The triangle Celius 202 speaker

Csfred,

I use the Cary 300 SEI with the Celius. It drives them as well as my MF M3 did, but the Cary is far more "liquid".
For your type of music, it would be an excellent choice. I found myself buying music like Patricia Barber/Norah Jones, just to hear it on my system. The sound was supreme, but the music just wasn't my style. I would reccomend the Celius without hesitation to any non-metal listener. The Stones remasters sound excellent, but I'd pass on Ozzy. As ST mentioned, the sound can get "congested" at loud levels.
As for the subwoofer, after the grueling break-in period, I'd be shocked if anyone would require one. I used to own the old Carver Amazings that claimed to get down to 16Hz, and the Celius are far more pure, just not as "booming".
Think of a boxer. The Amazings had extreme KO capability on the high and low ends, but lacked the "stinging jab" of an alive mid-section that keeps you interested in the music.
A great test disc(track) for me was "All or Nothing at All" from Diana Krall. There is a bass riff that begins the song. Many speakers(Revel M20) will distort and struggle with this. Don't let a salesperson tell you that that's how a standup bass sounds. It's not.The Celius handles the riff.
The bass then dissappears on some speakers after the riff. You can clearly hear the bass throughout with the Celius.
Also, when I did the break-in on the Celius, I kept them facing the wall, and I was shocked at how clear the sound was from my listening chair.
If you find something better, let me know.

Cheers,
CB

In the last 4 months I've been looking for a replacement for my Apogee Stages, that wouldn't get into silly money.

What I've found so far from auditioning B&W 803,4,5's,Revel F30, M20's, Sonus Faber models and the Paradigm Studio 100's, which are simply lifeless, and the Celius was the Celius came closest to possibly fulfilling my needs.

My biggest thing are for female vocals of pop & country to sound decent. The recordings are pretty crappy. But, that's what is real world to me.

The Celius was the only auditioned speaker that gave me goosebumps when hearing George Strait's, 'Amarillo By Morning'. I drove 18 wheeler for yrs., so that song has significate meaning to me.Have thought about going back on the road, OTR, lately. But, I keep having this reoccuring thought of the IDIOT'S on the highway.

I own a pair of Celius 202.I use a 50 watt tube amp [ Audio Passion].The speaker is excellent,but my room is big,17x25 with a cathedral ceiling.I wish I had more power.However in a smaller room they are better then the reviews.I just put in a PS Audio power port and that also made the sound even better.I tried the system with a Sugden power amp [ transistors] and the sound was good but not as good as with tubes