Your Thoughts on the Best Bookshelf Speaker

Kind of "Sophia's" frumpy English sister "Emma", but the newer Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 sounds awfully nice. The Harbeth P3ESR also sounds great in a smaller package. I find these have a similar balance and presence to what I remember about the older SF's. Super musical.

By the way, have you seen that SF has re-released their Minima stand mount speaker from around that era?

Another small beautiful Italian speaker that sounds phenomenal is the Diapason Adamantes.

Not sure of your budget, but I think the Ridge Street Audio Sasson is an outstanding stand mounted speaker. I hesitate to call it a bookshelf speaker because it required dedicated stands, is fairly large and I think they weigh around 200 lbs each . However, if you are looking for an exceptional stand mount 2 way speaker, the Sassons are really good.

signums will set you back around 2k today in great condition. you can pick up electa amators bigger)around 2.5k....I'm sure you already know that the newer sf bookshelf models don't make it when compared to these jewels....some ea's are on agon now....they were lightning in a bottle. a beautifully made tiny speaker that is actually underpriced for performance is pioneer's whisky barrell speaker. they're sold on their website, and though they don't have snob appeal, they sound incredible for tiny boxes. ae1's are still around doing everything right as well.