Hi all
I'm throwing this one out to the gurus for guidance on some good-speakers-on-a-shoestring budget, please.
My wife has a vintage early 1970s Rotel RA-210 amp that she has owned for about three decades and loves dearly. It is performing very nicely after a recent service but there is no escaping the fact that its output is very modest (well under 10W / channel RMS). https://www.hifiengine.com/database/hifi_database.php?model_type=amp&make=Rotel&mdl=RA-210
It seems to have that Rotel characteristic of good current reserve, and I haven't observed any clipping on the DALI Concept 2 standmount speakers that it is currently feeding. Nonetheless it would be nice to hear the Rotel show itself through some speakers with higher efficiency and can give a bit more volume without cranking the amp, and which have a nice balance for jazz, rock, blues and orchestral music, mostly from LP and CD.
Our budget for the new-to-me set of speakers is <$500 if possible (maybe can scrape up to $750), and I'm open to suggestions of vintage, not-so-vintage and contemporary products. My wife says she prefers some warmth in the sound, although she also likes the wide soundstage and clear placement of instruments from the current DALIs.
The amp, sources and and speakers live in a high-ceilinged dining room about 4m*4.5m, and the dining furniture clutter means this is certainly less than ideal acoustically. Oh, one more thing: happy to hear suggestions for both bookshelf/standmount and floorstanders, but floorstanders might be easier to place in the current room and tend to have higher efficiency. And they'll have to be placed with the rear of the speakers close to the wall so I'm trying to avoid rear-ported designs. (Yup, the brief is sounding a bit picky, isn't it...)
I'm keen to hear some suggestions so that I can tailor my search accordingly. Perhaps I should try to track down something like some vintage Coral full-range speakers? Any other left-field suggestions?
I'd love to pick up a set of used cared-for quality Australian speakers such as Richter or Legend Acoustics but I think my budget won't stretch to those, and perhaps most Richters to show their best will need more oomph than the little Rotel can supply, anyway. (Happy to be educated on that by the Richter and Legend fans ...)
Thanks folks!
Cheers,
Rob