What speakers to buy

I asked this on PFM so anybody who has already read or contributed to the thread please accept my apologies, but thought i might reach some new ideas on here too

I have never been one for Hi Fi mags and the like, i find to much technical jargon that i just dont understand.

Over the past two or three years, i have read this forum with great interest, never contributed very much but absorbed an awful lot of information about different brands of Hi Fi and their individual characteristics.

I built my sistem up to the level of a pair of 135`s with an 82, however reading this forum`s thoughts and opinions has now lead me down the valve route, and the Naim stuff is now slowly being replaced.

However the one static piece of kit that rightly or wrongly has never been replaced is my Credo Loudspeakers.

I always wondered whether they were a restriction on the sound i could have been achieving, however due to having purchased them new and their relative poor second hand values i have always stuck with them.

As i start down the valve route i don`t want to make the same "mistake" again and box myself in by buying a speaker that may restrict future upgrades to amplifier and source, however the likelyhood is that they will now remain unchanged in so much as main source will be a NAS with spacearm currently with a Denon 301mK2 mc Cart that will change every 3 or 4 years or as it wears out. Other source is a CDX with CDSPS which again due to wear and tear will undoubtably change at some time in the future.

Listening room is dedicated for Hi Fi and is fairly small 3.5m*4m therefore listening volumes tend to be quite low, and rarely go higher that about quarter to on the volume pot.

As i value the recommendations recieved from you chaps i would welcome your suggestions for loudspeaker manufacture`s to Shortlist prior to embarking on my journey to a new speaker. I am not looking for specific models although if you feel a particular one may be suited then please feel free to suggest it. It`s more of a "don`t consider Neats they will not work with Valves, but Harbeths will".........

Budget will be somewhere up to £1500 and i would consider fairly newish (3-4 years old max) second hand.

Hope you chaps can help

Thanks in advance

Ps Amps are presently Avreavox Arcana 82 (8 watts ) Monoblock Push Pull via my Nac 82 Pre

 

With only 8 watts on tap I think you would benfit from a fairly efficient speaker.
Something from the Living Voice Auditorium range would be a good starting point.
The larger Tannoy dual-concentrics are also interesting but not sure if they would fall into the price range.
There are various horn designs that might suit.

 

I have a pair of Amphion Xenon spkrs available if your interested.

details available upon request //lamb

 

I have a low-powered valve amp (Border Patrol, 8-ish wpc) and like yourself listen mainly at low-ish volumes. I recently upgraded from an ancient pair of Castle Chesters to a a pair of Audiovector M3 Signatures. They're just above your price retail, but there's plenty of ex-dem units on offer around the £1500 mark.

The Audiovectors play well at low volumes; they're open-sounding and the bass, if not earth-shatteringly low, is well controlled and plenty deep enough for my purposes.

It's been enlightening just how much the sound has improved with the new speakers. I hadn't realised how much the Chesters were 'throttling' the sound.

 

Hi

Can you send me some details to [email protected]

Thanks

Andy

 

Oooops Just looked at the web site for the Amphions, sensitivety of 86dB/W at 8 ohm resistance, that`s not actually as sensitive as the Credo`s i am presently using, so they will probably not quite fit the bill, i was looking for a speaker with a sensitivety of 90dB at least and maybe 95dB.

Thanks anyway

Andy