Speaker advice for first hi-fi setup - Monitor Audio Gold vs. KEF R series!

As others have mentioned, you are auditioning systems, not speakers, at the dealers.  I think your best approach would be to determine the best system within your budget at each dealer.  A good dealer should be willing to spend time with you swapping amps, preamps, streamers, etc. in order to best match components to produce the sound you want.  Once you've determined the optimal system at each dealer, you can then choose which entire system to purchase. One thing in particular that the dealer should consider is any limitations your room puts on speaker placement.  Good luck!

Speakers make no sound until hooked up to other components.  Often overlooked by many who make declarations about how a speaker sounds.  The room being the biggest factor and of course cables..ugh.  KEF makes great sounding speakers at a fair price.  I have fond memories of my old C5’s.  Get a pair and enjoy...and don’t look back here for validation...too many nutcases!

Thanks for the input guys!

So many speakers (systems!), so little time (and money).

Guess the journey is as much fun as the destination.

Monitor Audio ard KEF are good choices, I use KEF in home theatre and have a pair of Monitor Audio Platinum PL300II for 2 channel. I have heard all levels of MA from bronze to gold over the years and find them to be a very musical speaker. When I want a blast from the past I just switch out to my Klipsch LaScalas.

I have Kef R300s bought 5 years ago. I bought them after side by side listening compared to LS50s for 4-5 hours in a shop. If they changed the amp they ran both speakers thru it. I found 2 key things. First, the R300s had more bass than the LS 50s to my ears but otherwise sounded almost the same in midrange and highs. The electronics placed in front had a HUGE impact on the overall sound of BOTH. I bought a Marantz PM8005 to go with the R300s. It was nice, warm and could run direct or thru the preamp. It was also broken in as were the speakers. I was told both would take 50-100 hours to break in. Since I lived 4-5000 miles away from the shop this was a key thing to know and I respected that I was told this upfront. They didnt lie. The Kefs took a good 100 hours to break in as did the Marantz. During that period, I also swapped out the amp at home using 2 other pieces I had from McIntosh and ATI. Ultimately, I loved the McIntosh combination the best and used it for months. The Kefs were ruthlessly revealing but mostly neutral. I learned I had some really great sounding CDs. .Meanwhile I ran the Marantz through Spendors and Ohms and eventually that broke in fine. When I finally reunited the two "modern" pieces I was surprised at how good they sounded. Each had gotten to the point of mostly being broken in. I found even more that the combo was very revealing. To this day 5 years later I like both pieces but am thinking of upgrading the amp... to see what might deliver even more of that neutral sound. The speakers are keeper unless I buy better Kefs. I do like the full Reference series but that would require a few investments to deliver....
Moral....buy what you like, listen as much as possible for synergy and assume breakin...