Klipsch RB-51 vs Epos ELS-3 for a small room?

Neither. Check out the x-ls from av123.com.

I helped my in-laws out, purchasing and setting up a pair of ELS-3's in a small room. Not bad, but I think you can do better. They don't come up that often, but see if you can find a pair of Soliloquy Sat-5 monitors. I have those in my kitchen and they sound really good. None of those small, bookshelf monitors are going to yield much tight bass in that pricerange, but the Sat-5's do really get the midrange right and image very well. The company is no longer in business, sadly, but that means the deals on their speakers have been better than ever. You might check with A'gon seller Underwoodwally to see if he might have a pair (he had some of the last remaining leftovers from the company).

Marco

Agreed with both Mtbrider and Marco. The ELS-3 is a pretty good speaker, but the Soliloquy Sat-5 is better (and closeout priced from Walter (Underwoodwally)) . The x-ls from av123.com is cheaper and is said to be THE value speaker by many who have heard them (I haven't).

If you want really cheap, check out the Insignia from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7705307&type=product&id=1138085354138

It's on sale for $39.99/pr and I've seen many comments saying it sound pretty good. If you want a cool project, check out the Insignia upgrade project at:

http://www.gr-research.com/insignia.htm

You could have a really decent speaker for about $100 plus a bit of sweat!

Enjoy,

TIC