What are the best passive speakers with $20000-$30000 budget

[Ralf11]

you try the Carver Amazingly Expensive Line Source speakers...

[Ralf11]

I am with you on room aesthetics, but there are some room treatments that are designed to look like art prints.

 

Also, a fake Ficus plant of bamboo will act like a diffusor at higher freq.s - not sure if very effective however.

 

I have not tried them myself as I prefer to figure out what's going on before just randomly buying & trying stuff.

[Guf Gufler]

I would not want to talk you out of getting any Salk design. I had 3 pairs in my house at one time including the SS8s. They were wonderful for me and Jim Salk is the best person I have ever dealt with in the audio scene.  I recently heard some 40,000 dollar(used) Wilson something, and yes they looked like they were going to attack me, but the sound from them was in a different league than the Salk. I'm not sure if i'd choose the Wilsons over the Salks to be my daily drivers but they were really special. I have completely going a different direction with high efficiency and low powered amps but your search sounds exciting. good luck!

[Ralf11]

BTW, you might want to read thru the Odyssey -- no, not that one, the one by @Johnseye

 

He traveled all over to find the best speaker 

[Johnseye]

On 4/6/2017 at 6:07 PM, Silly goose said:

Thanks I'll check them out. I'm going to do a country wide tour visiting speaker factories and auditioning right in their showrooms. This is why they must be made in the USA. Well that and I like to support American companies. 

 

What about Canadian companies?

[Ralf11]

eh?

[TubeLover]

On 4/28/2017 at 3:42 PM, Ralf11 said:

you try the Carver Amazingly Expensive Line Source speakers...

 

Having auditioned these under both less than ideal, and also optimum conditions, I honestly do not find them overly expensive for what they deliver. If I were looking in the $15-25K range, these would be under serious consideration! Superb support too. 

 

JC

[erniejade]

So far everything mentioned has been fantastic suggestions. Tyler Acoustics would be another one. I used to have a set of the Taylo Reference Monitor and the optional bass units that had 4 8" drivers in each of the bass units. Even without the bass units attached, they still had a nice sound to them and if you can find them on the used market, even better.  I know he is making new version of them but, I have not gotten my ears on them and also do not know if they are using the same components.  I have also read some good reviews on his H4's but again, I have not gotten my ears on them.

 

As said in other replies, Salk makes some fantastic stuff! 

[TimU]

How about Martin Logan? They are based in Kansas, although I believe some manufacturing is done in Canada. The Renaissance model is their brand new top of the line hybrid electrostatic. It would look great in a family room setting like you describe, and it probably sounds terrific. 

[Ralf11]

Sound Lab?

 

Maggie 20.7?

 

Quad?

 

Plasma speakers...??

[The Computer Audiophile]

Anyone see the new Quad at the Munich show?

[Norton]

How about a pair of Klipschorns?  If you really want to spend at least $20k I'm sure you could persuade  Klipsch to take the extra $8k off you and donate it to charity.

[NipperDog]

How about the KEF Blades?

[NipperDog]

1 hour ago, Route 66 said:

How about the KEF Blades?

http://us.kef.com/blade

[ecwl]

On 2017-05-23 at 11:13 AM, Johnseye said:

 

What about Canadian companies?

Paradigm Persona actually sounds very promising. Only listened to the Persona 3. Very impressed. 

[Johnseye]

16 minutes ago, ecwl said:

Paradigm Persona actually sounds very promising. Only listened to the Persona 3. Very impressed. 

 

Yup, great speakers.  The Persona 9H could be what the OP is looking for.