Your amp & DAC combo are good sound quality, would the GR research be a possibility? Even w/ customs the price is very palletable for something custom and of better quality than most off the shelf products 
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You see how trumps doing some nasty stuff to you guys with tariffs?
We are also getting a terrible treatment 
The only way I could get anything from GR research without getting tax scammed is by using a proxy, which I could but im currently not able.
LGK 2.1 Kit Pair is > $1300usd, Shipping is $800, to that we add the taxes which are 20% including shipping (this goes to the IRS) and the we add 8% to customs. Then because this import is over 2k usd we pay a flat $400 tax to a worker we call the “Customs Agent” every month if we own a business.
Thats $3120 dollars 
Yes there are better ways to import from the USA, using a proxy but I currently cant for personal reasons.
IM HALFWAY DONE WITH MY LIST OF SPEAKER OPTIONS, IT WILL HAVE TO BE ONE FROM THAT LIST
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What are you talking about? Tariffs are going to make everyone in the US rich. We’re going to be able to finally pay for that wall to keep Mexicans out since Mexico didn’t pay for it back the last time around.
Now the price of my beloved mezcal… that’s going to be an issue.
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I know the feel all too well. I usually have to take any cost in usd and multiply that by X 11-13 to 1 usd to get my whereabouts cost.
The Vista audio Zest I bought at $570 was just over 1k when it got to me.
Weight is also another factor SVS subs cost as much as RELs if not higher. The heavier RELs will dwarf SVS prices though.
Customs are proper leeches over here.
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Back in February I stated that after 2 weeks of non-stop 24hr play I felt my new Lowther DX-65 drivers should have been broken in. I was wrong, the one driver would sporadically and completely randomly w/ no rhyme or reason I could figure out sound crappy for a song or 2 and then sound normal again for a while. It took me a few weeks to rule out the possibility of a bad tube, connection or cable which is always an annoyingly slow process that sucks the life and joy out of me 
After 4+ months and now easily close to 500+ hrs I’m keeping my fingers crossed that both drivers have finally broken in properly. I have not heard any annoying discrepancies in sound for a while now and I’m keeping my fingers crossed we are over the hump of break-in. I swear if I hear another crackle or grind I’m pulling the damn transducer and shipping it to England to be re-built. I know these things are particularly delicate but my patience is starting to wear thin 
The lesson of the day is buy your speakers used when you can and let someone else deal w/ burning them in 
save your sanity and nerves.
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The prices may seem quite steep but im willing to pay up, this are mexican tariffs.
Im a big time HEADPHONEs COLLECTOR this is important because:
A 2ch is quite Expensive, I’d like something supremely enjoyable, no audiophile would be happy even as a Can Collector after spending at minimum 1k on a 2ch system. Ill probably just get the subwoofer(s) later given my budget.
☆-I do around 95% of my critical listening on headphones-☆
The Speakers are for having fun, and boy do I love having fun on my klipsch rp600m.
I removed the room acoustic info cause in the end thats my problem to solve.
Current Chain
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Transport/PC > Supra Excalibur (will be upgraded!) > Matrix XSPDIF3 w/ ifi Elite SMPS > Morrow Audio DIG3 AES > Exogal Comet Plus with Upgraded LPS and WyWyres umbilical > AudioQuest Carbon to the PowerDAC (poweramp) > Morrow SP2 Speaker Cables to Klipsch r600m > Morrow MA3 to Edifier 70w 8" subwoofers (These subs just got sold and the Klipsch are already reserved.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Even tho theyre overpriced theres quite a bit of options to pick from, just not the ones you guys always reccommend as band for buck like GR Research and ELAC. But I will put some other very good picks!
I removed what I had before cause im comfirming prices and trying to list only things that trully catch my eye!
Im very used to 6.5" woofer speakers, could 5" or 5.5" be a detriment to my enjoyment?
Is Kali Audio any good?
- Audioengine
$455> S8 Subwoofer 250w 8" - I really liked this one shame im tryina avoid subs.
