Floorstanding Loudspeaker Reccomendations

[Gabehcuod]

I am looking to purchase a pair of floor-standing speakers to compliment my bookshelves.

My current speakers are System Audio Pandion 2.

 

I don't have any experience with floor-standing speakers (been in the hobby for less then 3 years, and so far it's been bookshelves on my desk in a bedroom).

We're having a house built, so I'll have a dedicated listening room roughly 4m x 6m. (Possibly slightly different, if i find more acoustically favorable  dimensions).

 

Based on my personal research i have arrived at either magnepan 1.7i or  Q Acoustics Concept 500.
Budget is firmly under $5k AUD as I'm a student.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Al.M]

If you havnt seen there is a tagged speaker audition shortlist in the forum. The Magnepan should be a good choice, however there are many other choices to your Q speakers, which are also full 3 way driver design instead of 2 way driver that can have better midrange voice and detail as a result such as Dynaudio, Spendor, Krix, Legend, Focal 826 etc.

 

Used options can put you in the range of Proac, ATC40, Harbeth, VAF I66 / I93 Audio Physic and others.

 

Audition with your amp is needed to see if they match the speaker to make sure.

[Peter_F]

2 hours ago, Gabehcuod said:

We're having a house built, so I'll have a dedicated listening room roughly 4m x 6m.

With this size room and the  Accuphase P400 I think Gale GS401 speakers would work very well. 

[sir sanders zingmore]

9 hours ago, Gabehcuod said:

magnepan 1.7i or  Q Acoustics Concept 500.

two very different speakers - have you listened to them?

[Bill125812]

I’ve been pretty impressed with the latest Wharfdale offerings.  I have bookshelf’s at the moment. Linton, 4.1’s and 4.2.   I would certainly consider auditioning the Wharfdale  4.3 and 4.4’s if I was getting some floorstanders 

[Addicted to music]

3 minutes ago, Bill125812 said:

I’ve been pretty impressed with the latest Wharfdale offerings.  I have bookshelf’s at the moment. Linton, 4.1’s and 4.2.   I would certainly consider auditioning the Wharfdale  4.3 and 4.4’s if I was getting some floorstanders 

The Lintons Classic are an easy speaker to listen to.....   

 

I had the 1.7 in a 5x7m room.....  You’ll need a sub if you want to go down this path for it to work.  They tax the room and need to be away from the wall to breathe.     I’ve listen and compare to the next version 3.7 and I can assure you there’s bugger difference and not worth the extra cash,  the 1.7 is a great entry to the flat planar world....  I had them for 2yrs in hope that “burn-in “ would get them better, well comparing to my DIY “burn-in” is a load of crock! Switching back to the DIY ribbons after 2 yrs had ensured it doesn’t exist..    If you take something home, make sure it sounds right to you in your gear in your space,  if it doesn’t move it on.  “burn-in “ is an excuse so you adjust and make allowances for it.   The 1.7 aren’t exactly efficient either, and will tax on amplifier,  more power; better!    

[Ruffter]

28 minutes ago, Bill125812 said:

I’ve been pretty impressed with the latest Wharfdale offerings.  I have bookshelf’s at the moment. Linton, 4.1’s and 4.2.   I would certainly consider auditioning the Wharfdale  4.3 and 4.4’s if I was getting some floorstanders 

@Bill125812, how do you find the difference between the 4.1 and 4.2 out of interest?

 

cheers,

Andrew

[Bill125812]

38 minutes ago, Ruffter said:

@Bill125812, how do you find the difference between the 4.1 and 4.2 out of interest?

 

cheers,

Andrew

They are both good. But the added midrange of the 4.2’s certainly gives them more depth.  And the larger cabinet lets them go a bit lower.  Very impressive speaker for the price 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Bill125812

[Gabehcuod]

5 hours ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

two very different speakers - have you listened to them?

I have not. Only speaker's i've ever demo'ed were some sonus faber at len wallis. Wasn't too impressed with the sound.
Exams will be over in two weeks, so I might try to make the journey to a dealer.

