help narrowing down my list of speakers, $2500


Hi, I will be buying some speakers shortly. I will have them paired with an Odyssey dual mono amp (plenty of power), Tempest (Odyssey) preamp, Ridge Street Audio interconnects and speaker cable, and an Audio Aero Prima cd player. Also I will be adding a sub soon, so bass shouldent be the deciding factor here. I have a small room (12' x 12') and my budget is $2500. I went to listen to some B&W's at the dealer and like what I heard from the Naut. 804's. Wide soundstage, clear, detailed, musical. Im looking for speakers like that. I usually listen to rock (old and new) so I want speakers that can handel that. My choices so far are:
-Dynaudio
-Vandersteen
-Avalon
-Totem
-Sonus Faber
-Aerial Acoustics
-Dali
-Merlin
-Silverline
-Vienna
-Spendor
-Tyler Acoustics
-B&W
-PMC OB-1

Any you think I should add to that list? Suggestions on what to take off? Thanks

-Jamie
jamiec001
Hmmm, I heard vandys can rock, thats why I kept them. And the Avante Garde, people use that in a small room all the time with great results from what I hear. But I will scratch off that Tyler Refrence II.
By the way, thank you Maxxc, youve been the most helpful person in my research so far. :)
Hey Jamiec001,

No, don't scratch the JMRs, just the Offrands. The Trentes are the speakers to audition from there line, for your needs. I would also scratch the Silverline Sonata II, more for Jazz and small scale classical. The VR-4 Jrs, I think, are a bit to big for your space. The same for the PMC OB-1s, although I've never heard them, I've done a lot of research on them and they are supposed to be capable of very high output, but need space to breathe. I hope this helps......John
I agree, and I am voting for Maxxc as class president. In fact, if Maxxc is available for the next four years, I'm writing him in on the national ballot.

All kidding aside:
Based on your list, if you are going with floorstanders (my preference), I would spend all of $1300-1500 for a pair of Soliloquy 6.3's. I was a professional musician for over ten years, and my experience with the Soliloquy line is that they sound like the amp that feeds them. And they are the most non-fatiguing speaker I have heard. Finally, every person who ever heard them in my system--no matter what speakers they favored--said one word about the Soliloquy's: natural. I have the Silverline Sonata II, and absolutely love them, but they could potentially overpower your room. For $1300-1500, you're set. Spend the rest of your money on romantic CD's and dinners for the girl who melts at the sound of Metallica on your stereo.

All of the other speakers mentioned are superb, but I personally think they will require additional effort to obtain the best amp/speaker synergy, and some of them (as Maxxc mentioned) will not serve your intended purpose.

If you are going with monitors + sub, I think others here would have more useful feedback than I would.

Unless you want to spend a lot of time 'figuring this out', that's my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

All the best,
Howard
Jrwr7,

If you're ever in the Sacramento area, I invite you to come on by and have a listen to Tool/Soundgarden/Kings X on our Sonata II's. In fact, we only use them for rock. I think they might overpower Jamiec001's room--and Alan Yun (Silverline's head honcho) might be shocked--but Alice in Chains never sounded better IMO.
All the best,
Howard