My grandfather needs some suggestions for speakers

Take a look at Salk Songtowers. Or maybe you can find a good used pair of Hales Revelation Three if lucky. He may also enjoy Vandersteen 2CE Signature Edition, all great speakers for the $$. Good luck

Here is another speaker suggestion for your grandfather... I also have experience with the Revel Performa F30 loudspeakers. There is a pair for sale here on Agon. I enjoyed the sound from these as well, and IMO these are hard to beat for the sellers asking price. Spend the extra $ on room treatment.

Have fun with it and best of luck in your search. It's not all that difficult to put together an impressive sounding system. LMK if I can help further.

Room treatment is extremely important. I use Audimute panels & traps with good results. The room is probably the most important part... Aside from the loudspeakers and their placement within the listening space. It helps to have a good reference to start from, and this gentleman wants a good set of loudspeakers first. A pair of ProAC Response 2.5 just came up for sale here on Audiogon and they are within your budget. Another nice sounding pair of speakers...

Also a nice pair of Vandersteen 3a Signature edition on USAudioMart at a good price!

Another suggestion for you grandfather... I have experience with the Revel Performa F30 loudspeakers, also for sale here on Agon. I enjoyed the sound from these as well and IMO these are hard to beat for the sellers asking price. Have fun with it and best of luck in your search. It's not all that difficult to put together an impressive sounding system. LMK if I can help.

Yep, it's pretty obvious to most that I understand your point Rlwainwright. The Polk speakers are far from the best and most exiting speakers available in this gentleman's price range. The OP wants some new speakers for Granddad and the Polks may be old news. Maybe you are really just looking for an argument?

I think you should tune your room to your system, after you get the new speakers positioned where you want them Grandad. Might also wanna let them play for a few days first. I agree with Rlwainwright that room treatment is a top concern and should be addressed.

Caution: the Thiel may be too hot on top, IMO. And, not unlike planar speakers, they sometimes require a subwoofer.

BTW, I have spent time with Maggie 3.7! They sound great... in the frequency range that they are capable of playing in! Qualities are the ability to reproduce a lifelike presentation of the tunes with stunning mid-range and amazing dimensionality. BUT, they are lacking in the lower registers for my taste. Just something missing down deep IMO. This is all system dependent of course, but I feel like I got a pretty good helping of what these speakers are capable of. It's all about what you like your music to sound like...

Maybe check out speakers from companies like Vienna Acoustics & Von Schweikert also.