Smallish floorstander that sounds good placed just

Duevel Planets are the first to pop in my mind. Hard to find used, but as I recall they are about a grand new.

I recently bought a pair of Rega RS3 and they get my vote also. I have never heard or owned the Arro's and I'm sure they are very good, but I can speak for the Rega's and I enjoy them very much.

Meadowlark Swifts are sometimes available used in the $500-$600 range. Good sound and easy to drive. Front transmission line ports.

Arros are very good - strengths are imaging and tone. They were designed to sound good placed near the wall, which will give you more bass response and weaker imaging, but if anything, makes the excellent tone stand out even more. Tuning with mass loading is necessary as suggested above to avoid bloated or one-note-ish bass from port reinforcement. I second the Silverline, Rega and Walsh suggestions given above as viable alternatives.

One caveat, I have not heard any of these speakers with the Nova, but feel the Arros have tremendous latent capcity to reward and sound much better with higher end electronics. I have heard the Nova with Sonus Faber speakers and it was a very good match, but would not place the Fabers next to the wall. FWIW.

I second the Rega RS3 or RS5 speakers. Great floor standers. They have a front facing port on the bottom. That makes them more easy to place near a wall. They are also easy enough to drive with your Nova.

What about the Ohm Micro Walsh Tall? A used pair should be under $1000. Output is attenuated in the rear, to prevent problems with reflections. Might be a great choice.

Sorry, I just saw the budget note. Merlins will almost certainly be too expensive. I also use Preludes (in my gym) as recommended above. They sit near wall with pretty good results.

Marty

The older version of the Merlin VSM (SE or earlier) actually benefits tonally from such placement (tho the imaging is slightly traded off). The speaker was a little lean thru the mid/upper bass and the reinforcement/rise in cancellation frequency from near wall placement fleshes it out nicely. It might be a bit pricey for use with a Nova in a second system (but I bet it mates very well, sonically). You might find a 10+ year old that makes sense $-wise.

Good Luck,

Marty

Grannyring,

I have the Sonus Faber Concerto Domus. I bought these
for my bedroom system - small footprint, 6" woofer,
ported in the front & they have very nice outrigger feet.
I paid $1800.00 new, I've seen them under $1200.00 used.
They sound very nice, to me..

If you can find a pair of Spendor S5e's, that would be a good option.

I'm going to recommend two brands on the assumption that you would be willing to hunt down older speakers.

Allison, and Snell.
In particular, Allison Ones, or Threes, though any of the "CD" series also work well against the rear wall. With Snell, you would need one of the original (Peter Snell) designs, so look for models with letter names like "A","J","K", etc.

By now, most of them are going to need new surrounds, if they haven't been replaced yet, but that's not a big deal. IME, buying speakers that need surrounds is usually a benefit... it drives the price down much lower than the cost of the parts, and it only takes an hour or so to do. The sound from them will be better than anything else south of a couple grand.

Cliff

Vienna Bach Grand

I forgot to mention my $1000 used budget.

The Arros are a good choice - they also can be "tuned" to an extent by varying the amount of mass loading (zero to 20 pounds per cabinet).

Rega R3s or RS3s are often recommended for near-wall placement. I had R1s, which were great. The RS3s have side-firing woofers, which can point either in or out, so they either need nothing between them (for inward-firing placement) or some space to the sides (for outward-firing).

Silverline Preludes might also be a good possibility. I had Minuets, which are excellent speakers and not fussy about placement. I imagine that the Preludes would work well six inches from the wall.