the smoothest sounding speaker

Other brands known for a smooth mid & treble range: Silverline Audio, Vienna Acoustics, Sonus Faber, Opera, Roman Audio and DCM TFE series. Of these, IMHO, the best resolution would be Silverline and Roman, and the Vandersteens offer decent resolution as well. The good news is that the sonic characteristics you seek are obtainable and for reasonable money. The bad news is that many factors play a part, not just the speakers, and just throwing money at your system won't guaranty the results you seek. I own Vandersteen 1Cs with a pair of 2Wq subs. While the sound from my rig is fairly smooth, I've heard smoother (Silverline, Roman Audio). Likewise, you cannot ignore the associated gear. Prior to a series of upgrades and fine-tuning, the same 1Cs sounded much less smooth and fatigue would set in earlier than in my present configuration.

Samujohn, I agree with you on #1, but it all depends on how you look at #2 and #3. If playing a CD give you fatigue, its more than likely got something to do with the rest of you setup...IMO more than the player. The player reads the digital info without conversion and such (as long as you keep the info digital until it has to be converted). Its the speaker and amps and other electronics (not to mention the weakest link, room) that brings about the fatigue issues...for the most part.

You are definately on track about the room correction. Without it #2 and #3 are big problems. Besides, everyone should know that precision room correction brings about better resolution to the music anyway :)

Back on topic...sorry. I've noticed that speakers that incorporate soft dome tweeters and mids tend to be more smoother than those who don't. ATC is one that comes to mind. Those using ring radiators offer many of those same traits too.

Don't forget the Magnepan 1.6's. They certainly present one sonic cloth, and yet can be very resolving. When slightly underpowered (not hard to do with the demanding load of a Maggie) they certainly seem smoother in that they won't have the dynamic punch to be truly fatiguing. In my experience, though the front end has more of an effect than the speakers, but your mileage may vary.

While they may be compromised in other areas, the Quad 'stats might satisfy your criterion.

Thanks fro the suggestions. I forgot about Spendor. Roman Audio looks interesting but their site:

http://www.romanaudio.com/

does not work.