Best speakers for 2000-USED

1. Spendors
2. Maggies
3. Merlin

Given where you are coming from, stay away from the Northcreeks, etc.; they are a tough used sell and eating them will bum you out eventually. If you have the room, Maggies are a good choice, assuming you also have the current to dump into them. If you want to be an auidiogoner and want speed in a speaker, get the Merlins. If you want to get speakers and go back to listening again for the next 20 yrs and forget about all of us who love to talk about audio, get the Spendor SP100's. Good luck.

Nobody has answered your question, Say811, so I'll give it a try. I have listened to all of these speakers and each is VERY different from the other. The VR-4's, as you may know use a rear-firing dipolar tweeter. The model "VR" stands for "virtual reality". If you enjoy a more ambient sound and a larger sweet spot, then you might like the Von Schweikert's. In addition, they have TREMENDOUS bass response, probably the deepest if not tightest (for lack of a better term) of the three. Vandersteen and Thiel are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their overall sound. Many people consider Vandersteens to be somewhat "dark" in their presentation while others find the Thiel to be too "bright" or "forward". In any case, the Thiels are more analytical and will probably be more revealing of any weaknesses in your system. Meanwhile the Vandersteens are a bit more forgiving of system shortcomings as well as poorly recorded music. Although your musical tastes are quite varied, most of the artists who you reference produce(d) relatively decent sounding recordings, so this might not be as critical. I will say, however, that there's something to be said for a speaker that gets out of the way and just lets you enjoy the music, and in this regard I would have to give the nod to the Vandersteen 3A. I don't own any of these speakers, but I recently bought a pair of Hales Response 2's here on the Audiogon. The Hales follow a very similar design philosphy as the Thiels and also have a similar sonic character. While I LOVE them for the things that they do well (female vocals and piano in particular), I find myself listening to less of my music collection and have actually begun to purchase music that I know will sound good with the Hales'. I don't think that you could possibly go wrong with any of these choices. By the way, in your original post, you asked whether you should bi-amp or bridge your Citation amp. I would strongly recommend bi-amping. I sometimes wish that I had purchased that same amp and kept my speakers (Platinum Audio Solo). It's an incredible amp for the money! Best of luck to you.

How about Spendor SP-1/2's for $2,000 NEW? Find the right dealer and that's the deal. For two grand, these speakers are a steal.

Danheather has nailed it. Vandys are the most forgiving of the bunch. You should be able to get 3As for about 1.5K leaving .5K for good, biwires. The 3Asigs will almost undoubtedly cost you more than $2K.

Thanks again for some much needed info (and a special thanks to Danheather) Maybe I'll ask the question here on this post that I asked on a seperate post. How do old pre-matrix B&W 802's stack up against the speakers that are being mentioned here in this post. One respondent on that other post wanted to know if I was bargain hunting or looking for speakers to satisfy me over an extended period.
Well I, like i'm sure most everyone else here, am just trying to get the best sound I can afford. So are these old B&W 802's on par with the type of speakers being discussed here? Although I can get these 802's for $500.00, price is not my main concern, good sounding music is.
I've also noticed that there hasn't been much mention of Dynaudio here whereas a lot of votes for Vandys, Thiels and Maggies. I've been considering the Dynaudio Audience 82's, any thoughts on them?