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Best bookshelf speakers

I’m building my first high fi system after being more of a portable audio person. I want to start with the speakers. Space is limited so bookshelf speakers are a must.

Preferences:
Balanced and revealing with a hint of warmth.
Midrange most important to get right over highs and lows
Timbre is super important - I listen mostly to acoustic music especially jazz
But I do need some bass as I also listen to some electronic music
Smaller is better but SQ is most important
A speaker that sounds good with different amps but also scalable with high quality sources
Wide sweet spot - I wont have money for a great amp at first but want them to be scalable for later

These speakers have caught my eyes - any thoughts on them?

Ascend Sierra 2s - Ribbon = dispersion limitations?
BMR Philharmonitor - See above. Also massive.
Buchardt S400/S300 - Wary of the sudden hype train and limited info
Silverline Minuet Grande - Limited info
Reference 3A De Capo - This caught my eye as a potential endgame speaker if I could blow up my budget a little. But concerns about BE tweeter as well as some potential snake oil stuff (cryogenic treatment (!?)), exaggerated sensitivity claims and wonky measurements put me off.

What else should I be looking at?

Edit: I could have sworn I had <$2,000 in the title... Anyway, my budget is 2k.

stuff_jones
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
The Sierra’s are great, but won’t image as well as the BMR. 
 
The S400 is good, but not as good as the Sierra’s nor BMR, srill bests most other speakers around its price. 
 
For the Silverline, Stereophile measured a much cheaper speaker than that one a while ago and it was decent, it the Grande crosses a 1” tweeter at 3kHz with a 5.25” driver, which slightly alarms me. 
 
For the De Capo Be, I’d stay away. One reason they measure so poorly is because of the slope of the cabinet, which was done out of stupidity. That should never be done unless meant to be used on a desk. They do that to time/phase align the drivers, but that can also be done in the crossover and/or by physically having the tweeter sunken in (my speakers do this). 
stuff_jones OP
64 posts
 
How’s the realism of the timbre on a ribbon?

Also I heard the width of dispersion is ok but vertically the Sierra 2s are limited. True?

Any other suggestions?
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
You're going to be hard pressed to best the mid-range of the F cone in the Focal Aria 906.
stuff_jones OP
64 posts
 
Bass only goes down to 55 Hz on the Focals though. Can they manage without a sub? Do they have that famous Focal brightness?
mofojo
517 posts
 
Not bright at all. If anything they are slightly warm IMO. I'm sure this depends on your amplification etc. The bass they have is fairly impactful and good quality. I am crossed over to a sub however.
.I bought them cause of the good deal and I was just going to resell but I think I'll keep them. Also was kinda hoping they sucked so I could make fun of Kosst and his 936s. 
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