Speakers to beat wife-factor ?

I concur with SKSnyder's response (10-10). Using SMGa for over a decade, they sound fine for background music even near the wall. For serious listening pull them forward. My wife, and many other women who have visited our homes through the years, love the panel look (and sound). What wife factor? Most women I know despise boxes unless they are in the wall or on a shelf. Besides, most boxes work better away from the wall, too, and many require stands. At that point the footprint is similar to most panel speakers. Go for the Maggies, you won't be sorry.

My wife fell in love with the Sonus Faber Concert Grand Piano's in black. She wouldn't even consider any of the B&W Nautilus designs after that.

A suggestion to consider is a pair of Wilson Watts/puppies. My wife has endured my hobby for over twenty years. She has seen me wheel in Rogers, Dahlquist, Accoustats, Magies, Quads, Infinity's, Crobsy Quads, and Magies again. Many produced SAT sound. We some how missed doing the Sound Labs. Finally, the Wilson Watt3/Puppy2 in Asian Pearl won on by all accounts with us. She says these are the best speakers we have owned (still purring since 1990). We love the music and their small size and finish compliment our living decor. Watt/Puppy are readily available on the used market at reasonable prices. Since settling on these, I have been fine tuning what feeds the speaker in an orderly plan for improvement over time, which has been very satisfying. The music produced is truly SAT. Just you might want to hear what worked for both of us. cheers, Gerrym5

I think if I had to deal with the wife and child factors in that room, I'd just go with headphones. I really love mine, and I'm as yet unmarried...Maybe I love audio a little too much, for now...Someday I'll have a mansion like other rich guys on here, and have a dedicated room that would make Buckingham palace envious. What I have now isn't too shabby, but it doesn't quite look like the interior of George Vanderbilt's house in Asheville, NC, heh heh...BY THE WAY, THE FOCAL TWEETERS IN WILSON'S LINE ARE FLAWED BY DESIGN. THEY RING WELL WITHIN THE AUDIBLE RANGE, AT 16 KHZ. Go buy something with the Scanspeak Revelator tweeter (Nova, PBN, Chairo, Sonus Faber). Or else get Maggie 1.6's, or 3.6's...Or if you've got sevaral pounds, some used Genesis 200's, and damp the hell out of your rear wall with ASC traps and Frescoes that "match the decor". Just tell the wife that you heard Prince Phillip remarking about how "far too many British homes have too much slap echo these days, my dear fellows..." I believe they can make them the color of brick, or most any color.

I had a wife-factor problem, and managed to discern that she did not like the speakers to be very tall or wide (in that order, and that she did not like them in the middle of the room. Then a dealer said to me you should really try the Martin-Logan Aerius i, which I did. She loved them! Tall yes, but she saw them as having some style, and therefore a right to be seen, as opposed to the likes of Maggies or boxes. And the Aerius can work well in a small room as close as two feet from the wall, but you have to make sure there is not much by way of reflecting objects on the wall between them. Fortunately I liked them too. Having said that, my real recommendation is to take home on demo the speakers that YOU want. First, you never know, she may like them. Second, she probably fails to appreciate that all speakers do not sound alike, and therefore she is being quite logical in saying to you that she wants small unobtrusive speakers - without thinking much about you. Therefore, take home the ones you like and then tell her how much you love them. You never know! Third, since the speakers you want are probably big and ugly, when you bring in the next best thing and it is smaller, it will look all the better to her.