$1500 bookshelf speakers with laid-back highs?

Gregbe

As a fellow HD650 listener and a Spender owner...I'd have to caution that it will be difficult to get the degree of accuracy the HD650's present in the $1500 bracket. That said I love the Spendor sound...I recommend to you any bookshelf that has a soft dome tweeter...Spendors are not great at rock though...try something else if that is your desire...Totem is good. The S3e's that I have are used in an HT system to great effect...the are shielded and only give up a little to the musicality of the older Spendor's.

I'll throw in my vote for the ACI Sapphire XL's as well. Brilliant little speakers that melt away, and do so many things that you didn't think a small speaker could do. I read another older thread with someone saying they sounded too "hi fi". (HI-fi to me is when speaker designers try to highlight certain frequencies because they think people like it) I don't believe this to be true as they produce a very flat response aside from the very top end of the audible frequencies. This isn't a huge drop and what you give up in sizzle is more than made up for in a speaker you can listen to for hours. The highs are still there, just presented in a smooth, clear way. I've had mine for about a year now and it has been a joy every step of the way.

Dynaudio Focus 110 or 140

Check out my Tonian 2 way's i'm selling
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A used pair of Tyler Taylo's would be very hard to beat for that kind of money and what you are looking for - Ty has some used pairs, if he would replace the tweeters with the SEAS millenium used in the Linbrook for you I think you would find them fitting the bill and then some.