Best bookshelf speakers

I had Hawks for a few years and loved them. If you're going to have bookshelf speakers on stands then Hawks are a great alternative. They are small, but have a huge soundstage and image fantastically. They also play down into the mid 30's and have great detail. Everyone who heard them thought I had a subwoofer, but I don't (I know - audiophile cliche, but true with the Hawks). Not sure how anyone would blow out the driver unless they really cranked the volume and fed it too much power, but almost any speaker can have that happen. My only issue with the Hawks is that the tweeter is a metal dome which I don't love. With certain music and at moderately high volumes the highs would sometimes sound a bit edgy or too sharp. The RAAL tweeter in my Song3's has more detail, more air, more texture, and none of the edginess. That's why I also recommend the BMR's which use the same RAAL as the Song3's. Again, with most music the tweeter, which I believe is also ScanSpeak, was fine, but sometimes I would have to touch the volume down. The Hawks are great though, and if you get them used at a good price you can probably sell them down the road for about what you paid for them.

How about the Usher BE- 718 used? Great speakers for the money.

Anyone have any experience with the PraAc Reference SM100s? They’re a bit over budget but used they could be a fit. Small and front ported so should be flexible with placement. Bass reported to the mid 30s but should be flat-ish given their reference use. Apparently very easy to listen to as reference monitors which bodes well for their hifi application.

I finally listened to some speakers, none of which were bookshelf speakers.

I heard the Tekton Hawks (used) and the Monitor Silver 200 and 300s with some new Adcom class G integrated and the Parasound Halo. The Adcom sounded thin with the Hawks and so I ended up doing most of my listening with the Halo.

The Hawks sounded dynamic with great transients and lots of details. The bass went low and was tight. They imaged really well. My issue was with the tweater. On some tracks it drew attention to itself with its sharpness. I think it would benefit from tubes, but they’re said to be power hungry so maybe a hybrid? Anyway, I could imagine having a love/hate relationship unless you got the amplification exactly right. That revelator woofer though was really impressive.

I’d be interested in learning which other reasonably priced speakers use Revelator woofers. I know the Fritz Carerra BE do. Any others around 2k?

Next I heard the Monitor Audio Silver 300s. They brought welcome warmth and body, but I found them a little overly warm/murky and maybe a little slow? A very pleasant listen though.

I actually liked the Silver 200s more, outside the fact that they didn’t go as low. They took that nice easy going warmth of the 300s but seemed a little bit clearer and quicker to me. Not sure the break in status of either MA and the Hawks were used so fully broken in. They were the speaker of the three I could see living with the easiest even if they weren’t the most impressive.

I do like the idea of a small profile floor stander now. I wonder though if the slim towers lose a little bit in dynamics compared event to a stand mounted speaker because of their smaller drivers.

Incidentally I heard some 100k plus system and it was super impressive like great special effects in a movie. It wasn’t really convincing musically. Great dynamics, range and clarity, but something was off tonally and it just sounded too hyped up. It was like some photoshop special effect that makes you think wow but that doesn’t look real.

I know what you mean. My Spica TC-50 was an amazing loudspeaker from a small company and it's still one of my favorites from over the years. Too bad Mom came over one year to visit and destroyed them by fiddling around with my equipment trying to put on Christmas music at full blast one holiday years ago : (