What about a 1032?
Yes, one of what i was thinking.
What you think M0N -> Dynaudio LYD 48 could also be potential candidate?
3-way and a bit different shape. Should be near the budget also.
I actually do love the Events and for their price were a bargain. They have plenty of power and low end punch to fill my music room.
I happen to have 1 of 3 US swan dealers within a 20 min drive. So going to try the M3a first to get an impression. I’m most interested in the Navis and Salk Active speakers but spending $2k without being able to demo first is a big leap of faith. Guttenberg loves the Navis but I can’t find any reviews on the salks.
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Most definitely. If you a Swan dealer near by, take few for testing. 
Leap of faith can be salvation or damnation.
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The dynaudio xeo 20 or the lyd would be great picks, pretty dang solid speakers
Yes, go and see what you can demo, make sure to try as much as you can
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No dice on the Swans Speakers demo… I contacted the people listed on Swans official website and the local “distributor” didn’t even know what i was talking about.
I reached out to Swans directly on the M3A and M5A about trying to demo them and the status of the M5A.
Blockquote “Thanks for your interest in our speakers. Since all of our speakers are hand-crafted, the speakers take a while for production. Therefore, the lead time is about 2 months at least. Meanwhile, we’ll have M3A coming in, and I have no idea when M5A will be available in the States.”
Based upon these inconsistencies my gut feeling is to look somewhere else. Not sure I want to pony up the amount to buy a M3A only to have to deal with a run-around if I need to return it.
Looking forward in the future if Zeos is able to review the M5A; those specs look quite interesting for my needs:
https://swanspeakers.com/product/hi-fi-wireless-active-bookshelf-speakers-m5a/
SPECIFICATIONS
SYSTEM TYPE 3-way active bass reflex box
DRIVERS CONFIGURATION 8" woofer; 3" midrange; isodynamic ribbon tweeter
FREQUENCY RESPONSE 35Hz-20kHz (±2.5dB, free space)
INTERFACES WiFi, LAN
RATED POWER Tweeter: 35W×2 RMS; midrange: 40W×2 RMS; woofer: 180W×2 RMS; total 510W RMS
CROSSOVER FREQUENCY 550Hz, 3.6kHz
BASS ADJUSTMENT ±3dB
TREBLE ADJUSTMENT ±3dB
SEPARATION ＞95dB
SNR ＞95dB (A weighted)
DIMENSIONS 280×362×475mm
NET WEIGHT Master speaker: 21.5kg; Slave speaker: 19.8kg
so an update… stopped by two hifi shops today a dynaudio distributor and an ELAC distributor. At the dynaudio location I hard an Evoke 20 and B&W 706 S2 (both passive speakers)… They will try to get a XEO 20 active from one of their reps for me to listen to next week. The B&Ws were more “impressive” to listen to in a 2-3 song demo but their hard dome treble would get fatiguing after some time and the low end wasn’t great. The Evoke 20 were less impressive but were more balanced/detailed to listen to an all volume levels. Both were $2k passive so with an amp would be way above my budget. I’m hoping that XEO 20 provides a similar listening experience as the Evoke and I may have a winner.
The 2nd shop I went to had the Elac Navis ARB51s and they were good but not great. They seemed to be a bit sleepy and did well at Live music but didn’t perform great with music with any energy. The base/low end was weak but accurate and the high end was smooth. For $2300 I think I can do better…
I can home and listened to my Events and they were more “fun” than any of the speakers I heard today. Less detailed but all the music I like was much more alive.
It should be somewhat similar. Also the dynaudios need a fair bit of break in to sound their best, so idk how long they have used the demos for at least (also getting used to their signature helps lol). Also I tend to agree b&w is more impressive at first, but long term you kinda find their signature isn’t something you want to listen to that much (at least for me)
Dynaudio demo is set for next Friday… Now I just need to track down a Focal dealer and try to find someone with a set of Swans to listen to.
I also had a local person offer me the following deal for $2k his 5.1 B&W Hifi setup:
I have a local seller that is selling his 5.1 B&W setup for $2k OTD for:
2 B&W CDM 9NT Towers
1 B&W CDM CNT Center
2 B&W CDM SNT Surrounds
1 B&W ASW 650 Powered Sub
Marantz SR 7008 A/V Receiver
Monster HTS 3600 PowerCenter
5 sets of Transparent Music Wave balanced audio cables and component cables & digital audio cables
I know I said I wanted bookshelf actives and this is the exact opposite but seems like it could be a decent deal. I wasn’t a huge fan of the B&W tweeters but maybe these would be less shrill. The issue is this seller is moving and they are already boxed. There is no damage and I can inspect all of the items but not listen to them.
