fatiging highs, a mid-range that actually says something in that range and a bottom end that will kick even the best subwoofers a$$. I'm guessing that there have to be a pair out there, but how far and how much more money just to prove my point and that is, while the hunt can be interesting, I'd really rather just be able to sit down and finally enjoy my music, in my home! I'm sure that I have a little of that gambler audiophile in me, as I have tried all these years to try and better my Paradigm Studio 100 v2's for so many years, but I have absolutely zero interest in becoming my very kind new audiophile friend whom I met yesterday, selling his AR9's, as he said it best when I asked him why do you keep buying new speakers and he looked at me and simply said, "it's a sickness Chris".

 

Howzabout the Tannoy Arden? 15" woofer, 93 dB efficient. 8000 monies.

 

That last one is a very tall order, even for a $10K pair of speakers.

I'm not at all surprised he prefers AR9s to Wilsons. Most experienced audiophiles I meet will readily admit that speaker technology really hasn't advanced all that much over the last few decades. Modern speakers, even $10K+ models, tend to just sound different rather than bettering the good models from 40 years ago.

I recently pitted an all-original (except for woofer foam) pair of New Large Advents against brand-new Vandy 2CE Sig IIs. The Advents won that battle by a country mile - better detail, better bass, better midrange... When I was moving the Advents around I wondered what speakers of equal cabinet construction would cost today - at least $4K.

Now some will argue that ARs and the like were only good in their day, but consider that it was likely decades ago that these same folks heard a pair with modern amps and front ends.

 

This has always puzzled me too.

Some people swear by Upscale, but I had a rather unpleasant interaction a few years ago when I called to ask questions about a couple of items. I’ll just say that my experience was the opposite of the breezy, laid-back vibe that his ad copy telegraphs and leave at that!

Something about Fremer definitely doesn’t sit well either; I cannot quite identify why, but I get a distinct impression that he is something of a know-it-all type with an ego that is far outsized in proportion to the actual significance of what he does.

As for the speakers, count me as another vote for the Legacys. I know they stretch your budget, but they really are some of the best designed speakers available at any price, and I think they could be the ideal answer for your preferences; sell a few units of plasma to the local blood bank if that’s what it takes! (I kid.)

 

No need to worry about the tweeter in the Canton's. I've a pair of the Vento monitors and that Ceramic tweeter is world class. Infact Canton Reference is world class. No distortion in that tweeter whatsoever. Not bright at all but nice and clear. The tweeter is Aluminium oxyd ceramic...the woofer is ceramic tungsten...nothing like it on the market as far as I can tell

Canton - AudioAficionado.org

 

These are in your price and a steel at this price.

Canton Reference 5K black - like new demos | Full-Range | Bethel, Connecticut 06801 | Audiogon

 

Thanks those look really great, although they as usual for Canton Audio, are a fare ways away from my front door!

 

The various AR Vertical Series speakers are still very good. That includes the AR9's, and my AR90's and AR92's. All balanced and musical. But, all old now. Not a knock, they just need refreshing.

Even if the surrounds are good on those 9's, they'll still need a recap. The capacitors AR used are prone to have failed by now. They're worth the work and expense to restore them. Even better and more palpable sound, once complete. Lot's of capacitors in there, but only 4 that are critical. Fairly easy to do, if you can solder?

 

Bill Dudleston is an AR fan from way back! Hearing AR9's was one of his biggest speaker inspirations.

 

I realize that speakers, especially of all things in the audio world, is where the lines can get easily blurred with fans of what they enjoy to use. On this forum (I've been a member here since 2002 and I try to either learn something or add my own thoughts here almost every day since) but while I can read that a hundred people here find, let's say Audio Note UK the best speaker that they've ever heard or owned and the another hundred can swear by Large Advents, that simply doesn't mean that either of them will be great for "you or me". We all just hear differently, especially regarding our age, the rooms that we listen in, the rooms that we audition in at the stores, so it always comes down to our own hearing in the end, no matter HOW popular any speaker may be. Also none of this has anything to do with our budgets, although my own wife said it just last night, that those guys at that Hoffman Forum have no problem spending all of our money and in a sense she may have something there, as I find that some here really do enjoy living vicariously using other forum members wallets. Just because I say that I have $10,000 dollars, give or take to spend, that doesn't mean that I want to have to spend that much money just to prove a point. Whatever the case, I have enjoyed getting all of these suggestions from all of you, as I know that most have had good intentions and that many have understand just what I'm looking for, even if it's hard to find it by speaker model. I've learned, mostly on my own, that no one speaker does all genres of music perfectly. I even had a friend here yesterday visiting me from New York and we go back with listening to music and enjoying so many similar type artists. I tried to explain this endless search to him and he really could care less about "what" we play it back on, as opposed to just "listening" to it. (NOTE: Many years ago he bought my Definitive Technology towers from me and he still happily uses them today). Like I mentioned earlier, I have my speakers for Sinatra and jazz (Klipsch) and my speakers for surround (Paradigm), but what I'm really searching for now is that speaker that can rock (and deeply if needed, with no sub) and yet, can also just as kindly play an orchestra or something smooth and somewhat quiet. The guy with the AR9's easily proved to me yesterday that they are in "that" world of good with softer and louder. The Legacy Focus SE's were almost the same in their presentation to my ears. The difference between the two was the visual and the cost. If I end up going with the Legacy's, I just know that I will want to spend the extra $$$ (around $11,500 or so) to get one of their "exotic finishes", as they are so beautiful. But, that's not really what buying speakers should be about, However, if I can please my wife with the "visuals" and we can both enjoy the "sound", then it's a win-win, right. Clearly though, I feel that I should try my best to audition the other great speakers that have been offered me as suggestions in this thread, as that magic speaker could be out there just waiting for me to discover it???