Best small 2-way floorstander?


I'm looking to upgrade (sooner or later, I guess) my excellent minimonitors (Merlin TSM-SE) for some small floorstanders. Please share any thoughts on your vote of the "best of the best" in this category and if you think they work best with tubes or solid state. So far I've got the Merlin VSM-SE's or Kharma Ceramique 3.0s on the short list. I do give the edge to Kharma in the looks department, though. They look absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for your input!
hifinut604
Sdcampbell, i have 3 mini monitors to recommend to you. The Reference 3A mini monitor. This speaker uses a 8 inch carbon fiber woofer and a silk tweeter. There is no crossover in the speaker. This speaker sounds so articulate. Here's a great pic of the Reference 3A http://shows.soundstagelive.com/shows/ces2000/product_13.shtmlspeakers.
Sdcampbell, The other 2 mini monitors i love, are the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference. This speaker uses a Seas magnesium 6 1/2 midbase and a Scanspeak tweeter. This speaker looks and sounds great. Here's the review Soundstage did on them. http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/tyleracoustics_taylo.htm Here's another pic of them. This store is seling them on Audiogon. Check out how they look in this pic. They show the speaker in 2 different finishes. http://audiogo5.iserver.net/cgi-bin/auc.pl?spkrmoni&967863736&auc&3&4&
Sdcampbell, the third mini monitor i love, is the Aliante Pininfaria. This speaker look and sounds awesome. I saw a couple of people on Audiogon selling them. Here's a great pic of the Aliante Pininfaria http://www.aliante.com/aliproin.htm Thanks. JVC1040@yahoo.com
Hi, i meant to put Hifinut604, for the comments about the best mini monitors i heard. I put Sdcampbell by mistake.
Hifinut, Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to accomplish with the change? It seems some of the suggestions would not really be a significant (if any) upgrade to the TSM's - just a switch to floorstanders. If better low end response is the goal, have you considered trying to integrate your monitors with a really good sub (REL, Aerial, etc)? Done well, this will accomplish this goal better than any small floorstander. If it's decor-driven, or you have no additional separate footprint available, I understand.