Recommended Modern Speakers

I bought a pair of Bowers and Wilkins 683's a few years back. Eventually, I built an entire 5.1 system around those floor standers. I think that they provide a huge bang for the buck with balanced lows, sweet transients and terrific imaging, but they took months to break in. They do not have that scooped midrange that a lot of people who have grown up on earbuds gravitate towards; in other words the mids are present and accounted for. Based on that experience, I recently purchased a pair of CM6 S2 for my new listening space. They are just starting to sound like hi fi speakers but they still sound like someone has jacked the EQ at 6000 Hz. I'm waiting for the matching stands which should help, but if the kick drum continues to sound like someone is thumping on a king sized pillow, they will be going back. I confident that they will lose that sibilant/thuddy thing eventually, and, mind you, I am just getting started with them, so it's way to early to draw any conclusions. I'm running them "Pure Direct" through my Yamaha 2 channel intie with 100 watts/channel. I have an SVS sub to go with the new BW's, but it's out in my home theater room getting its ass kicked by T2, Batman Begins, etc. for the break in period. I will keep you posted regarding the CM6's, but I have high hopes for them.
 
I have the Pioneer FS-52 (floor stander version of BS-22) and while they are great budget speakers - really great - they are lacking in high end. I run them with speakers A plus B with my Mirage bookshelves to add to the high end and I love the result.

I auditioned a bunch of speakers in store and found the Monitor Silver tower speakers to be my favorites a few years back out of the many I listened to (beat out Paradigms for eg.). I have not hear the Elacs though.
 
Update on the new Bowers and Wilkins CM6 S2's--They have settled in nicely! I added the SVS SB2000 500 watt sub into the system. The highs have really mellowed and the mids are exceptionally punchy. Black Celebration 24/96 PCM sounds gorgeous as do all of my old vinyl records. Definitely keepers. Imaging is good, but not as jaw dropping as my bigger 683 floor standers in my home theater room. The revelation is just how good the 600 series towers really are when compared to the CM stand mounters. But the CM's with the tweeter on top shine like diamonds in the high end, and sibilants, hats, and ride cymbals sound like they are in the room. Vocals, especially Steven Stills/Chris Hillman on the Manassas double vinyl LP have authority and subtle detail that I never noticed on my old system. I understand why Ronnie and Howie Albert's Helios desk was first call for a lot of musicians in the 70's. Outstanding.
 
One last thought on the new BW CM6 S2's: I listen to a lot of prog and classic rock. Listening to Steve Howe's guitar work on an original vinyl disc of Close to the Edge was quite an "ah ha" moment for me. Guitar tone might be a subjective issue, but I think that any guitarist or enthusiast would approve of how the BW's handle Howe's explosive upper mid focused Gibson ES175 through a clean Fender amp. Also, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's guitars on Toys in the Attic from the DSD release hits like a jackhammer being pummeled with a wrecking ball. I swear that I can hear "cone cry" from the speaker cabs that, heretofore, I only experienced at the Hollywood Bowl in 2012 (2013?). Anyway, those little BW's are rock and roll speakers, but they do require a good sub for the full rocker-approved effect.
 
The B&W usually need a lot of juice, they open up with high current amplifiers,
100w/ channel Yamaha may not be the best..
 
Monitor audio silver series. Unreal sound smooth bass. I run through a 2001 model year technics sa 1050 ex mosfett amp ...super sound. 3 years and still no desire to add anything. Just run the two for my theater. And blown away.

I have the RX6, and I agree, they are really really nice. And they look very good, real veneer.
I'm running them with my Marantz PM8005 and different restored vintage amps.

The RX6 do bass very well, very articulate, not boomy. I don't think they will overpower a smaller room, they are more about quality than quantity.

Missed out on these which were on eBay recently. Incredibly attractive speakers. Or is it just the photography?

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For budget bookshelves, I think the PSB Alpha B1 is a terrific speaker... They are no longer the "new hotness" in that crowded segment of the market, with the buzz more recently around Elac etc. But 8 months ago, I paid a whopping $170 on a nearly new pair for my secondary system... and my kitchen is rockin'!
At the $2k mark, I can't really find fault w/ my new Ryan R610s. After 200 hrs of break-in, and about 10-15 hrs of subsequent listening in a tough room (acoustic treatments still very much a work in progress) they are pretty amazing. And I really like their understated cosmetics. if they were a musician, they wouldn't be a flashy frontman. They'd be the behind the scenes (but in demand) session player, who walks into the studio... kills it in one take... and moves on to the next session.
 
