What is the best audiophile speaker for a tiny square room?

fuzztone

Which Class D and which ESL are you using?

Atmasphere, I know your amps are very popular with Soundlabs and your explanation makes a lot of sense. How does class A fit into the sound quality equation for AS amps? Some people say for tubes, class A doesn't make that much difference- the way it does in SS amps. What do you think?

yyzsantabarbara

Why did you chose Thiel rather than others for that room? I already ordered GIK panels.

I am leaning toward keeping Soundlabs and changing to a tube amp. Any tube amp recommendations for a small room? I have a great tube preamp in BAT Rex 2. I would like a top quality amp-preferably used. Do others agree with russ69 that >80W would be sufficient? I just sold my Pass Labs 250.8X--450W of heat, just on idle. I considered BAT VK-655 (300W) for synergy, but it generates 400 W heat on idle. 

Musicfan

Ignore that ad. M545s are still my speakers. Ok,  I am glad you and Russ69 think that I can get by with smaller tube amps. I don't want to use a subwoofer as my room with the audio rack is pretty clustered already. What amps do people suggest?

I appreciate everyone's input. Although my Soundlab panels sound great, one thing that bothers me in this small space is that they are like monuments standing in front of me blocking my imaginary sound stage. So it seems as if the instruments located on the sides of the stage feel like they are coming from behind the big 5 ft black "curtain" of the speakers. If I had 10 feet of empty space between the speakers, I could "visualize" the whole stage. Or if the speakers were shorter, I could visualize over them.

During the day, turning the lights off doesn't help.

@russ69 

Martin logans have a sensitivity of 89db vs my Soundlab's 86db. So I probably need at least 100W? Also there is the question of triode vs pentode, ultra linear....

@gman74 
Can you explain why you recommend the open baffle?

@tom_cat24.   Have you heard the AGD? It would be good to know their sound characteristic. Anyone?

I have talked to SL about amps. They have used Parasound JC1s and Atman-Sphere. I think tubes are more popular with SL, particularly AS. But AS MA-2, which is usually recommended with SL, produces 1600W of heat just on idle (2 Monoblocks together). Plus, it is >$20,000.

Do you like the majestics more than the big brothers?

Do you like the majestics more than the big brothers?