good, small speakers

Hey Rob,

Check out the Jean Marie Reynaud line of speakers. I have an HT set up consisting a pair of Trentes, front L+R, Grand Ecran, center, and the Twin MkIII in the rear. I feel that you could not go wrong with either the Trentes or the Twin MkIII for a small room. I love the Trentes as my front speakers. They are very dynamic but also very smooth in the mids and highs and, being a transmission line speaker, they go surprisingly low for a monitor. I've not used the Twin MkIII as my front speakers but I've heard them in a friends system and they are very good for a speaker that retails for $980 brand new.............John

I enjoyed listening to the Linn Katans during an audition, but they did seem to have an odd tonality. However, I think they would work really well with your Linn amp.

How about the Dynaudio Audience 42? They shoud be small enough. These speakers have a completely different tonal quality than the Linns, but I enjoyed these as well during an audition. Both the Linns and the Dyn's had good bass response for a small speaker.

The Alon Petite is an outstanding speaker that is no longer available new. It has the best imaging and natural tonality of any small speaker I have heard. My father has a pair split on either side of a Steinway Grand and they still manage to image well and sound great. The Alon Petite lacks the bass of the Linn and the Dyn.

See if you could arrange an audition with some of these speakers. If money is not a consideration, perhaps you could buy 2 or 3 pair, try them for a few months and sell the losers. I don't know of any sure-bet ultra high quality (and ultra high price) speakers in this size class.

Two speakers that would work very well for you:

AVI Neutron IV-(fabulous speakers, about as small as real hi-fi speakers can get) http://www.avihifi.co.uk/NuNeutron%20Monitors%20/Neutron%20IV.html

Neat Petites-also quite fab.

They are both kind of hard to find, but worth it.

Another option - Snell K.5 Mark IIs are good monitors, and designed for close to walls. About $1200 retail I think. Good luck.

I like the Epos mini monitors.