Hi all, very excited to be part of the forums!
Long time Z-reviews watcher and advice follower, I find myself at a point where I can’t make my mind up. First world problems, I have a few too many choices.
I’ll put a little bold section below that jumps to the question as this is a bit long…
To sum up the current state of my hifi journey:
-
My first set up which now lives on the desk in my room at my parents house, is a pair of Fostex T20RPs with new pads that don’t make my ears feel like they’re being trapped in a vice. Powered by a dinky litte SMSL M6. I have a feeling the M6 isn’t delivering quite enough power to the T20RPs to give me the full range they can achieve, but its a damn sight better than nothing.
-
Currently at my apartment (/office/social space/everything now) I have a pair of Hifiman Sundaras powered by a little ifi Zen Dac. Very happy with this setup, and the difference that occurred when going from running the headphones off an Audioquest Dragonfly Red was incredible. Big thumbs up.
-
I have a pair of Campfire Audio Comets, although I can’t really get on with these. Despite the glowing reviews I read, in practice the machine earbuds are just too heavy, and I can’t get them to comfortably remain sealed in my ear. I also find (and this may be because I’m spoiled by other headphones) that they react poorly to some styles of music when run directly to my phone.
-
Daily driver pair is the Sony WH-1000XM2. These were bought more out of necessity, as when I was at university in shared computer rooms, people seem to turn into gibbons and shriek constantly so the noise cancelling was essential. Wonderful headphones for daily use.
Now that you’re caught up, thank you for sticking through the epic tale that was the intro and onto my current conundrum.
To the question!
I am going to be buying my first pair of good speakers. At my parents house we’ve always had good speakers more because my dad is the kind of person that always buys quality, but it has never been a hobby of his so that is where it ended.
I have the immense privilege of earning a good living, and having no dependents, so I can spank money in slightly wanton ways at times, and so lets for arguments sake say that if I were to go all out I could spend 2000 Euros (about $2400 USD) on my setup. That would have to include: Speakers, DAC, AMP, cables and stands.
To start off, the room is quite large, for simplicity’s sake it is around 5m by 3m (16ft x 10ft) with ceilings about 3.5m (11.5ft) high. One of the trade offs for all this space is that its an old building with very little sound insulation (as evidenced by my side and upstairs neighbours). I also have a housemate to pass the visual and layout tests, but she is relatively amenable. I am likely to be able to move the speakers away from the wall when listening but they will likely be close to the wall usually.
I listen mainly to Jazz when I am on speakers (mainly because the other things I listen to don’t go down that well with the general public).
Currently the options I am looking at are:
-
Triangle Elara - Self powered removes the need for matching and buying an amp, small and non descript, nice and cheap here in Europe (comparatively to NA). Concerns being only that I know my other options I’m considering exist.
-
Buchardt S300/S400 - Both seem fantastic options, and for different reasons. I hear the S400 needs a bit more volume to be able to activate that honking rear port, and seems the S300 is a bit more of an everyman speaker, in that its more easily pleasing.
-
Wharfdale Linton Heritage - These are a bit on the big side to be able to sneak past my housemate, but with appropriate convincing it is not impossible. I love the style and the idea of a box that big makes me think (rightly or wrongly) that the sound at lower volumes will remain fuller. But its very heavily aesthetics based, and because Steve Guttenberg told me they r gud.
European lockdowns make it difficult for me to go and hear many speakers, and so on this front I’ll be glad for some collective advice.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you dearly for sticking with my rambling. It is very much appreciated and I look forward to speaking with you!
Cheers,
Phil
