This new and improved 3k speaker budget (including stands if bookshelves) has limited my DAC spend.
I’ve owned a Mojo previously and wish I’d never sold it with regards to my IEMs so I’d probaly have a shot at the Chord Qutest. The Qutest has all the connectivity I’d want. I don’t see the point in buying something that has features such as headphone out which I’d never use. More to go wrong and more to take away from its sole-purpose.
I found that the most difficult is to choose the right speakers/ amp combo, in a particular room.
Before I bought my existing speakers, I took me some months to listen to different brands.
I listened to JM Reynaud, BW, Dynaudio, Spendor, and Proac, Sonus Faber. Finally bought Apertura. So listened to 7 speakers.
The most important thing is to be able to get your favoured two or three speakers at home together, and that demoing at different dealers can make that hard. That’s what I did when I chose between ATC SCM 11s and ProAc Tablette 10 Signatures. They were both good but the ATCs just looked horribly big and brown in our room in a way they didn’t at the shop.
For what it’s worth, I’m not convinced upping the speaker budget at the expense of the source budget is a good idea, but I’ve probably flogged that horse enough. Do bear in mind though that you can pick up some amazing bargains in used speakers, which depreciate really fast.
With £3k I would try neat Ekstra versus maybe spendor a4 (a7 at a stretch) and then buy the 1 I preferred.
It may be difficult at the mo, Covid an’ all but perhaps take your time to listen to speakers with the same source each time, in the different dealers that have them. Then narrow down to the ones you want to demo at home before final selection.
@Oxbow - Thank you linking me up with your story. Just finished reading it and found it quite wonderful.
I am going to try demo two pairs at home first and go from there. I think I go down the source route once I’ve sorted the speakers out. I’m in no rush to make any descsions, and certainly not the wrong one at the expense of time.
I agree that source is important. But taking into consideration my long experience with IEMs which don’t suffer from any environment effects like loudspeakers I am yet to experience any mind blowing changes between my DAP/DAC/Headphones Amps when spending £200 to £3,000.
DACs/DAPs/Headpnone Amps I’ve owned are;
Chord Mojo
Luxury and Precision W2
Sony ZX507
Astell & Kern SE200
Luxury Precision P6 Pro
Cayin C9
Dragonfly Red
Yes, all different in various ways but subtle differences. When changing IEMs the difference is night and day. I found it best to find an IEM that suited my needs the best and then match that to the DAC.
I’d say IEM gave me 80% difference and DACs/DAPs/Amps 20% difference. Maybe not even that. Possibly more like 85%/15%.
The biggest single difference was the Cayin C9 when switching between valve and solid state output - this is the equivlent to my Naim Supernait 3 though which isn’t going anywhere.
The only difference I can see here is IEMs are easy to drive, whereas speakers aren’t so.
I’m done with the whole scratching my beard whilst trying to analyise every note of every song. I want a system that I can enjoy and relax to now. That’s what its all about at the end of the day. As I get older my priorities are enjoying over tweaking.
Last night I was watching some YouTube audiophile channel, and the guy proceeded to tell us all that using Fibre from his network switch over CAT6 makes a massive difference to his streaming sound. I mean, where does this stop? Dedicated fibre connection direct to my streamer from the streaming servers with my own isolated generator in the garden supplying clean electricity whilst sitting in a dark room as not to introduce any noise.
Unless anyone can tell me otherwise I’m going to bias my budget towards the 80%-85% differences.
I’d say that’s the wrong balance, just keep an open mind. A £5,500 streamer, a £6,000 record player land a Naim tuner, all through £1,500 speakers works for me, and I certainly wouldn’t do it the other way round.
I agree with HH above with Nd5xs2, supernait 3 into £1300 dynaudio evoke 10. Works well with a full and rhythmic sound
Interesting. What other streamers and record players did you use?
I fully agree (and echo’d) the better source advice from several members and that auditioning & selecting speakers with the Node is probably not the best idea.
On speakers though… I must say that during almost 40 years in this hobby I’ve never been ‘lucky’ enough to get truly satisfactory results with relatively cheap speakers on an expensive/much better front-end nor the other way around. If forced to choose, I’d take the better source - cheaper speakers route too but that doesn’t mean you have optimal performance. Because you simply don’t imo.
Visualised, a tip-up pyramid (cheap source, expensive speakers) is almost as undesirable as tip-down pyramid imo. It’s all about balanced performance, say somewhat rectangular in this analogy. Hope this makes sense as I always feel a bit crippled among native English speakers. 
I agree. With a budget that doesn’t spread to the best of everything then a balance must be struck. Do the speakers work in the room is the key point. After that, does the amp give the best of the speakers, then does the source allow the amp and speakers to display the music to its best possible within the budget. There is always a variation within the central area of acceptability.
There are many who seem to prefer Special 40 over Contour 20/20i but this was not your case? They are both fabulous speakers for their size. Some say that S40 is a bit more fun and lively while the Contour is more neutral but with better extension, especially bass extension.
Dynaudio always seems to impress in terms of their balance, driver cohesion, and range, especially for the size of the stand-mount speakers. In the Evoke range, the 20 seems to be the least enjoyed from everything I have read. The Evoke 30 seems to be the sweet spot, but for the same price, the Special 40 is the better speaker. I dare say the 40 has been their single best selling speaker of all time and it has a tremendous fan base. The Heritage Special being the upgrade of choice for those S40 owners who can afford it and want more of everything. The Evoke 50 also has many admirers but requires a large space to sing. If space is an issues, you will want to stick with Evoke 30 or Special 40. If you want to fill a larger room with sound, especially one with higher ceilings, the Evoke 50 would be better. Although for the price, you should also consider a used pair of Contour 30.
Do think about how close to the wall your speakers need to be. Rear ported ones need some space, and while you can bung the ports to some extent, it changes the sound in a way that’s not always good. Front ported speakers are less of a challenge here, and you can get away with close to wall placement with something like the PMC twentyfive.21i, which are transmission line loaded and very nice too.
I really love my ProAc D2R, in my case with a Nova.
Mine are two feet plus away from front wall, and needed much placement tweaking, but they are quite sublime.
Only downside, I was hasty and bought a significantly reduced price pair. . . in satin white. Not my thing aesthetically, but sonically marvellous.
which kind of music genres you tested with the evoke 50
Maybe I’ve read past it but what is the size of your room?
I’ve heard the Evoke 50s two times and they definitely need some space to shine. You read this in various reviews too btw.
If that’s the case perhaps try Neat Ekstra’s. Sound phenomenal, easy to place, happy flat or toe in.
Interesting post. I may have missed this but two questions.
Asking for your demo to match the geometry of your speaker placement and listening position is a good idea.
You are doing fine , where native English speakers are concerned