Is $3000 pushing the limits for a geat monitor??

Thanks to all who responded......Has anyone listened the Kings Sound Design speakers which use electrostatic drivers on top. They offer a bookshelf speaker called the Princess IIa which uses the electrostatic tweeter and
a standard 5.5 woofer. This model, I believe is being discontinued and is being offered on a Black /Friday sale. (See listing on Audiogon) Needs stands and placed close to the backwall. If anyone has listened to or owns them, please provide some feedback

To Afterhours. Maybe,I missed something in your response above, but what brand and model are you referring of the monitor that was $2K outstanding" You auditioned it at Wavetouch Audio in Los Angeles. Could you please clarify

BTW JMReynaud website page "could not be found" via the Audiogon directory of manufacturers

I appreciate the comments and advice of those members who have responded. Let me quickly list my downsized system: Rogue "Sphnix integrated amp (100RMS); Ayre CX-7e(replacing a Rega Apollo) Rega P3-24TT with a Dynavector 10X5. The speakers are the Acoustic Zen Adagios. I like these speakers very much, and am only considering replacing them because of their size and weight. Therefore, any monitor I choose must be very close or better in sound quality.

The living room or listening space could be a problem. (For the record, nothing is set-up yet because I am still waiting delivery by the shipping company's movers) Dimensions of the actual listening area are 12.5ft X12.5ft; 9 foot ceiling. The living room continues to the front door and adds 10ft. to the total length( 22.5ft) The width of the entire room is approx. 12.5ft This space is both kitchen and dining area. This space is split by a vertical counter island, and also provides a boundary line between the living room and kitchen area which has many cabinets of vary sizes. (I assume this may damp out the room). The living room will have a large overstuffed recliner, and a 68 inch couch, and a 42 inch flat screen TV supported by medium size and weight entertainment center. Also a 8X10 ft rug cover hardwood floors. The opposite wall from the apartment entrance is occupied by large window, and a door which leads out to a balcony.

I have plenty of framed maps and artwork and photos to hang, and break up standing waves, but my initial instinct is the room is going to be somewhat echoy and bright because of the output of the Adagios, and require thicker wall damping material.

BTW,I listened mainly to classic 60's rock and jazz fusion, golden oldies crap, and tend to play it louder than moderate Lastly, I worry about problems with the neighbors, even tough I listen mainly in the early afternoon and never past 5PM.......... Hope this info helps!!!

To Raquel. The Evolution Acoustics "Micro One" is both an interesting and attractive looking speaker. From what I saw on their site. it looks like they are a half pint floor stander. However, the downsize is they have one store front in Oregon to audition their products. Also, I am not sure if you are buying the speakers as a modular system which comes with a separate sub that locks into the rest of chassis That is a turn off to me

From my experience in audio, companies like this for all their good intentions, eventually go under because they have limited market exposure, and so limited sales I have to check if they have a 30 day return policy including round trip shipping.

In the meantime, I will keep looking Thanks

To Zkzpb8, you make several thoughtful points on the issue of floor standers vs monitors issue. I have been through this several time, beginning with B&W Matrix 3 MKII ( another 70 lbs behemonth) Then, bought a pair of Green Mountain "Europas" an excellent book shelf type speaker, but somewhat short of the performance of the B&W's GM's were replaced by Vandersteen IC a small footprint floorstander, that was good but provided below average bass, and just average highs, but an accurate and enjoyable speaker, nevertheless

Therefore, as you can see I fell into the same pattern you described, and more or less was convinced, that floor standers provide more bass, and a larger soundstage. This was about 10 years ago and I was a bit uninformed about monitors ,plus a period "monitor mania" began. (TAS and SP seemed to provide a revolving door of new monitors every month). Better small speakers were being built using much higher quality drivers, and crossovers which produced an excellent wide soundstage, accurate midrange and deeper bass.

As noted above in the thread context, my new living space is approx. 2 ft shorter on both axes. I received my shipped furniture and stereo this week. and the speaker boxes look huge, and in my mind's eye will not work in the room. Also, I don't want to take these suckers out of the boxes for both a sound and placement survey because of their individual weight. Thanks