Best speakers under $500? Fire away!

Spica TC50

mesch... room is 17 X 17.  I do not play it loud.  "Normal" listening levels.

I am thinking that your Klipsch speakers are very easy to drive making them a good match with your integrated. In what size room are you placing this system, and how loud do you play it? 

akg_ca... good point!  :)

My budget system is:

NAD 3020 Integrated Amplifier (Completely restored, recapped, serviced to factory fresh specs)
Onkyo C-7030 CD Player
Musical Fidelity V90-DAC
Bluejean cables

Can you please list the rest of your system? What music genre is your main passion? SYSTEM synergy matters - big-time.

I am assuming that you are also choosing pre-owned and not new speakers.

A  blind speaker brand and model offering randomly posted in this blog without knowing the rest of your system gear and your listening preferences as highlighted above, is just a blind and poor "shotgun approach"  with a very high probability of pointing you in the wrong direction.

So, can we adopt a "rifle approach" with some expanded info first?

cheers

JBL 530's are way more than $500 from everything out there I see.

used Paradigm Studio or Focal

JBL 530 new or used around that price is hard to beat.  They were up there with Revel M20/22 for me which as you know sold for much more.

Huge -- but they are critical listening speakers.  What I mean by that is you have to be actually sitting down actively listening in the sweet spot to appreciate what they do that is so impressive for the money.

You already have me very interested in the ELAC's.  Read some great reviews.  
I wonder how much of an upgrade they would be over my Klipsch RB-61 II speakers?  

Absolutely the ELAC UB5.  No question.  

Anyone who who disagrees hasn't heard them.