There's one dealer nearby that sells the Q acoustics (lifestylestore), but I don't know if they offer demos. Seems like there's too many speakers for them to have all available for audition.
The distributor/dealer for maggies is pretty far though, likely wouldn't be able to travel that far easily, with the current situation.

[Gabehcuod]

4 hours ago, Addicted to music said:

The Lintons Classic are an easy speaker to listen to.....   

 

I had the 1.7 in a 5x7m room.....  You’ll need a sub if you want to go down this path for it to work.  They tax the room and need to be away from the wall to breathe.     I’ve listen and compare to the next version 3.7 and I can assure you there’s bugger difference and not worth the extra cash,  the 1.7 is a great entry to the flat planar world....  I had them for 2yrs in hope that “burn-in “ would get them better, well comparing to my DIY “burn-in” is a load of crock! Switching back to the DIY ribbons after 2 yrs had ensured it doesn’t exist..    If you take something home, make sure it sounds right to you in your gear in your space,  if it doesn’t move it on.  “burn-in “ is an excuse so you adjust and make allowances for it.   The 1.7 aren’t exactly efficient either, and will tax on amplifier,  more power; better!    

Yeah, if i were do to it, I'd take the longer wall (6M) then set them 2M apart, and ~1M from side walls. Then sit 2M away, with them 1M away from rear wall. Not sure how well that would work out though.
In terms of bass, I was thinking of getting the bass modules they make. As i understand, its not easy to blend slow dynamic driver woofers with fast, planar speakers.
My experience with electrostatics is from owning vintage stax headphones (207, 404LE, SR5G). So I've learnt to enjoy deep, clean, quality bass at the expense of quantity.

[sir sanders zingmore]

7 minutes ago, Gabehcuod said:

My experience with electrostatics is from owning vintage stax headphones (207, 404LE, SR5G). So I've learnt to enjoy deep, clean, quality bass at the expense of quantity.

technically Maggies are not electrostatic (but they are more similar to electrostatics than they are to 'box' speakers).

You'll get clean, quality bass but you won't get deep (they don't go any deeper than your current bookshelves). 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Maggies and assuming your amp is up to it, the 1.7is are astoundingly good value. But do try to listen before you buy because the comparison with Stax headphones is tenuous. I have Stax SR404s and they are brilliant but I wouldn't say they are particularly close to the sound of Maggies

Edited August 9, 2020 by sir sanders zingmore

[Wayne Elliott]

@Gabehcuod  You have System Audio Bookshelves. Have you considered SA Floorstanders? Depending on your musical preferences/ presentation you prefer, the SA Ranger Masters are outstanding for the $3k run out price. Very fast with great attack these are a Good Speaker for there full retail let alone the Clearance Price. They'll blow the Maggies to the shizenhausen. They really excel at Rock 'n' Roll and love High Current Amps.. The SA Pandion 20's are at your budget and are ok. Different to the Ranger Masters with an airier, more refined Sound but not the speed of the RM's. The QA Concept 500's you are considering are different again and worth considering if you can get under 5K.

[Snoopy8]

On 08/08/2020 at 10:39 PM, Gabehcuod said:

Based on my personal research i have arrived at either magnepan 1.7i 

What about these?

 

 

[buddyev]

You really need to audition speakers. This is specially true with maggies. they are very different beasts.

What kind of music do you listen to? 
 

The 1.7  are incredible bang for the buck BUT you have to want that they offer you. If you set them up and drive them properly you will get a superb midrange and a wonderful sense of space from them. 

But even with the bass panels you’re not likely to get the kind of dynamics or wallop that a good cone speaker can give you. 
 

for $5 k you will get something really good used and won’t lose much if you want to try something else.  I’d watch the classifieds.

Edited August 18, 2020 by buddyev

[legselevens]

@Gabehcuod

 

I have the .7 magnepans that have been in storage for the last 4 years. They were used for about 5 months maybe less before having to store them. I've been thinking I should sell them so pm me if you're interested. They're in Melbourne in original packaging. I bought them from Audio Trends in Ringwood.

