Speakers for a large room for around $1000

Mirage OMD-15, available in black or rosewood. These were originally designed to sell at $2500/pair, but Vann's, who's an authorized Mirage dealer, sells them at $1K/pair in either finish. I paid $1700 for mine two years ago and don't regret it because of the value I've received.

As to your room-filling needs, my living room is very similar to yours--13.5 x 19 ft, with 15' tall cathedral ceiling, set in an open architecture living space. Since the entry hall is part of this living space, the immediate space is more like 20 x 19 ft. plus the arched ceiling.

Anyway, I have been using a pair of Mirage OMD-15s in a primarily LP-based 2-channel system in the living room for about two years. The OMD's are omnidirectional, so they are particularly adept at energizing the entire room and living space. Because the speakers were designed to interact with the listening space, the timbres and soundstage are like live music. I know, because I got married in this living room and we had live music. These speakers match the timbres and how the source music interacts with the room acoustics with notable accuracy.

They are also not power hungry. I power mine with a modestly priced Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp, rated at about 85/170 watts/channel into 8/4 ohms respectively. I got the amp from Amazon a couple years ago for under $500. It's an excellent match for these speakers.

Revel, very good... For 100± watts solid state. Monitor Audio very good... For a smaller room. Vienna very good, not sure how it will work in this application. A couple of other speakers that I really like but might not cut it in that space are the Quad 21L2 and Rega RS3. In any case, one or two subwoofers would be a welcome addition.

The best small floor standers I have ever heard in a space that size are the Totem Forest, but they list for $3500.

Here is another idea that may work very well - Vandersteen 1c. $1000 new, and musical as all get out. I might recommend matching a modest solid state amp instead of tubes, say NAD, Cambridge, Music Hall or Rega with the Vandy's and then just enjoy.

hi.again with all do respect to this thread.i look at all these opinions and i am puzzled at some of these speaker recomendations. you can purchase used vandis 2ce sig 800 to 900 used and with tube amplification will sound great, they even sound good with average amplification.not that i am a vandi juckey,but why would anyone buy mirage or a klipsch ext. i understand speakers are personal taste, but come on klipsch and mirage with tubes, not for me.

Hey Dmastri, in what way do you find Mirage floorstanders deficient? Can you articulate it beyond your "but Mirage? C'mon!" comment? What may be self-evident to you is not apparent to many of us.

The Mirages I recommended list at $2500/pair but are available right now at the OP's target price with return privileges and full factory warranty. They use cloth surround titanium dome tweeters and titanium-coated midrange and bass drivers. The enclosures are curved and tapered to avoid in-cabinet standing waves. Their crossovers, phasing, and dispersion patterns are based on at least three decades of research into psychoacoustics and room interactions. The Mirage M1, their initial bipolar design that started their bipolar/omnipolar/omnidirectional evolution, was a Stereophile Class A speaker. The second generation version was the personal choice of Brent Butterworth when he was editor of Home Theater magazine. And when Chris Martens of The Abso!ute Sound recently reviewed the OMD-15's big brother, the OMD-28, he bought the review pair and made it his reference.

Furthermore I listen regularly to a pair of the Mirages I recommended in a setting and application nearly identical to the OP's, and they fill the bill better than pretty much anything I could imagine at that price point.

I don't know why you think that Vandersteens are somehow several levels above Mirage. Vandersteens have always been good at imaging and phase relationships, of image focus, but Mirages have long been good at timbre accuracy, linearity, bass extension, and interacting with the room like live performers.

The Vandersteen 2Ce has a sensitivity rating of 86 dB and recommended amp range of 40-150 watts/channel. That's a pretty limited dynamic range and not so suitable for such a large listening space. The Mirage OMD-15 has a sensitivity rating of 91-93 dB, power handling of 250 watts, and can be biamped as well.

Thanks for the responses so far. From what people have said, it sounds like the Vandersteens would be a great thing to look into, but I am pretty sure that my wife will veto them on aesthetic/size grounds (she's not a real music fan, so it's a bit of a give and take with my hobby).

I'm not really sure where that leaves me. I am drawn to the Vandys because from what I can tell they have a reputation for being very musical speakers and have a very full and rich sound (even if that means a slight loss of detail). Are there any speakers that fit a similar description, but are a bit more wife-friendly?