$683> HDP6 Passive Speakers, 2 way, 4ohm, 5.5" woofers. These just look rather nice for the price but hadn’t had the chance to try them. HDP6 Passive Speakers — Audioengine
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I Will keep editing some options Today as I keep finding them. Ill probably just get the speakers that seem the best RIGHT THIS WEEKEND
2ch is a lot tougher than I thought and I already thought it was though
theres a bunch of speakers that might work in my room with the way my klipsch are configured, and then some bad positioning could lead to a stressfull disaster.
(Specially since I plan to get the subwoofer(s) later)
Im now continuing to update the post above :)
I had a very erough week, a ton of work and stress, and then I had my first convulsions, I lost the ability to speak, walk, move properly and I got an MR at the hospital, my brain is fine it seems it was allergy some meds.
So ill try my best to organize my previous post, and also add all my doubts and assumptions there. Thanks!
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For those looking at used products, especially from other parts of the world, The 6 MOONS archive library, reference link:
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So a lot of things went down, I was stressed by work and also sick, so instead of updating what I saw and asking for opinions I crossed referenced reviews online and I tried out the 3 “showrooms” that exist here which are terribly acoustically set up.
I had previously heard Klipsch rp600, rp600m and rp600m2 in different spaces.
I even considered at some point just going from rp600m to rp600m2 but that would be lame.
I had tried the Focal Chora 806 once before and it was nice but I can’t remember that well, it wasn’t properly set up and I wasn’t impressed.
However a friend of mine got a very well set up Focal Chora 816 listening room.
I heard it many times with a nice Rotel amp and a… Zen Dac V1, maybe an IFI Gryphon and a douk u2 DDC.
It did fill the room with very nice sound. The owners moving out of town and he wanted $2.5k and I was at most $1.7k interested on those, they weren’t really what I want for a change, I do love the focal sound a lot but I was preferably looking for bookshelves unless the towers were too good to pass.
On a random hi fi store in a mall near my house:
It was a medium sized room crowded by products, some very nice source gear and some good speakers, no crazy ones.
I could try the triangle brand, they were AMAZING
-Triangle Esprit Comete EZ $2.1k
I was amazed, I loved Triangle’s signature and they sound as pretty as they look.
And 2 very nice towers:
-Triangle Antal 202 $2.8k
Very very nice sound but can’t remember, room too crowded.
-Triangle Borea br08 $2.3k
Which I think is actually a nice price for these on a hifi store. I did think this was very solid.
From reviews, I heard the budget one to get
-Triangle Borea br03 was $900
This quickly became one of my main contenders, I loved the looks, the signature and the price.
While I was on it I kept getting suggested and review bombed on the ELAC Debut 3.0 db63 for $1050, these are supposed to be the “these do everything right on a budget” of bookshelves so I Kept them in mind.
Back on the random hi fi store:
-KLH Concord $1.4k - Also dont remember, sounded ok, no selling points to me.
They some random Polk Towers I didn’t hear, I knew Polk Towers could be “very nice complete sound for the price” from a Jay’s Iyagi video on the Polk r700 Towers, which were impressively good, with massive sound.
With a little research it seems though the better models were the aforementioned towers and the Polk r200 bookshelves, which quickly caught my eye were $900 on Amazon when I was buying, but the same listing today is $780.
It was basically impossible to test subwoofers here.
All were 10" subs, most came from an incomplete home theater, I lost most of their names and they looked really bad anyway.
OSD IWS10 200w peak, for mounting on walls and at a ridiculous $700
Klipsch sw110 450w peak $750
Ive heard some good things about Klipsch subwoofers’ don’t know where
Other than Klipsch IDK I had this “good subwoofer brand” list idk where I got from, the brands to look for were: REL (supposedly the best), SVS, KEF, Focal.
Maybe Dayton Should have made it? You can get Dayton here but you need a dealer.
Also Sonos kept ad bombing me with their sub 4, which has a wonky design, small but powerful and like a thousand 5 star reviews on amazon.