[Gazer01]

Just to chime in with the topic. I am also in the hunt for a floorstander and I've audition several brand models. The ones that I've auditioned were Wizard S6 - I'm impressed by the treble output, sweet and not harsh to my ears but I feel that the bass is not punchy enough for my preference. Then there's the Focal Chora 826 which was very coherent in all frequencies to my taste but just a bit impressed. Next is the Monitor Audio old Silver version of the 300. I was initially impressed with the detail retrieval  but it has a tendency to become bright sounding (I can now confirm that I'll never be a fan of metal dome tweeters). And then there's the Krix Phoenix mk2. The Krix complied with all my preference i.e. big sound, sweet highs and punchy and deep bass. The mids were not forward sounding but dwell on the slightly warm side of neutral. Now I'm just waiting for the Phoenix to be done as it's on a made to order basis. Hope that helps a bit.

[Esoterica]

On 29/08/2020 at 12:39 PM, Gazer01 said:

Then there's the Focal Chora 826 which was very coherent in all frequencies to my taste but just a bit impressed.

Can you explain please? Do you mean the 826 only impressed you a little?

 

I've been comparing speakers and that model just came into my calculations, and I'd actually one of the leaders, but I haven't heard them. I've only heard "virtual" Kef Q750, 950 & R500, MA Bronze 6, Silver 200, 300 & 500 and a few others. IMO the Kefs (mainly higher models but only slightly) had better clarity and were hard to differentiate from the Silver 500. The main diff between Q750 and 950 were the extra power of the latter.

 

Out of all of those the Kefs are at a better price point than the MA, being around a grand more than Q950 & R500 (used), and almost twice the cost of Q750. The Focal 826 are priced between the two Q's.

Edited September 3, 2020 by Esoterica

[2Brix]

On 09/08/2020 at 6:48 AM, Bill125812 said:

I’ve been pretty impressed with the latest Wharfdale offerings.  I have bookshelf’s at the moment. Linton, 4.1’s and 4.2.   I would certainly consider auditioning the Wharfdale  4.3 and 4.4’s if I was getting some floorstanders 

+1 for that IMO.  A few weeks ago i happened to walk into a store demo in progress with the 4.3 floorstanders hooked up to a Luxman integrated (i didn't take note of which model amp,  but likely in the 6-10K range) with a full res streaming source and the soundstage and SQ was... impressive...and especially at that price point (about half of the OP's stated maximum speaker budget).  Seriously worth a listen, with quality amplification 

Edited September 3, 2020 by 2Brix

[gwurb]

On 17/08/2020 at 11:30 PM, initforthemusic said:

@Gabehcuod  You have System Audio Bookshelves. Have you considered SA Floorstanders? Depending on your musical preferences/ presentation you prefer, the SA Ranger Masters are outstanding for the $3k run out price. Very fast with great attack these are a Good Speaker for there full retail let alone the Clearance Price. They'll blow the Maggies to the shizenhausen. They really excel at Rock 'n' Roll and love High Current Amps.. The SA Pandion 20's are at your budget and are ok. Different to the Ranger Masters with an airier, more refined Sound but not the speed of the RM's. The QA Concept 500's you are considering are different again and worth considering if you can get under 5K.

I saw that Rio have Pandion 20 at $5K, Pandion 30 at $8K, and Pandion 50 at $7K. That tells me there may be an option to negotiate Pandion 30 down by at least $1K.

[fergal m]

Go have a listen to the Q Acoustic Concept 500s at Lifestyle. Quite different to the Maggie’s and you won’t need to compensate for bass.  Bring plenty of your fave music though because you can go for hours. After being a Kef fan for years for their clarity I found the Q’s rich low end and their lack of brightness (while still plenty detailed) won me over. Whack some of Bill’s cables in your setup too as they are vice chancellor quality for student prices.