speaker system

[Jmck]

Hey, first time poster, im looking to buy my dad some high end speakers. He enjoys a large range of music from classical to theatre to the top 100.

I myself have 4 paradigm monitor 11s a matching centre and a denon 3311. My dad however wants a good quality valve amp and standing floor speakers.

He likes paradigm but I am willing to look around but I do live in Australia.

The room is probably 12x7 metres or possibly bigger with a very high ceiling. The room has wide sliding doors that open up to hallways and other rooms.

So i was wondering on what kind of speakers you would recommend. If you know paradigms that would work well that is great and also an amp that would compliment the speakers.

It will not be connected to a surround sound system for movies. But will need four speakers I think to fill out the room evenly

 

[TLS Guy]

Hey, first time poster, im looking to buy my dad some high end speakers. He enjoys a large range of music from classical to theatre to the top 100.

I myself have 4 paradigm monitor 11s a matching centre and a denon 3311. My dad however wants a good quality valve amp and standing floor speakers.

He likes paradigm but I am willing to look around but I do live in Australia.

The room is probably 12x7 metres or possibly bigger with a very high ceiling. The room has wide sliding doors that open up to hallways and other rooms.

So i was wondering on what kind of speakers you would recommend. If you know paradigms that would work well that is great and also an amp that would compliment the speakers.

It will not be connected to a surround sound system for movies. But will need four speakers I think to fill out the room evenly

What speakers are available in your area?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

im looking to buy my dad some high end speakers

For high-end speakers, I recommend the $22K Revel Salon 2, $20K KEF 207/2, and $9K Linkwitz Orion.

 

[Jmck]

Well from what I can see in my area there are a few options but i dont know much about them

from this website, which seems to have some range, this is whats available

audiotrends.com.au/index.php?page_id=15&parentCategory=143

Aaron, Dynaudio, Rega, Sonique, Subsonic, Triangle, Vincent Audio, Canton, Paradigm

here is another website

digitalcentre.com.au/c/14721/1/floor-standing-speakers.html

this will show the basics of what we have here. It is unfortunately very limited.


audioconnection.com.au/categories/floor-standing.asp

Acoustic Energy , ATC , Avalon , Burmester , DALI , Definitive Technology , ELAC , GamuT , Goldmund , Gryphon , JBL Synthesis , Kharma , Krell , Lyngdorf , Martin Logan , MBL , Revel , Sonus Faber , Triangle , Wilson Audio


Im sure anything that is available here i could manage to get ordered from a specific audio store. but this is a huuuuge list of names. but im also not sure what would suit the room. it is huge, and I want it to sound amazing.

I am an incredible noob when it comes to speakers, I bought mine for a good starting level high end speaker I think, but that was because I liked the company and sound. So any help is appreciated

Thanks

 

[Jmck]

Sorry to bump a bit, but im really struggling, its overwhelming how many amp and speaker brands there are and I have no idea what im doing, if you guys can suggest some brands that would be great to look at within these speakers?

or even what to look for when it comes to looking at valve amps ?

 

[Pyrrho]

Speakers are a very personal choice. The reason being, there is no such thing as a perfect speaker, so it is a question of which combination of virtues one requires and which vices one can tolerate. I suggest you take your father to all of the local audio shops, with his favorite source material (and include a wide range of types of music), and go listen to as many different brands, and as many different types (e.g., ribbons, horns, domes, whatever) as you can stand to audition. Leave your money at home, as you do not want to buy right away, but want to go home and sleep on the idea, as you do not want to spend a lot of money on something you will later regret.

You might want to try to find a dealer who sells Apogee speakers, though they will be expensive:

http://www.apogeeacoustics.com/

Their speakers are based on the now out of business American company Apogee Acoustics, which made superb speakers. I own these.

Now, I have not heard any of the speakers made by the relatively new Australian company of the same name, so I cannot vouch for them. (Not that you should pay too much attention to a random person's claims about such things anyway.) But if they are in your price range, and if there is a dealer not too far away, you ought to go listen to them, along with as many other speakers and types of speakers as you can stand to audition.

You might also want to contact Magnepan to see if they have any dealers in Australia.


Edited to add:

As for valve amplifiers, I would recommend looking at solid state instead. However, if your father is dead set on valves, look for something that puts out a decent amount of power, and look for one that has been independently tested and measured to perform well. Price is not a good indication of this; $350,000 can buy you crap performance in valve amplifiers:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/wavac-sh-833-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

That is the kind of piss-poor performance that I would recommend avoiding.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Sorry to bump a bit, but im really struggling, its overwhelming how many amp and speaker brands there are and I have no idea what im doing, if you guys can suggest some brands that would be great to look at within these speakers?

or even what to look for when it comes to looking at valve amps ?

I recommend this 300wpc 8ohm/600wpc 4ohm amp:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1301083381

ATI make amps for Lexicon, JBL, and I've heard they also make amps for Mark Levinson.

 

[Jmck]

Thanks for the replies.

Ill definitely take your advice and get him to see and hear all speakers for a day. But what kind of size speaker do you think I would need to fill up a room of that size?

I think we have the ATI amps in Australia so ill go look for it. Its funny, picking speakers are so difficult especially in Australia where your choices are limited and none of us know much about it XD

 

[Pyrrho]

Thanks for the replies.

Ill definitely take your advice and get him to see and hear all speakers for a day. But what kind of size speaker do you think I would need to fill up a room of that size?

I think we have the ATI amps in Australia so ill go look for it. Its funny, picking speakers are so difficult especially in Australia where your choices are limited and none of us know much about it XD

If you really need to fill a room that is 12 x 7 meters (or bigger) with a very high ceiling with sound, you are probably going to be looking at speakers that resemble (or simply are) speakers like those used in auditoriums. In other words, large horns that are very sensitive. Of course it also depends upon how loud you want to "fill" the room with sound, as well as the acoustic properties of your specific room.

(For those who are more accustomed to feet, 12 x 7 meters is almost 40 x 23 feet.)