Floorstanders with a large sweetspot

>05-10-12: Andrejb
Looking to place the speakers about 5-10 inches from the rear wall and 1-2 feet from the side walls. As far as the sweetspot goes, I would like something more than just a single seat on a couch.

You'll do better with speakers designed for in-wall use.

Get something which has a real speaker enclosure (flexing dry wall would be bad for the sound) and run a three-way with a small midrange driver.

Triad has some nice designs and will color match the grills to the edcor.

>05-10-12: Jdoris
Hornguys: Do you think speakers vary as to whether they give a more or less satisfying listening experience off axis, or are they all they same, regards the decline in litening quality as one moves from the "sweet spot"?

They vary radically based on the driver sizes, locations, and cross-over points although to get those positive differences you'll need to get away from conventional cone and dome 2-ways.

My Zu Def 4s are places within 4" of the back wall and give a wide sweet spot. While they are pricey, you might call Zu to ask whether their other speakers have a similar characteristics. I also second Audio Note.

Daedalus DA speakers, I have the DA-RMas the hifi speakers by Lou at Daedalus. His origonal speakers the DA series were designed for wide dispersion. Very hard to beat these speakers and they look good too. They are more expensive than your budget, but there is a second hand pair, under Daedalus, on this site at the moment. They rarely are for sale second hand, people don't sell them

I second the Philharmonic 2 recommendation. It has a very large sweet spot. Any place in the room will sound great. It will go close to a wall as suggested, but since some of the sound comes out the top module and bounces off the front wall, you might want to hang a tapestry, absorption or diffusion panel behind each speaker for the best sound.

Bob