speakers for BAT vk-55 mono blocks

I would love Maggies, but space is a problem. so I am leaning toward a pair of Focal 826W. There is a good used pair of Sophia 2's out there for $8,500. I am not sure I want to spend that much, and again, we are talking about a 15 X 20 room with my rack in a corner and a fireplace to work around.

Any thoughts on this?

The room I heard the Sophia 3's in was probably about 18 x 12, with the speakers along the long wall. The speakers were less that 2' from the back wall, about 10-12 feet apart. I actually talked to 2 different wilson dealers and they both indicated the sophias actually do better with long wall placement and don't need to be out far from the wall.I haven't heard sophia 2's so I can't comment on those.

I very good match with your current monos are the Audio Physic Scropio first generation speaker, and there is one for sale currently for $2,000 here on audiogon. A full sounding speaker like the 2ce, but betters them in just about every aspect of music reproduction. Best of all its very easy to drive, and you should have enough headroom, if you should want to crank them up, where these speakers simply excel, but are also exceptional at low volumes. The Absolute Sound had a good review explaining the characteristics of this speaker line when they reviewed their Avantera speaker, which is very similar to the current Scorpio but with a better cabinet. I won't recommend the newer and upper models with the ceramic coated aluminum drivers, they may be a bit too revealing for your amps, Bat's upper models are a better match for these models.

Btselect.