I did consider this sub, even on youtube people seemed to like it and they do seem decent but I realized its just an overpriced ($800) mass market product.
Now lets go elsewhere:
The only other hifi store in town is part of a large department store.
They had 2 real listening rooms but told me almost everything got sold on the previous “special sale”
First, let’s talk Monitor Audio, I never in my life thought I would like this brand for absolutely no reason, I think there’s some thrash talk of the brand’s consumers on random spanish forums.
-Monitor Audio Bronze 50 shelves $450
Very clean, better than expected, and good staging with balanced frequencies.
-Monitor Audio Bronze 200 towers $1750
I was a kinda mindblown; very clean, very clear, the detail was great even for the overprice.
I loved the treble presentation and how the highs were placed around the room, how the mids had a bunch of tact and the soundstaging was very good. I also noticed they were set on a rather tall “platform/base”.
The price sucked here but I could get them elsewhere for $1150
I actually considered them, which meant a lot to me because I would really prefer bookshelves, but they had 2 big issues:
-
they’re very small in stature which wouldn’t fit my room well. I don’t actually know how much or if this is a real problem, I’m just assuming tweeters should be close to ear height.
-
After hearing that and I would want the next tier of towers they had, which were the Silver 200 (not on store), but they had the same low stature problem and didn’t sound nearly as good a pick for the $2.5k-3.3k they were (there seemed to be different gens?)
As for the brand itself, Monitor Audio Bookshelves plus a subwoofer never even crossed my mind, the towers sounded how liked, it wasnt the same.
There were also like, several bad looking subwoofers set away not for sale for some reason.
They also gaslit me into thinking Polk Audio r700 towers were $4.5k a pair or close to that; when way later I found out they can be had for 2.7k (but those really weren’t what I wanted for my room anyway).
The store had nothing left of interest, except for a pair of $4.5k Martin Logan ESL the tall electrostatic ones, but I think their Yamaha integrated didn’t have enough power or they couldn’t get them to sound good for some reason. So I left.
So I resorted to watching a ton of videos and it happened.
The KEF LS50 Meta seemed to check all the boxes on the sound I wanted for my room based on cross referencing reviews and that guy that measures like 300 angles of a room with a spinning machine.
Oh no im one of those guys, its obviously not the same as listening myself but every review, something about them just checked, as If it was the perfect succesor for the Klipsch I had.
Then I started to watch more and more, reviews, comparisons, etc.
In my mind, I could be making this up but I think the LS50 Meta haven’t had an update for a long time, and I saw the Focal Theva N1 for $1k and I thought they looked so pretty and saw what seemed to me there were several new focals.
Theres also the price dropping Q150 Meta and Q350 Meta which literally seem like small LS50s, these seem very good cause I can get that signature for way less money.
Then theres the newer ones Q1, Q3 and Q Concerto, again cant know for sure but these ones seem to be moving away from the “sound” direction that drew me to the older models.
After seeing the Theva N1 I thought, can we get a bit higher and the green Aria Evo x N1 for $2350 was the one available in Amazon and I thought DAMN is this an art piece. Also loved the green.
I would like to hear some more about other popular offerings like the Whaferdale linton but its not available here. Same with the Buchardt s400mkii.
Oh god I wish we had GR research, Zu and Tekton 
Audio dealers please.
There was a nicely priced Polk r200 on the local market, but as much as I like the few polks ive heard I dont think it was what was looking for in my room.
The department store I was talking about before and their employees totally gaslit me into thinking prices were way lower than they actually were because of some fathers day discounts.
Basically the prices were being shown with the highest discount available and you would think that was the base price and there was a list of discounts for every product and I asked If that discount was added on top of the shown price, they told me yes, it was not lol.
PSB T65 towers came to sight - crazy discount. But I couldnt find any unpaid promotion so I quickly ignored them.
So in the end I went with something rather “conservative” price wise.
I was paying KEF Q350 bookshelves + KEF Cube 10", I cant recall their costs individually but had the discounts worked the way they told me, the shelves + sub would have been $1300
Then the price came up and it was $2050 LOL, I was like, wait wtf happened?
