I've been a long time reader of Stereophile magazine. This is my first post on this forum. My history of speaker and higher end components is not as a deep as some but my last three systems were Martin Logan SL3's with Adcom Amp, Hales Transcendence 8's with Classe CA301 amp and processor, and now B&W CM10's with Mcintosh MA8000. Without question my favorite set of speakers were the Hales Transcendence 8's. They literally kept me satisfied for almost 15 years before time had its way with both them as well as the Classe gear. When I bought all new I thought I was going to be happy with a scaled back system since moving to a smaller home after the kids all were gone. I started with a Rotel 1582 MKII and 1570 pre-amp before buying the big integrated Mac to mate to the CM10's. Bottom line I'm realizing now that these $4k speakers, while really very nice for the price point, really don't come close to my old Hales. In fact, I have rarely heard speakers I enjoyed as much as the Hales. The T8's were a $10k pair of speakers in 1999, some likely at least would be priced around $12k now, or more. Hales went under relatively soon after I bought them as some of you may know.
Since moving up from the Rotel gear to the Mac MA8000, I really need to upgrade my speakers, so I'm asking for recommendations of $7k to $10k speakers that would match up well with the Mcintosh. One of my considerations is a set of B&W 803D's, but I know there are many others to consider. Unfortunately, for a city the size of Dallas, there aren't a great deal of places to audition many different speaker brands. Thanks in advance for any input!
I've been a long time reader of Stereophile magazine. This is my first post on this forum. My history of speaker and higher end components is not as a deep as some but my last three systems were Martin Logan SL3's with Adcom Amp, Hales Transcendence 8's with Classe CA301 amp and processor, and now B&W CM10's with Mcintosh MA8000. Without question my favorite set of speakers were the Hales Transcendence 8's. They literally kept me satisfied for almost 15 years before time had its way with both them as well as the Classe gear. When I bought all new I thought I was going to be happy with a scaled back system since moving to a smaller home after the kids all were gone. I started with a Rotel 1582 MKII and 1570 pre-amp before buying the big integrated Mac to mate to the CM10's. Bottom line I'm realizing now that these $4k speakers, while really very nice for the price point, really don't come close to my old Hales. In fact, I have rarely heard speakers I enjoyed as much as the Hales. The T8's were a $10k pair of speakers in 1999, some likely at least would be priced around $12k now, or more. Hales went under relatively soon after I bought them as some of you may know.
Since moving up from the Rotel gear to the Mac MA8000, I really need to upgrade my speakers, so I'm asking for recommendations of $7k to $10k speakers that would match up well with the Mcintosh. One of my considerations is a set of B&W 803D's, but I know there are many others to consider. Unfortunately, for a city the size of Dallas, there aren't a great deal of places to audition many different speaker brands. Thanks in advance for any input!