Lost in the loudspeaker wilderness...
Greetings all. I've been slowly but surely upgrading the various components of my system. The old Mac 1900 was replaced by a Mac 6900 integrated. CD is a Raysonic CD 128, turntable is a Music Hall MM-5 with a Dynavector 10x5 cartridge. Speakers are Focal/ JM Lab Chorus 706 (bought in 2000 or so). I've decided the next logical upgrade is the speakers. They're decent little speakers but it seems clear to me it's their turn to go. So here's my dilemma: my living room is a oddly configured. Ceilings are 9', and the room itself is 14' long and 20' wide. The way the room is set up dictates that system is on the 20' length of wall--the speakers can be only be placed a foot or so from the rear wall. Presumably the smallish room makes bookshelf speakers on stands the logical choice, but in terms of space consumed there is not much difference (and there's no wife or girlfriend to object) between them and towers. I just sort of assume a small room obviates the need/utility of floorstanders. Additionally my taste in music is rather, uh, esoteric & eclectic. People like Iannis Xenakis, Gyorgi Ligeti, Nurse With Wound, Kraftwerk, Cecil Taylor, Captain Beefheart, etc. Punk, post-punk, free jazz, psych, no-wave, minimalism, the occasional techno or metal group, post-industrial drone, music concrete, etc. If you know the magazine The Wire that's kind of where I'm at. I like the classics too--Neil Young, Led Zep, Sabbath and other classic rock staples; classical, especially chamber music; and some straight ahead small group jazz (mostly bop from the 1940's on). So all this is to say I give my speakers a bit of a workout. Long story short (too late!) I need speakers suitable to a smallish room, and suitable (to a reasonable extent, obviously there are compromises that will have to be made) to my taste in music. Budget is between $1000-$2000. New or used doesn't make much difference to me. So far I've had a chance to (albeit briefly) check out Dynaudio Focus 140's (very nice) and B&W 805 (also nice) and spent a bit more time with Aerial Acoustic model 5B which I thought really shined on acoustic instruments but tended to lose the thread on the low end at times. Any thoughts? I've been reading reviews and forums incessantly for the past month and am now I think I'm more unsure than when I started.