I immediately went to amazon, and learned something super key.
SVS that had never before been available in mexico now was, I now knew which brand my sub was gonna be.
I thought I could get away with an SB1000 pro as I always put my previous subs’ knobs very very low, god bless I didnt make this mistake.
I calculated my room size in m³ and knew I needed the SB2000 pro even for lower volumes. Now that ive heard it, yeah, I did need the SVS SB2000 pro (got it for $1300)
SVS also had their great bookshelves according to everyone who heard them, the $1500 Ultra Evo.
Which was one of my main candidates.
The others ones were KEF Q3 Meta or LS50 Meta, the Triangle BR03, the ELAC Debut 3 db63 and The Focal Aria Evo X N1.
And I found a Legit Audio store that had a promo for the Aria Evo X N1 at $2000 so I ended up going for that.
Really by the end it was a battle in my mind between focal Aria Evo X N1 and the KEF LS50 Meta.
Thats about it. The SVS arrived a week ago and the speakers arrived yesterday and im hooking them up today. Gonna need to get some decent speaker cables as soon as im not broke anymore.
Picture on the what you got recently thread.
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How do we know when a speaker is going to be too big for the given listening space/situation? Are there any guides to work within?
I’m pondering moving from my gershman studio 2 to the gershman grand avant garde but concerned about how I listen/my space to know if this is going to be an upgrade or open a whole new can of worms.
At the moment my studio 2s are setup 45cm from the rear wall, 1.8m between drivers and 2.3m to my listening position - to me this is not quite near field but also near field.
I have no treatment and this setup is in the middle of an 8x8m general purpose room with a tall sloped ceiling - the current setup sounds great.
The driver for considering the gag is the studios on stands are very imposing in the room. The gag would end up been shorter and less “volume” than the studio - their trapezoidal shape helps heaps.
My biggest concern is whether the gag would be coherent (imaging etc) at my listening distance or if it’s always going to be a game of trade offs.
Is this a fair concern or just yolo it and enjoy?
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Fair concern and it might require an adjustment of seating area and possibly position of the speakers themselves. Your room dimensions though are a good size and on the larger size. Moving from smaller to larger speakers in such a situation works to your advantage in my own experience so i believe you have little negative consequences to worry about. Good luck amd let us know how it goes 
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If you’re in an 8X8 M room and you’re only allocating this much space to your speakers, I’d venture to guess that you’re not getting half of what those speakers can do for you. That is NOT very much room between your drivers and most speakers, unless they’re designed to sit close to a rear wall will benefit by leaps and bounds if you pull them out from the rear call, 1 M is where I’d start with those.
Don’t think about upgrading your speakers until you place them 2.5 M apart and 1 M from the rear wall, then change your seating position to suit.
Even if you have to move shit around, you’ll get a sense of what’s possible. Once you know that, you can make an informed decision that won’t be “wrong” because you’ll know what sort of sound you’ll be getting.
Just for comparison, my room is 10’ x 12’ (you do the conversion to meters) and they’re about 33" from the rear wall and about 7’ apart driver to driver.
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Thankyou, that’s what I was thinking to some degree.
The room while large is the home office with a desk in each corner and some bookshelves so while a large space I am limited to placement.
Depth wise I can pull them out when listening but can’t make them wider sadly.
As much as I want to checkout the gag Im thinking the studio are a safer option for now + their sealed design aids in their unoptimized placement.
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I took the time to read up on your current speakers and the larger models you are considering, maybe for future purchase. Personally i believe you would be doing yourself and the funds spent on the larger models a massive injustice if you can’t make the effort to dedicate the room and seating position to them so their attributes can shine through. The monitors are built to be used the way you have them now and can offer you maximum performance with far less dedicated space. The Grand Avant Garde per their own words, “ Grande Avant Garde do big, do bass and do imaging.“ if you are not dedicated to getting the extra out of them why waste the money
I’m feeling your choice is best 
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