If you like NHT's sound, you might want to go for a 3.3. That is a very well regarded speaker. It has very powerful bass, excellent imaging, and a 'good' level of detail. It is also designed to sit near a wall. I own the Virgo which is also a good choice; Not as much bass, needs to be out in the room more, but has tremendous detail and imaging. If rock is your priority go for the NHT for the bass. If it's jazz, then try the virgo for it's clarity. You might want to read up on stereophile's descriptions.
Hear ye! Thou who knowist thy speakers..
All you speaker connoisseurs, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. I live near Yosemite Park in the Sierra Mountains of Northern California, so getting to enough high end audio stores to audition speakers is very difficult and time consuming. Steering me in the right direction will save me many days and hours of travel. I own a Meridian 508.24 CD player, Audio Research LS 16 pre-amp, Plinius SA 100 MKIII Amp. Nordost SPM interconnects on the Meridian and NBS Monitor IV interconnects on the pre-amp and amp. Black Mamba on the CD and NBS Monitor IV power cords on the rest. My current speakers are NHT 2.5i with either (I switch them occassionally) NBS Monitor IV (warmer) or JPS Superconductor+ (revealing) bi-wire speaker cables. For the money ($1300), the NHT 2.5i are the best speakers I've heard, but it's time to get a speaker that compliments the rest of my system. I'm willing to spend no more than $5,000 for used or new speakers. I do have them hooked-up to the DSS receiver and DVD (stereo), but I mainly listen to music. Classical, jazz, world beat, rock.. If it sounds good, I'll listen to it. Which speakers in your humble opinion should I focus on and why?