$1000-$2000 Floor-standing speakers for larger room w/NAD 326bee


I’m looking for a set of floor-standing speakers for our main listening room. They will be 2 channel music only. They need to be "cat safe" (no fabric on front, or removable grills), able to fill a larger room (20x15 with vaulted ceiling) with decent volume (typical max listening level is 85-90db but a lot of listening is at low volume as well) and efficient enough for a NAD326BEE. Budget is ~$1000-$2000 for the pair. My old speakers in the room were open baffle design (Hawthorne Audio Duets) and I did like the relatively open sound stage they provided. I may move them to a different room or just sell them (they’re too wide for our current configuration in the room and they aren’t too high on the "cat safe" scale). I have a couple of Polk TSi400’s in the room now as "placeholders" until I decide on a permanent pair. Minimum distance between speakers is about 8-10 feet and listening position is about 10 feet from the speakers. The speakers will need to be within about of the wall behind them. The floor is carpeted.

Music is a mix of Jazz, Classic Rock and Classical and sources are turntable and streaming from a Roon server. I live in the Atlanta metro area and

I’ve been out of the speaker hunting game for a while so any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
ruleof72

Showing 2 responses by leemaze

I have a pair of Wharfdale Diamond 10.7 speakers hooked up to a much older NAD amp (7175PE) in a similar sized room (15x40, with 8.5ft ceilings) and I love them. Great detail and great bass. They are now the older model and available for less than your budget from Music Direct.

https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers/wharfedale-diamond-107-tower-speakers-pr
Hi @ruleof72 

Is Neutral Detail a thing?  I dunno - they certainly aren't overly bright.  But I wouldn't describe them as laidback sounding in general.  Just very pleasant at all volume levels, and I notice a lot of depth and texture that other speakers haven't had for me.  I do keep the treble knob down a smidge, but otherwise they just sound great playing everything. 

Their detail can also reveal differences in quality of your source - mp3 vs cd - very clearly, but mp3s don't sound bad if you aren't ABing the CD.

Here's a review I read before my purchase that was helpful to me:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/wharfedale-diamond-107-loudspeaker