Thoughts for $2k?
Well, if you own a TV and you buy the 5.1 set-up you will have a really nice HT system for a great price and it includes a power conditioner. If you are anything like the rest of us, you will then be back here 3 months from now still trying to figure out how to upgrade your 2.0 system which you already enjoy🤣
I’m sorry, i have nothing productive to add to this conversation other than that really is a good deal on the HT set-up.
Would you be concerned about spending $2k on a nice HT system that you can’t hear?
If you primary goal was a system to listen to music 50 % vinyl / 50% digital would you be concerned that this 5.1 system would not be good at addressing that need?
I use my HT speakers to listen to music often, only certain genre’s and not in the 5.1 set-up.i happen to like my speakers though and auditioned them first. No i would NOT purchase that set-up if my primary goal was music, I have certain preferences but that’s just me and my own opinion. B&W speakers are good and many folks like them, read a few AVR reviews to see if that gear is anywhere near your tastes, don’t jump on items that have nothing to do with what you are looking for. If you take your time and look i’m sure you can find something that will meet your requirements. I wish i could be more help, Happy Listening.
Something to consider is that for your surrounds you can reasonably have them be lesser quality compared to your main 2 channel and center channel if you really want a multichannel setup, so you can invest more into your 2 channel
If you mainly listen to music, I wouldn’t get a multichannel system imo
heh, they kinda are on the mentioned B&W setup.
But it is nice to hear / get that “kick” from behind also and not just “echo sounds” if heading to the deep end of HT pool.
But i also would still aim at 2-way stereo system.
And no. I would want to head the front’s or 9NT Towers first before buying.
Even if for music use.
Thanks for all the advice guys! I have passed on the B&W options and have passed on the 5.1 options listed locally as well. No dice on a Swan demo as both my local “dealers” for them are super shady. No dice on the Dynaudio Xeo 20 as they cannot get them. No Dice on the Elac Navis as I didn’t like their base response. Also wasn’t able to get the Kef LS50 wireless as the distributor basically made me feel like he thought they were not good.
I will go demo these this weekend:
I understand these are passive and not book shelves but started to get worn down on my options. Hopefully I can find a cheap A-B hybrid amp to power them with (Schiit Aegir) and call it a day. They have some cheaper price than listed online so hoping to get speakers down closer to $2k… We’ll see.
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Open baffle speakers are pretty interesting, should be a fun listen
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Couldn’t end up demoing the Spatial Audio as they have supply chain problems at the moment.
Had a set of these pop up on my local classifieds:
Evett & Shaw Pesaro “Diaural” for $1500… I believe they were a high end boutique speaker company about 10 years ago.
I can find 1 user review:
One other old article from Analog Planet:
“Ray Kimber was on hand in the Evett and Shaw room to demonstrate his Diaural crossover for me. He used two pairs of E&S Pesaro speakers: one with the standard crossover, one with Diaural. Using Patricia Barber’s “Ode to Billy Joe,” the standard speaker (played first) sounded cloudy and off-timed; Barber’s finger-snaps were waterlogged, and her voice was unusually diffuse. The Diaural improvement was overwhelming, but it made me think that the standard crossover had simply not been well implemented to begin with. Nonetheless, this was an impressive demo.”
Anybody have any further experience with these speakers or heard them? Wondering if I should try to demo them or would it be a pass.
Never heard or seen them before lol. It’s an all soft dome it seems which is pretty strange, personally I wouldn’t take the risk especially with them being NOS, that would lead to suggest they didn’t sell well
Another interesting listing popped up in my local classified. We have a ton of renowned local speaker manufactures here in utah (Spatial, Tekton, Totem, Zu Audio, RBH, etc…) so we get some odds and ends pop up. The seller is listing a 1 off build where they took a $1000 bookshelf ( RBH SV-61R) and put in the drivers (inhouse beryllium woofer + ScanSpeak 9500 tweeter) from their $12k flagship bookshelf. Apparently an employee must have done a side project or they did a custom build for a customer. Just odd to do a frankenstein such as this and I understand you can’t take the drivers + crossover and throw it into a budget cabinet and expect a world beater. Thoughts? Worth a 90min to demo them?
Listing:
High End line they took the drivers from:
https://rbhsound.com/statusacoustics/vocefina_specs.php
https://rbhsound.com/statusacoustics/vocefina.php
Normal $1k product build:
https://rbhsound.com/sv61r.php