After 6 years of waiting, I'm finally getting my first serious system. I listened to Totems and Dynaudio x12s and both had muddy vocals on Dream Theater's The Glass Prison, but the larger Dynaudio DM 2/7s sounded MUCH better. After that, I decided multidriver floorstanders made more sense because I like densely layered music that those bookshelves didn't handle well. However, I'm worried that they'll be way too much speaker for my space.

My room is ~250sq.ft and ~2470cu.ft, and probably has mediocre acoustics. My head will be 7-8 feet from the speakers.

Examples of music I like: Sting, Lana Del Rey, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, various electronic acts, and acoustic and blues guitar.

The Musical Fidelity M1 SDAC + M1 PWR + Diamondback interconnects are $1000 shipped, which seems like a great option for 60 watts and a bluetooth DAC (feel free to contradict me here). I'm going to use Kimber 4PS cables to connect those to one of these (shipped prices):

  • Focal Chorus 826V/816V ($1620/$1320) *so pretty
  • Kef Q900/Q700 ($1300/$1100 w/ cosmetic flaws)
  • Wharfedale Diamond 10.7/10.5 ($1300/$1000)

This list tops out around $2500 all-in, which is what I'd like to spend. I'm listening to the Focals and Wharfedales this weekend, but haven't found a Manhattan dealer with the KEFs. Any thoughts? Am I totally off-base?

Thanks for the help!

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