Monitor with sub or Full Range Speakers

It mostly depends on your room. My room is fairly large but smaller speakers and subs work in it while my larger ones don't. But for maximum bang for the buck it would be hard to beat something like a KEF 107-2 or older B&W 801s if they will work in your room. Spendor S-100s are also good. But there are too many to list. The monitors and sub will work in rooms the bigger ones won't but the bigger ones will be easier to work with if your room will support them. Either way you can get good sound.

I had a set of Spendor sp 1/2e's and a James loudspeaker emb-1000. having a sub to fill in the bottom adds so much depth and even width to the soundstage. There is a lot of information in those lower frequencies that are responsible for the real and in the room sound. I think if you are accustomed to fullrange speakers, you would have to have a sub or it would sound like something is missing. I just replaced my set-up with Vandersteen 3a's which go to around 20hz. Even though I had close to that with the monitors and sub, the bass is much more seamless, coherent, and detailed in the Vandersteens. When I say coherent, I mean when you hear a bass string plucked, all the high frequencies of the finger hitting the string, the pluck, fretboard noise, are in the same place in the soundstage as the bass note itself, as if you were in front of the actual bass being played. Sometimes with a sub you are very aware of where the sub is, you hear the bass note coming from the sub and all the other surrounding information is coming from another place on the soundstage.I think your success or failure will depend on your choice of monitors and sub, the rest of your system amplification, how they all mafit together, and how much time and effort you want to put into integrating your sub. Most people would recommend that if you have the funds and space, get two subs.

good luck.

Most full range speakers, especially in the under 5k price range, are not truly full range. I would suggest, for many reasons, that monitor and sub (preferably dual subs) is the way to go. It takes at lot, from both the speakers and amps, to do high quality full range without compromising either the bass or the midrange, or both. Monitors will ease the load on the amp, and a powered sub will ease the load on the monitors.

I would also recommend the Vandy 3A Sigs as an excellent choice for a full range speaker in your room and with your gear. The LSA appears to have plenty of power to drive the Vandy's and they are indeed a full range speaker with a -3 dB point of 26 Hz. Used 3A Sigs can be had for significantly less than your budget.

I spent a few years with Spendor SP 1/2E's (also a wonderful speaker but decidedly not full range) and never succeeded in integrating a subwoofer with them. I finally tossed in the towel and bought the Vandy's. Quite satisfied.