$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 5 responses by tomcarr

Monitor Audio Silver 8 would work nicely. I have them in a third system. They look good, play loud cleanly, and have a small footprint. Kal Rubinson from Stereophile bought a pair for his second system.

Tom
+1 for kalali.
I still have the Silver 8s (in another system), but got Vandy 2Cs for my main system. Completely different sound.
The 8s are analytical, somewhat aggressive, very clean, play very loudly, bright treble. Compared to the Vandys, they don"t:
     Image as well
     Disappear as well
     Speak as cohesively top to bottom
    Don't render timbres and tone as well
IMO, the 8s are better suited to hard rock, high SPLs, parties.
They are an excellent speaker, but they definitely sound different than Vandersteens. YMMV. Listen before you purchase...

Tom
+1 wolf_garcia

Oops, forgot about the "cat clause"...
Yep, Vandy's are NOT happy around cats!

Tom
How about Elacs? Glowing reviews. Andrew Jones' expertise. Just another thought. Hope you're making some progress.

Tom