Speaker Choice ?

Well obviously "best" will be very subjective and highly debatable.
Perhaps you could tell us what kind of music you listen to, what your sonic priorities are, how loud you usually listen, etc. This may help with some recommendations.

Cheers,
John

Along with Jmc's post, I'd add that most. Speakers will work in that room. My room is 22 wide, 18 deep with cathedral ceilings and I use 5 1/2 Fostex full range drivers with a couple of 8in subs. Sound easily fills the room and the kitchen/dining room behind the front wall. I listen to mostly vintage rock and its offspring. A 35 watt tube amp drives my 95db speakers.

I don't know that I agree that "most speakers will work in that room". That is a very large room, and will take some fairly efficient full range speakers to fill it with music.

You can find excellent Dunlavy SC-Vs for under 5K and they would be stunning in a room this size. There are a lot of great speakers that do some things very well, but I have not heard any speakers, short of 20K+, that does everything as well as the Dunlavy(s).

Jmc-what I meant was there's a lot of flexibility in placement options. Of course, the equipment will make a difference. I'd rather have a larger room than a smaller room.

I agree with Brauser, Dunlavys (Vs or even IVs) would sound nice in that room. You would need a pretty strong tube amp to drive them (ARC, VAC, VTL), but I have always felt that Dunlavys sound best with tubed amplification. All this depends on your musical priorities, of course, but the nice thing about Dunlavy speakers is that, while perhaps not the most transparent of speakers, they really do everything very well.

I had dunlavy sc III's in a room a little smaller than that and I agree 100 percent that dunlavy 4,5, or 6's should work extremely well in your room.
I ran tube amps with mine as well; audiovalve challenger 180 monoblocks and the sound was stunning; my only complaint was the bass could have been better but I always thought that was related to the sc III's having only 8 inch drivers; the 4,5,or 6's have larger woofers and should pressurize the room even better. Dunlavy's are still a tough speaker to beat with even todays makes.
Also now and then Duntech speakers show up in the used market and should be considered as well; I know they are similar to dunlavy but I do not know how the link is established.

Reference 3a Grand Veena (used) VAC 160i.

see if Vandersteen's voice is something you might like.

03-05-15: Zimwig
Reference 3a Grand Veena (used) VAC 160i.

That's the exact combo that I'm rolling with, sounds great!!

You guys may have a laugh at this, but in my 2-channel reference room I'm using the Dunlavy SC-Vs with a Dunlavy subwoofer. Only a few of the subs were made and this one is in an SC-IV cabinet with 4 twelve inch woofers. It's passive so I use a separate amp/equalizer with it. The result, well if you love your bass clean and able to slam you through the floor, this set-up gets it done.

Also, I agree with the recommendations for tube amps. I've tried different amps, but personally I have liked the high current stuff from Jeff Rowland and the Marantz Reference Monos the best.

Many questions remain unanswered.
Are you alone for the music since you said family room.
How do you like you music presented? Natural or pinpoint or both? Loudness?
How much freedom do you have with speaker placement? I.e into the room.
Music, media, or movies?
So, I presume you are not always in the listening position, since you mentioned the family room.
I would suggest wide dispersion speakers (homogeneous) if more than one family member in a different spot is listening to music.
1) German Physiks
2) HEA
3) Audiokinesis
4) Larsen
5) MBL

Otherwise controlled directivity speakers
1) AK
2) Geddes
3) Amphion

If you decide to look at wide dispersion speakers, be sure to include the Gallo Reference 3.5s for audition. They have about 300 deg. dispersion with a truly magnificent tweeter coupled to very fast carbon-fibre midrange modules. These can be found gently used on Audiogon for right around $2,000 /pr. - an excellent price for these world class speakers...

-RW-

speaker price looking used around 5000.00 whats my best choice.

My favorite question and my favorite answer...

The best choice are the speakers that sound best to you, are within your budget and can be properly driven by your amp!

So start auditioning rather than asking a bunch a strangers on the internet. Or are you more concerned about buying whats popular rather than whats best for you?

I’m sorry, but need to chime in here. I’m really tiring of the plethora of lazy, and often rudely worded "suggestions" by quite a few a’goners that go something like ... "just listen and don’t worry about what other people think". Instead of reacting so thoughtlessly/robotically please stop to consider the many things you know nothing about when offering up this wise-@$$ "gem of knowledge". The suggestion has never helped me and not sure what good it does for many others.

It seems to me just another form of bullying that keeps people from wanting to get involved.

Getting others’ opinions on ... *anything* is often an excellent way to discover one’s own opinions and clearly a great way to acquire knowledge whether useful or not. This is how we all learn starting with tying our shoes, choosing our friends, deciding on choices for how we’ll live our lives and yes purchasing things! We don’t have to agree with *anybody*, but that doesn’t mean their opinion doesn’t help us decide.

And what about the fact that some people just don’t have the $$, time or convenient location to "audition", as if that’s an easy thing to do if they did?

If ALL one can do is spend an entire weekend reading Audiogon forums they will ...
- get a feeling for who is respected/well received here
- get a feeling for which components and ideas are well received
- get a feeling for which members might have similar rooms as theirs
- get a feeling for which members might have similar tastes as theirs
- possibly make contact with some real live audiogoners!

What an outstanding way to start! Now you have 30 things you’re interested in listening to and YES - RESEARCHING FURTHER AND AUDITIONING IN YOUR OWN HOME rather than 1000 that you knew nothing about. Can’t speak for anyone else, but that weekend right there saved me tens of thousands and months of travelling the world looking for *adequate* ways to audition all those components, most of which would be a waste of time and money because I didn’t like them or they were much more expensive than something else I liked just as much!!

Thanks for resurrecting a thread that is now close to a full year old.  I wonder if the OP got his new speakers by now?  

Oh, stop the bullying and censorship and get back to listening. Just because you want to believe you speak for others doesn't mean you do.    

I'm well aware of the age of the post, and have noticed others on Audiogon who prefer to respond to worthwhile posts long after the last posting. Why? Possibly because it's the first time they saw the post? Maybe they have something to say (hopefully worthwhile)? Maybe the post is relevant to them and others NOW? Maybe most people just don't care as much as you do?

If Audiogon decides to leave a post open then it's OPEN. Regarding this post:

- it's a general topic about speakers in a big room - a lot of people are interested in this topic even if they don't have a big room
- the comments here can be applied to anyone asking the same question EVERY DAY. In that sense this one never ends

See what you did? Got me all kinds of fired up. I think I'll search on McIntosh now and re-resurrect all those re-resurrections that are overdue. Better bring your posse. 

Golden Ear Triton One. And you can get a new pair let alone used at the $5000 mark. I use solid state so I am in no position to recommend anything in the tube amp world. I can tell you the Triton's are good-very efficient (92db) so should be easy on the tubes. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Sandy Gross, President of Golden Ear, uses a tube setup with his Triton's.

HazyJ is right when saying opinions can narrow down a search. I would literally have to travel the U.S.A. to audition all the speakers I'm interested in. Everything I read has helped me in my searches for better gear.

Can I have my pudding now, or do I really need to eat my meat first?

Paraneer--doing a little detective work by looking at his threads, I think the OP got Vandersteen Quatros.

Vicweast, sorry, but as you know, you can't have any pudding till you eat your meat.