Vandersteen 7 mark ll or big Kef blades

Proacman, no not true at all with the Blades needing a lot of space on the side and rear to sound good. 

Most issues in terms of side wall placement will be amelorated with bass traps if the room is loading the bass drivers howver we have used them at shows close to the side walls and they still sounded great.

In terms of price that is a differnent story.

A well setup pair of Blades or Blade 2 are very impressive. 

Also the sound of the Kef Ref 5 and 3 are very similar and they are front radiating only so if you liked the sound of the Blades you may want to consider the Ref series. 

We would also recommend you listen to a pair of Legacy Signatures they sound quite simlar to the CT with a very similar voicing, at half the price with greater bass response down to 22hz and far greater efficiency 93db.

Waiting for the not first order slope guys to proclaim these speakers are not good because they are not first order sloped loudspeakers which is bunk. 

We are in your proximity and we have the Legacy, Kef Reference and Blades our doors are always open if you would like to hear some of our alternatives who knows you might just be impressed with the Legacy's or the Kefs.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Kef, and Legacy dealers

@proacman I do not think the Blades need much rear space. There are a few A’gon users who have a near field setup with Blade 2 in tiny rooms (limited side wall space). They say they love it though I do not think they crack the volume. These are rooms more suited for the KEF LS50. I do not have the guts to try this myself in my 12x11x9 room. If I had a 20x15x9 or larger room then I would get a Blade 2.

The biggest issue with my room is the 123 inch screen that sits between and recessed from the speakers. This gives me very little available space on the sides and since the screen is recessed, the speakers are close to the back wall on either side of the recessed area. Only about 18 inches on either side and although I can move the speakers away from the back wall any farther than 2 feet blocks the screen from viewing distance (room is 18 x 14 x 8). The reviews I have read mentioned how there should be room on the sides because of the side facing woofers. Seems with all the options out there I would be better off looking at front firing speakers. But one day I will take a listen at a dealer (such as Audio Doctor) with the speakers placed near the rear and side walls.

@proacman  I am speaker shopping myself (figured out what I want) and one thing that helped me a lot in communicating with dealers and other A'gon users was posting photos of my room in the virtual systems section of this site.

I have on numerous cases posted a link to the virtual system when dealing with dealers.

How nice to have choices, many of us here own a variety of speakers and do a ton of work wringing great sound out of difficult rooms. There is a lot more to Vandersteen than a first order filter, notwithstanding comments above. The Quattro has powered bass with 11 bands of analog EQ and replicates the transfer function of your main amplifier, which provides coherent sub and up matching.
the Carbon tweeter is essentially the same driver as model 7, which is on many best value lists, show awards, reviewers, musician homes etc.... just like some of the brands mentioned above.
well, just finished rebuilding some Decca ribbons and now on to tweaking the bypass on the 3rd order filter,.... they will augment some electrostatics....
have fun on your search, lots of Quattro s out there
your local dealer is a prince of a guy
best
enjoy the music !!!!!