Best used speakers under $3,500?

Opalchip - I enjoyed your analysis of the trade-offs. I can't say I know enough about engineering or accoustics to either accept or reject your points but it certainly is a plausible argument and one that was well-presented. I'm also intrigued by the Joseph Audio speakers and hope to listen to them when I'm in NY or Toronto (not sure if they sell in Canada)

Dave - A lot of folks have praised the Tyler's. You know anyone who has them in the metro NY area that I might be able to listent to? I know they offer home audition but that may not work for me - I'm in Canada with property in NY that I will visit but not for any great lengths of time

PMI guy - The perils of having wide-ranging musical tastes are apparent when choosing speakers. Since I'm buying components afterwards, I'm more concerned about the accoustics of my room.

Tomryan and pubul57 - thanks for the suggestions, several of which I've already hear good things about. I hope to get to listen to them soon.

Tomryan- I love my Merlin VSM-MMs, but if you can find me a pair of MXs for well under $3.5K, I will eat my shorts. That's well over 50% discount for the latest, top of the line version of a very highly regarded speaker. In fact, if you could get the MMs for that price, it would be a steal.
BTW, my last speaker before the VSMs was a pair of Vandy 3Asigs with the 2Ws. They ARE a very good speaker; maybe a BIT laid back, but not boring, IMO. At under $2500 for the mains, a real bargain. Work well with most any good electronics. YMMV.

I have enjoyed reading this thrread. First off, I do not think that combining HT and 2 channel listening can give the best of both worlds. Whatever. I listened to many of these speakers at CES 2005 last month.

1. The advice about you going and listening is the best. Of course, its hard in one city to hear all of this stuff; hence this forum.

2. In general, I would emphasize two channel; I am one of those folks who thinks that if you get great 2 channel speakers then HT makes it along for the ride, while good HT doesnt always translate into great two channel listening. That is a bias.

3. Given that, there are two clear two channel winners listed above; The Silverline Sonata 3s, and the Gallo Reference 3s; Dollar per value; these two speakers represented the better of the bunch mentioned that have heard. The Gallo reference threes might present a more difficult placement task( great but finicky) and may in fact do better with more expensive hardware behind them. This is only an opinion.

4. Vandersteen would NOT be my choice for HT. In DVD playback, they have an unusually recessed sound in direct comparison to the other choices mentioned. Also the soundstage changes as you move in a room in a way that other choices do not. "Sweet spot" is truely that for these speakers.

5. For HT, I actually really like that whole Totem rainmaker series. Quite good. Its actually better for HT than music; opposite of the model performance listed above.

6. Joseph Audio is a no go for me. I have never heard the merlins mentioned above and cannot comment on them.

7. One speaker brand not mentioned would be the Green Mountain Callistos ( used they should get into the budget scene for you). They would work well for HT as well as 2 channel music listening.

Good luck- a great bunch of choices mentioned here.