Budget: under US$5000 and would prefer a price point of less than $3000/pair. The most expensive speakers I have owned so far are Polk RTi A7's, so this will be a big jump for me.
Purpose: music
Room: I tend to move every few years, so I don't want speakers that
will work best only with very specific room conditions. Currently, I
will be using these in a medium size room of about 22 feet x 18 feet.
The room has carpet and window treatments.
Music sources: CD's,
lossless music files stored on computer and MP3's when that's all I have
available. I don't ahve any SACD's yet, but I plan on purchasing more
high quality music once I have this system set up.
Music styles: acoustic, Indian classical (sitar, srangi, flute), alternative rock (Portugal. The Man, Sleeping with Sirens, etc.), older rock (e.g., Rush).
The speakers should sound good playing the Tanpura (aka Tambura). It is a
classical Indian accompaniment instrument in the "drone" category. (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanpura) Example of sound here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7tlqXix_eoWith bad equipment that sound is fatiguing to me. Live it is beautiful and relaxing. Hopefully I can find speakers that will do it justice.
Personal Preferences: I am looking for non-fatiguing, warm, musical qualities. In another discussion topic here on this forum, @mtrot and I agreed about "smooth, sweet, soft, silky treble" and "shimmery, airy cymbals" as goals.
Amplifier: Yamaha P5000S
DAC: to be determined, but probably something like the Teac NT-503
Finally, the speakers of choice must be sold on Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com (or possibly some other similar retail website). I have personal reasons for this limitation. It isn't always true that I will need to buy all my speakers or audio gear from one of these sites, but for the moment, it is a requirement. Please don't recommend anything that isn't available on one of these sites. Thanks.