Speaker suggestions for less than ideal accoustics


I live in a lovely timber frame home that works well for our lifestyle but presents challenges when trying to create a good audio listening environment. My great room has a wall of windows, tile floors (radiant heat), a large stone fireplace,28' ceiling peak, open to a loft area and open to the kitchen/dining area. The space is approx 1000 sq ft. I have listened in stores to some nice speakers (JM labs 816s, Def Tech 7004, Paradigm studio 100s, PSB T55,) but I know none of them will sound the same in my great room. Anyone ever faced this challenge and know if certain qualities in speaker designs lend themselves to this? I have learned a lot from this forum and wish there were more places to hear some of the equipment mentioned. BTW,this is for music listening only. Home theatre will have its own dedicated room in the basement where things can be built to suit
timberman
I know a guy with a similar setup. He has ATC active 100's which can play 120dB continuous. I've seen ATC active 50's for about $7k a few years ago. Maybe the active 20's??Forget the passive models.
Timberman, do you have any ideas or restrictions as to where the speakers will be/can be placed and your listening position? I assume that since you're talking about "precise and accurate", you care more about sitting down in the sweetspot to listen most of the time?
I am restricted to speaker placement and realistically most of my listening will be done while moving about the room, or during dinner, or while working on the computer.Those other times when doing nothing but listening and enjoying there is not a precise sweetspot, if in fact that would be equidistant center and back from where I can only assume would be the speaker placement.
I guess a picture would show this a lot better than I can describe. Bottom line is that in my search to date I have heard music like I never heard it before, and it sounds wonderful.I am not ready to invest a lot of money into the possible end state right now but I am willing to find a nice start point and go from there.
Same ears,in fact over 50 yrs now, same music genre preference,(jazz and classic rock),a bit wiser, a bit mellower, a bit more time to relax and a few more bucks. Must be the equipment.
To follow up on Cdc's comments

I use ATC SCM 100 active monitors, an SCM 0.1/15 sub and the SCM 20's. I fear the 20's may be a little small for your needs (they definitely need a sub). I am not sure about the 50's as I have not heard them.

What I can confirm, as Cdc says, the 100's are indeed quite comfortable playing louder than anything I have ever heard outside of a rock concert. And with very low levels of distortion or compression.

As a pro speaker primarily used for mixing/mastering they have good dispersion of the sound field with a very even energy level throughout a large room...practically speaking this means that speaker placement is not critical (there is a solid image but no critical sweetspot). They also play consistently at all sound levels. These two factors may make them highly suitable for your application.

However....

A caveat here, these really are "studio monitors" primarily used by professionals for critical listening. You will get ruthlessly accurate sound and a dynamic range that only pros demand and wives/neighbours may hate. Everything is critically damped in the design. The nice sounding harmonic colourations and warm resonant base commonly found in most widely appealing speakers, are totally absent.

They are also, admittedly, not pretty => see the pictures I have posted of my system.

The word "monitor" has been freely adopted by almost all consumer speaker manufacturers and has become quite meaningless, however, in this particular case, "Studio Control Monitor" really does mean something. The large ATC SCM 100 model remains principally designed for and sold to professionals and will probably never be very popular with consumers.
Timberman, I share your concerns for how speakers will sound in "real world" environments. I'm amazed at audio reviewers who rave about the imaging, etc., as long as they keep their head within the sweet spot area of about 1 cubic foot.

So...for you I'd recommend a speaker with wide dispersion, possibly a dipole or Ohm Walsh. With your reflective surfaces, I'd stay with something warm sounding and stay away from anything harsh. A sub will help keep the bass from being lost in the big room, especially for rock. Of the speakers you've listed, I think that the Paradigms would do well. I've had really good luck listening to Totem's that were placed in another room. Somehow they keep the detail in seemingly impossible acoustics without sounding harsh. I'd personally love to try the Totem Winds in a big room like yours. Buy on A'gon and you can always resell.