High Efficiency Speakers Your top 3 or more

WAF is a major inhibitor for me with these high efficiency horns because I would like to target them into my wife's sunroom where the Dynaudio monitors sit relatively unobtrusively today

Mapman,concerning the WAF,the SQ H-10 horn speakers are fairly compact.Here is a review of their larger brother,the H-15:

http://www.stereotimes.com/speak030410.shtml

Also I have heard several of the single driver Omega models.While the large stand mount Superhemps were my favorite,their small bookshelf and floorstand speakers were also quite good!

I owned AN/Es (HE Kit 3s - basically equivalent to the factory SpE HE) and TL-D1s together for several months and went back and forth between them often. I think I can speak to their differences pretty well.

The Tonians are significantly faster and more open-sounding - they have a way with microdynamic finesse, esp. with percussion, I have basically not heard exceeded. Spellbinding.

The AN/Es had significantly lower bass as well as quite a bit more midbass energy. I also thought timbre was slightly better. Although the Tonians are never, ever shouty, being completely smooth and balanced, perhaps the AN/Es hemp driver gave slightly better harmonic density.

Although I preferred the Tonians for jazz I felt the AN/E was the slightly more well-rounded speaker.

Then I realized neither was really ideal for my huge room

great thread ... curious what you are using now Paul that you have moved past the Audio Notes and Tonians.

I have some experience with Tonian speakers, although not in my system. A neighbor had a pair of Tonian prototype speakers. They were basically a TL-D1 with a super tweeter, as I recall. They were incredibly fast, with excellent clarity and completely free of grain. The bass was lacking, which for me is a deal breaker. Considering the Classic 12.1 have the same qualities with the addition of lower bass, then I'm certain they are exceptional. Their price point put them out of the running for my system.

I also heard Tonians a few years ago at the Stereophile show in LA. I didn't care for the speakers at this show. They were too incisive for my taste.

In general, I've moved away from speakers with a crisp, revealing sound. Although speakers of this type convey exciting sound with great attack, I find that I can't listen to them for very long.

On the other hand, I found the AN-E to have just the right amount of incisiveness blended with a certain midrange warmth that I find pleasing for long periods of time. Recall that I wrote earlier that I shifted my evaluation paradigm away from analyzing performance for perfection, and toward emotional involvement. I believe the Tonian/Audio Note difference highlights this paradigm shift pretty well.

Those interested in accuracy, precision, and neutrality would likely enjoy the Tonian speakers a great deal.

tvad,

do you know what say the klipsch forte or forte 2 at their lower price point give up to the ans or tonians?