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Best bookshelf speakers

I’m building my first high fi system after being more of a portable audio person. I want to start with the speakers. Space is limited so bookshelf speakers are a must.

Preferences:
Balanced and revealing with a hint of warmth.
Midrange most important to get right over highs and lows
Timbre is super important - I listen mostly to acoustic music especially jazz
But I do need some bass as I also listen to some electronic music
Smaller is better but SQ is most important
A speaker that sounds good with different amps but also scalable with high quality sources
Wide sweet spot - I wont have money for a great amp at first but want them to be scalable for later

These speakers have caught my eyes - any thoughts on them?

Ascend Sierra 2s - Ribbon = dispersion limitations?
BMR Philharmonitor - See above. Also massive.
Buchardt S400/S300 - Wary of the sudden hype train and limited info
Silverline Minuet Grande - Limited info
Reference 3A De Capo - This caught my eye as a potential endgame speaker if I could blow up my budget a little. But concerns about BE tweeter as well as some potential snake oil stuff (cryogenic treatment (!?)), exaggerated sensitivity claims and wonky measurements put me off.

What else should I be looking at?

Edit: I could have sworn I had <$2,000 in the title... Anyway, my budget is 2k.

stuff_jones
jburidan
803 posts
 
tinear123:

Why did you choose wireless?

I would imagine that the wireless electronics occupies volume that would filled with damping in the wired version. But I may be mistaken as usual :)
yyzsantabarbara
4,811 posts
 
For me, the KEF LS50 top end was better than my prior Revel Salon 1 (MSRP $20K). I am never selling the LS50. In a small room or second system it is superb.

Another small room speaker that I owned and is pretty good is the Audience 1+1 V3. You cannot put it on a bookshelf but it works well in a small room (dipole design). 
chapelhaudio
1 posts
 
Martin Logan's Motion 35XT's have treated me well.  The folded motion tweeter of the XT sometimes errs on the bright side, but the Motion series has been versatile for music and movies. You can audition the series in the Magnolia room at Best Buy and compare the XT with the non XTs in the series.

The Motion 15 (or 16) also works well for a small room, and you could move them to the rear surround sound if you later decided to upgrade speakers or move to a bigger room. In my case, the 35XT now serve as rears after I purchased floorstanding speakers...(They are probably a little overkill for rears in my medium sized entertainment room).
mr_bill
347 posts
 
@tinear123. what do you have in your main system? 

Do you like your new Kef ls50 wireless as much as your main system?
stuff_jones OP
65 posts
 
@ whoopycat Trenner & Friedl look amazing ( and sounds amazing in this demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5R4Eplg1z4)

@ 2y2ret - Thanks, I hadn't seen those and they look really good. Nice and small too and well within my budget.


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