Am i missing some good and lifelike speakers ?tks

Jean Marie Reynaud

It seems from your list that you are predisposed to panel speakers. Thats OK if you have a proper environment for them - hearing a well set up pair in demo will not tell you much about how they will sound in your room when you get them home - they can be very difficult to set up properly in any room, but in a medium to small room they can be impossible. If you haven't done any research yet do some before you commit. Having said that, if I had to choose between the speakers you listed I would probably choose the Quads - I lived with, as still have in storage,a pair of 63's. I think you will find the Quads a bit more transparent and they image quite well, much more like a pair of dynamic speakers than panel speakers, more precise, without losing the "airiness" of electrostats.

In describing the sound you wanted you used the term natural as opposed to neutral. For me, one of the things that I have found un-natural about panel speakers, even when they image well, is the compression involved in many designs. When I refer to dynamics I'm talking, not about their ability to play loud, but the level of the lowest sound as compared to the loudest sound. As I consider the dynamic ability of a speaker to be highly important in creating a sense of naturalness, I converted to dynamic speakers. If this is important to you, don't overlook Verity Audio Parsifals in your search - a bit over your budget perhaps, but you could come close with a used pair, and powerwise, they are not difficult to drive - tubes do quite nicely if your so inclined. Except for the fact that they won't fill an auditorium with 20hz sound, I think they can, when driven by appropriate electronics, produce about as natural sound as is available.

Harbeth Studio 40. ESL and Planar sound good but aren;t life-like.

I'd take a serious look at the Audio Note AN/E SEC's...fantastic speakers that will sing with 40w.

Look into the Reimer line.