Speaker Choice ?

You guys may have a laugh at this, but in my 2-channel reference room I'm using the Dunlavy SC-Vs with a Dunlavy subwoofer. Only a few of the subs were made and this one is in an SC-IV cabinet with 4 twelve inch woofers. It's passive so I use a separate amp/equalizer with it. The result, well if you love your bass clean and able to slam you through the floor, this set-up gets it done.

Also, I agree with the recommendations for tube amps. I've tried different amps, but personally I have liked the high current stuff from Jeff Rowland and the Marantz Reference Monos the best.

Many questions remain unanswered.
Are you alone for the music since you said family room.
How do you like you music presented? Natural or pinpoint or both? Loudness?
How much freedom do you have with speaker placement? I.e into the room.
Music, media, or movies?
So, I presume you are not always in the listening position, since you mentioned the family room.
I would suggest wide dispersion speakers (homogeneous) if more than one family member in a different spot is listening to music.
1) German Physiks
2) HEA
3) Audiokinesis
4) Larsen
5) MBL

Otherwise controlled directivity speakers
1) AK
2) Geddes
3) Amphion

If you decide to look at wide dispersion speakers, be sure to include the Gallo Reference 3.5s for audition. They have about 300 deg. dispersion with a truly magnificent tweeter coupled to very fast carbon-fibre midrange modules. These can be found gently used on Audiogon for right around $2,000 /pr. - an excellent price for these world class speakers...

-RW-

speaker price looking used around 5000.00 whats my best choice.

My favorite question and my favorite answer...

The best choice are the speakers that sound best to you, are within your budget and can be properly driven by your amp!

So start auditioning rather than asking a bunch a strangers on the internet. Or are you more concerned about buying whats popular rather than whats best for you?

I’m sorry, but need to chime in here. I’m really tiring of the plethora of lazy, and often rudely worded "suggestions" by quite a few a’goners that go something like ... "just listen and don’t worry about what other people think". Instead of reacting so thoughtlessly/robotically please stop to consider the many things you know nothing about when offering up this wise-@$$ "gem of knowledge". The suggestion has never helped me and not sure what good it does for many others.

It seems to me just another form of bullying that keeps people from wanting to get involved.

Getting others’ opinions on ... *anything* is often an excellent way to discover one’s own opinions and clearly a great way to acquire knowledge whether useful or not. This is how we all learn starting with tying our shoes, choosing our friends, deciding on choices for how we’ll live our lives and yes purchasing things! We don’t have to agree with *anybody*, but that doesn’t mean their opinion doesn’t help us decide.

And what about the fact that some people just don’t have the $$, time or convenient location to "audition", as if that’s an easy thing to do if they did?

If ALL one can do is spend an entire weekend reading Audiogon forums they will ...
- get a feeling for who is respected/well received here
- get a feeling for which components and ideas are well received
- get a feeling for which members might have similar rooms as theirs
- get a feeling for which members might have similar tastes as theirs
- possibly make contact with some real live audiogoners!

What an outstanding way to start! Now you have 30 things you’re interested in listening to and YES - RESEARCHING FURTHER AND AUDITIONING IN YOUR OWN HOME rather than 1000 that you knew nothing about. Can’t speak for anyone else, but that weekend right there saved me tens of thousands and months of travelling the world looking for *adequate* ways to audition all those components, most of which would be a waste of time and money because I didn’t like them or they were much more expensive than something else I liked just as much!!