Speakers with wide listening window

One suggestion would be to find a used pair of Daedalus DA-1's. They are specifically designed to provide excellent off-axis response. I had pair until I upgraded to the DA-1.1's and loved them. Nice speaker, very coherent, musical and warm with good dynamics. Not the best in terms of high resolution but a very good all around speaker. I've seen a few come up on the A'gon but not many and they have been priced generally somewhat above your stated 2K max.

How about wireless earphones?

You could try Ohm Walsh speakers or Decware ERRs. You could get the ERRs new within your budget and the Onkyo could drive them. The Ohms would probably work better with a more powerful, higher-current amp.

In either case, you'd get a wide soundstage from either of those speakers. The vertical plane may be a bit of a challenge.

Totem speakers are designed with very wide dispersion characteristics in both horizontal and vertical axes.

One of the larger models may do a good job in your [large!] room.

Try crossing the axis of the tweeters somewhere ahead of where you will be listening; the closer to the speakers they are crossed the broader the area of listening but as in most things expermentation is necessary. May help, if not you have no expense.

The "listening window" has two aspects: Tonal balance, and imaging.

In order to get good tonal balance across a wide area, you want a speaker whose off-axis response is very similar to its on-axis response. This also pays dividends in naturalness of timbre and reduced listening fatigue, as it's desirable for the reverberant energy in the room to have approximately the same spectral balance as the first-arrival sound.

In order to get decent imaging for off-centerline listeners, you want the far speaker to be louder than the near speaker to offset the difference in arrival times. This is harder to get, and requires well-controlled radiation patterns and proper setup (strong toe-in). The key is that the near speaker's output must fall off fairly rapidly and uniformly as you move off-axis towards the outside, so that the far speaker ends up being louder at least in the upper mid and treble frequencies, where we get most of our localization cues from. Imaging will still be best up and down the centerline, of course.

Imho, ime, ymmv, etc.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Bose 901, the only way to get a wide listening window is to use a speaker that is so defuse that it can't possibly have a "sweet spot". The higher resolution and more transparent a speaker the smaller and sweeter the sweet spot. It is simple physics primarily because there is only one spot where the listener is the same distance away from both speakers.
Cheers Johnnyr

As others have suggested get a speaker with good off axis response.

Think of speakers as lights. Most designs are like a spot light. A few are designed with wide even dispersion that makes the off axis match the on axis - a flood light.

What to look for? Take a look at Stereophile frequency plots where they show the on and off axis response for various degrees. Look for a design that is even and smooth both on and off axis.

Example of good "flood light" response

Example of Bad "spot light Response

Notice how the bad response had a huge hole in the midrange off axis. This means that with this design you will only get an even response when sitting close to the speakers and in the sweetspot.

Audioconnection wrote:

"...the only way to get a wide listening window is to use a speaker that is so defuse that it can't possibly have a "sweet spot". The higher resolution and more transparent a speaker the smaller and sweeter the sweet spot. It is simple physics primarily because there is only one spot where the listener is the same distance away from both speakers."

What you're overlooking is that the ear localizes sound sources by TWO mechanisms: Arrival time AND intensity. If we can make the far speaker louder than the near one for off-centerline listeners, we can offset the earlier arrival time of the near speaker, and deliver decent soundstaging for off-centerline listeners. The way to do this is with controlled directivity and proper setup, and the end result is much more effective than simply using a diffuse speaker. This sort of setup will work better for some listening postions than for others, but will never be worse than the diffuse speaker for off-centerline listeners, and will still give very good imaging for listeners in the traditional "sweet spot" because of significantly reduced early sidewall interaction (due to the relatively narrow pattern and strong toe-in).

Duke

I do something similar to what AK is saying with my Dynaudio monitors to make them perform more similarly to my more omni OHMs in one of my rooms where I have the placement tweaked for off axis listening.

I would seriously consider the Shelby+Kroll Nano monitors. I've had these now for almost a week and the soundstage is phenominal, it just follows you around the room. I was even listening behind the speakers and didn't notice a significant difference and mine aren't even completely broken in yet. I've been listenting to mine with a cheap Yamaha receiver and can only imagine how much better they would sound with better electronics.
I would contact Tim over at Shelby+Kroll They may have some B stock remaining. He's a great guy to deal with and I doubt you could do much better in this price range.

Ohm Walsh are very good at this.

Ditto: look at Ohm. You get a 4month in-home trial; if you don't like them, you're only out the cost of shipping them back. Whether or not you like their presentation is a matter of personal taste, but they're definitely worth a look. Very well priced, too.

Try towing your speakers so that they cross in front of you.
This works very well for the AV and HT listeners.
It allows the soundstage to image in a much wider spot so everyone on the couch can have a bit of imging.
It's free.

One more vote for Omnis. I use Ohm. Decware, Mirage, and Duevel (Planet), all offer omnidirectional models in your price range. You can check the manufacturer's websites for details and Vann's (steep discounts) for Mirage pricing.

Marty

I had the Mirage M1 ages ago with Classe electronics and Meridian cdp. They were easy to live with, not fussy of placements, and as I recalled sounded wonderful from almost anywhere in the room.

OHMS...

Despite the limited reviews I can find, I'm looking at going with the Decware ERRs. I would consider the Ohms, but for the size of my room, I'd be in the $2k+ range (unless I manage to track down a pair used).

You can do better than $2K on the OHMs with refurbished older cabinets rather than new. You have to talk to John at OHM to determine if available.

You can also trade in up to two pair of old OHMs with refubishable cabinets (driver do not need to work) for up to 40% off last I checked.

Plus John runs sales from time to time.

For my OHM 5s, I saved between 50-60% compared to price of all new speakers by leveraging these together.

I traded in a pair of Walsh 2s I already owned and also purchased a pair of C2s for ~$130 + shipping straight to OHM for trade-in off Ebay. Together, these cost me less than $200 and saved me over $2000 off the biggest, baddest OHMs.