modest towers with high WAF for living room?


Looking for opinions on this one. I've been running with Paradigm Studio-20s (V5) for over a year and want to upgrade. This is for our living room, 100% 2ch music. The Studios have been a nice intro into quality speakers. Now, I'm looking for something with a bit more bass presence plus, I want to get away from speaker stands.
My living room is large, 14X24', but we tend to listen at low-mid levels ... jazz, blues, classical, folk, some rock. I don't blast or need "wall thumpers".

I really want these to be nice, attractive, to get buy-in from the wife! ; )

Budget? Well < $2K preferrably, $2500 max.

My priorities: high WAF, sonic upgrade from the Studio20s, modest size ... don't want them to dominate the room.

Some candidate
albireo13

Showing 1 response by timrhu

For WAF I suggest a speaker with a sloped baffle such as Thiel. I have owned three speakers my wife approved of; Thiel 1.5. Thiel 1.6 and Meadowlark Kestrel IIs.
She actually once commented on how nice the Thiel 1.6s looked in the living room. I couldn't believe my ears as she never mentions the stereo except to say it doesn't match her decor. The sloped baffles make them less intrusive, according to my wife.
As for sound quality, I prefer speakers with time aligned drivers and simple, 1st-order crossovers.