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I started with Wharfedale Jade 5. Sweet sound, amazing bass articulation, immense power and unbelievably easy on the ears. Often go overlooked but their overall sound is amazing.
I sold them to a friend and got the new Heco Direkt. What can i say? Almost everything else, i mean other speakers, now sound lifeless. There is a speed and attack i never knew it's possible. The bass extension is huge, it rattles and shakes my large room 35 m2 with 3.5 high ceiling). The mids are very "direkt" and the highs are from another world. The overall sound is not clinical or fatiguing but there is an incredible
 
I started with Wharfedale Jade 5. Sweet sound, amazing bass articulation, immense power and unbelievably easy on the ears. Often go overlooked but their overall sound is amazing.
I sold them to a friend and got the new Heco Direkt, in black. What can i say? Almost everything else, i mean other speakers, now sound lifeless. There is a speed and attack i never knew it's possible. The bass extension is huge, very deep, it rattles and shakes my large room 35 m2 with 3.5 high ceiling). The mids are very "direkt" and the highs are from another world. The overall sound is not clinical or fatiguing but there is an incredible amount of detail. The music is presented in a whole different manner compared to the usual modern speakers.
And they go very, very loud without effort and most important, without any sign of distortion. they don't bring the artist into the room but they do kind off make you believe you are there.
The Direkts need a warmer amplifier I believe. It sounds great with my Audiolab 8200CDQ pre-amp and 2 x Audiolab 8200M monoblocks but I tried them with an old Kenwood on mosfets and sounded much better. the detail and speed still there but the sound became somehow fuller and more rounded.

I also recommend the Spendor A5. I have a pair of these in Walnut finish. There is no other speaker in my opinion that sound as sweet as this one. I swap between the Direkt and A5 every now and then just for fun and for the sake of a change. The best I heard from Spendor A5 was when driven by a Sugden A21SE in a medium to large room (about 20-24 m2) at a dealer shop.

sorry for duble posting but the first one was from my phone and something crashed midway
 
Monitor audio silver series. Unreal sound smooth bass. I run through a 2001 model year technics sa 1050 ex mosfett amp ...super sound. 3 years and still no desire to add anything. Just run the two for my theater. And blown away.

Agreed. My number 1 multi-channel systems are anchored by the Silver 8. In one system I use the Silver Center and in the other a Silver 6 as the center channel. Am just about to pair vintage late 70's Sony and Sansui high powered receivers with a pair of Silver 6's and a pair of Silver 2's. That should be fun.
 
Sometimes hard to find but worth the effort. Opera Loudspeakers made in Italy. Recommended by Sam Tellig when he was reviewing for Stereophile.
 
Could you please expand? Many thanks.

I own a set of 590's. It's one of Greg Timber's designs. Recently they were on sale for $499 each, (2 for 1) so it was a no brainer. The dual 8" drivers do a great job of getting the low frequencies done well for the design of the cabinet. At 70 lbs each, they are a substantial floor standing model. The vertical bi-radial horn with the compression driver makes a wonderful coverage for high dynamics. It's a very good sounding speaker model.
 
I own a set of 590's. It's one of Greg Timber's designs. Recently they were on sale for $499 each, (2 for 1) so it was a no brainer. The dual 8" drivers do a great job of getting the low frequencies done well for the design of the cabinet. At 70 lbs each, they are a substantial floor standing model. The vertical bi-radial horn with the compression driver makes a wonderful coverage for high dynamics. It's a very good sounding speaker model.

Many thanks for sharing your views on these speakers!
 
After reading the stereophile review of the wharfedale diamond 225 (and hearing a comparative youtube sound demo *no retailers in the state where i live* ) i decided to get a pair.
While they are not as fast or as extended in the highs as my old sonus faber concertinos, they are very enjoyable. They are abit more relaxed - and the presentation is abit further back. They are also not as critical with bad recordings. Thankfully, while it was abit of a gamble i did a get a good deal on these. They are not unnaturally detailed or super forward. In the right setup it is a very good sounding speaker. For me these are keepers.
 
You seem to be much of the same opinion of the Stereophile reviewer who said:

"Conclusions
Every day I listened to the Wharfedale Diamond 225s, part of me wanted to write, "Hey, these new speakers are nice, musical, even-tempered, and easy to live with. But they're nothing special. They're not designed in a wizard's shack behind a British row house and manufactured in some quaint Station Road factory with a pub down the way." I almost wished I could say, "The 225s were created by some secret war-room consortium of Dr. Strangelove imperialists," or to declare something like, "They play music just pleasantly enough—in a general, average sort of way—to fool the scruffy underclasses."

But none of it was true."

https://www.stereophile.com/content/wharfedale-diamond-225-loudspeaker
 
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