Speaker advice - £4000-£9000

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ganesh

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I'm new to the forums and am looking to modernise my 40 year old Tannoy speakers :)

My shortlist so far is:

  • Zu Definition (Now these are strange beats. Very radical design)
  • Hyperion 936 (Seem like Wilson WATT/Puppy clones but they have good reviews)
  • B&W 801D or 800D (perhaps pushing the cash boat out too far)
  • Von Schweikert VR-4 (hear mixed reviews on these)
  • Wilson Audio Sophia (mark 1 or 2 - not sure how valve friendly these are)
  • Living Voice Auditorium Avatar OBX-R (anyone know of these)
  • Hørning Perikles/Agathon (Single driver high efficiency - interesting designs)

I use valve amplification - 100 Watts or so (an RM-200) and a Wadia front end.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Colin.
 
for that sort of money i'd do lots of listening and then have some custom made based on what i liked and disliked or if you're handy with a hammer make them yourself. the only problem then is resale value.
i have a soft spot for b&w's but they do like it up em power wise so i'm not sure of the wisdom pairing them with 'only' 100 wpc.
take a look at somefunting great horns - altec's, definitive audio, jbl, etc. these are amongst the best speakers i;ve heard.
an off the wall solution would be some funktion one pro speakers but i'm not sure how efficient / easy a load they are but these ARE the bast speakers i've ever heard allbeit at ear shattering spl's.
 
Of those on your list, I like the Hyperions (not as much as the BC Acoustiques - but they're very good).

I owned some Avatars. Again, like them but dont rate them as highly as the BC's.

B&W 801 will need a bigger amp.

Zu speakers - hated the druid with a passion. That's the only one I've heard. Coloured as f**k.

Haven't heard the Sophia's, but the Watt/Puppy I heard was a little strident in the treble. Supposed to be a bitch to partner with the right amp, but apparently when you get them right/eq them right they sound great.

Dont know the rest well enough to say
 
Analysis Audio Epsilon?

I've not heard them, but I have heard and very much liked other full-range ribbon models.
 
Whereabouts are you? Worth a trip to Sounds of Music if you can get there. They have the largest range of speakers I have seen at a dealers.

Not quite sure what to recommend. I like nearly all the Ascendo range. The C7 is a bit below budget at £3.5k but is very good indeed, then the next up is about £15k I think. I think you have to jump up in price a lot to get better than most £4k speakers.

To be honest for that amount of money I would get myself a pair of ME Geithain ME320K, but they are tri-active so I don't know what you would do with the valve amp! They are the new 'Hi-Fi' version of the RL901K, the studio version which I have heard and is around £8k and stunning. A valve pre-amp would definitely match nicely to them :D KMR Audio in London might be able to demo them, they have the RL901K.

http://www.me-geithain.de/
 
Avantgarde Duo's superb speakers ,there is even a pair for sale on Hi Fi for sale, and no they are not mine! Perfect with your valves! They are horns but 'modern' ones.
 
The list you have are all well regarded stuff, and I've heard the living voice and wilsons and they are indeed great.

Not to complicate too much but I'd look at the Wilson Benesch ACT as well, they are right up there with the best in my opinion.
 
ganesh said:
I'm new to the forums and am looking to modernise my 40 year old Tannoy speakers :)
Click to expand...

What Tannoys do you have and what is it that you dislike about them?, i.e what improvements are you after?

If you are really Ganesh can't you just ordain these improvements?:D.
 
well if your looking to modernise, what about some modern tannoys, new, for the money you can get the Glenairs (15" DC) for £4k, Stirling (10" DC) for just under £4K or the TD8's for Same (8" DC).....
but second hand who knows... :)
 
I am a big fan of the Von Schweikert speakers myself but I would suggest you audition these and any others especially as your budget is a good amount of cash.

The VR-4 JR is now in it's mark 2 form which I have not heard yet.

If you go to the Von Schweikert web site they have a an ex-demo pair of VR-7 HSE's for sale in the 'Specials' section. These are the Hovland Special Editions and were fantastic loudspeakers. Definitely worth getting a shipping quote for ;)
 
I recently picked up a second hand pair of Sonus Faber Extremas (s/hand just under £3000 but a staggering £9000 new). They come up once in a while, people tend to keep them. They sound fantastic but do like power.
 
As a slight aside...how much time would you intend to spend auditioning speakers in that price range?
 

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