can forum readers help with advice on speakers ?


I'd like to upgrade my Cambridge Sound works M80 Newton speakers to something a little better and am looking for any suggestions that can be offered by forum members. The listening living room is a medium sized to small room about 11 by 15 by 8 with 2 open doorways to the hall and dining room . I'm using a Jolida tube amp , Marantz CD player and Rega P2 turntable with Bellari phono preamp . The M80's are on heavy oak speaker stands, look beautiful ,and sound pretty good .... but fuzzy at times . I have no room for a subwoofer and would like to stay away from the skinny floor standers if possible . My budget is $1000 and the speakers need to be magnetically shielded as one is close to the television . I'm wondering if the large numbers of smallish speakers that abound are just not going to move enough air with a 5 or 6 inch woofer . It looks like the recent review of the Renaissance speakers in Stereophile magazine would fit the bill but I see 2 really negative reviews have cropped up on the internet by customers. Thanks for any tips
smokeylynx
I would argue that the GMA Continuum-1 used is the best sub-$1000 speaker you can find. I bought a pair a few years ago for $800 and have been solidly satisfied since. There's pair for sale right now on a'gon for the same price:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1225774313&/Green-Mountain-Audio-Continuum

Good luck.
the m80's are really good. i would wait till i had more to spend, and not worry too much about an upgrade for now. you could spend a grand and not make a big improvement.
Smokeylynx,

Just curious on your term "fuzzy at times". I wonder if part of that "fuzzy" might be your oak speaker stands resonating? Do your M80s sit directly on the stands, or do you have something (rubber pad, blue-tac, ect) between the top of stands and bottom of the speakers? Also, at the bottom, how are stands attached to the floor (spikes, pads, ect)?
Thanks everyone for chiming in with your comments , I had an LP listening session last night and the M80's do sound good indeed.... tho' I wish there was a bit more detail at times . There is material between the speaker and the stands and the stands themselves sit on a hardwood floor . The stands are the poor mans oak speaker stands from Target which are a heck of deal . Oak Stools that are solid and heavy and the tapering outward legs make me feel safe with our 3 yr. old granddaughter over every weekend knocking things around.
The one who must be obeyed arranges the color schemes in the house and she rules out any black or silver finished speakers . I think the thing for me to do is keep checking on Audiogon when I get closer to having the dough saved up and will get the better bang for my buck that way . If I can get something that sells for around my target price that was originally $1500 or so I'll be getting some better drivers inside the cabinets
Here's a pair that would be on my short list.
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1226621787&/B-W-DM603-S3
These may be gone quickly...then again you never know.

I am not selling these either.
Shoe , thanks for 2 great suggestions . I'm still in the money saving stage of things and just starting to work my brain through the various options . Our 3 and 1/2 year old granddaughter is over every weekend and seems incapable of walking and runs all the time.... so I'm still a bit leery of floorstanders for this reason .
I understand Smokey, I have grandkids too. I tell them to stay home, music is more important, ...ha!

gotta love em!
here's a thought. find a nice pair of large walnut advents. they sound incredible, look great(in a retro kinda way), and are truly classic, even by today's standards.
Jaybo ;

interesting thought , I bought a pair of late model baby mini advents on ebay and replaced the woofers with some Audax for music in the shop . Not too bad . Then my son gave me back the lame KLH bookshelf 3 ways I bought for him . I put all new drivers in it and got a 3 way crossover from some Baby Advents on eBay . Sounded not too horrible, but after reading online I discovered that the crossover didn't match my new drivers very well esp. ohmwise . That's when I bought the Cambridge Soundworks M80's . My 20 year old Infinity Studio 100 floorstanders had been retired from foam rot and lack of a kit for them , plus they weren't very good to begin with .
I looked online and it sounds like the New Large Advents were the improved version of the Large Advent . Thanks for the suggestion .
Hey ;
A response to a thread that's five months old !.
Audiogon forumite Jaybo planted a thought in my head with his suggestion of the Large Advent and it sounded intriguing . I did a bunch of research online and it seemed like the concept was right for me . Purchasing them on the auction site was around $400 and up for a clean pair. But , they still are used speakers with some years on them . Then I decided to instead use my old existing Infinity Studio Monitor 100 cabinets and replace all drivers and Xover . The cabinets aren't the nicest looking , but are solid . I bought a pair of Morel 39 tweets and a pair of Morel 10" 1075's at Madisound along with their Leap design and the components for a new crossover . The Infinitys had no padding inside the boxes so I installed the nice foam that Madisound carries. The woofers were on sale for $99 each so for less than $400 I've got just the ticket for my needs and the retrofitted Infinity boxes now sound really fine . Not really too efficient , but nice tone . The next step is to eventually get some 2.0 cu. ft. cabinets built that are a little better looking and move the components inside those . I'm still under my budget limit and have definitely upgraded the sound of my hi-fi . The Cambridge M80's did get better sounding over time so they must have needed a little break=in time but they are redundant now with this new setup. Thanks Jaybo !