speaker advice' help needed


Anyone out there have any recommendations on speakers (new or used, $500-$1000) to match with this experiment I'm putting together:
Jolida 502B integrated amp
arcam 73 CD
RS-Audio interconnects
(Sugg on speaker wire too?)

Mucical tastes: mostly classical with emphisis on large orchestra; blues; instrumental

Thanks so much
Tony
doctor_vine
New I would look at the Opera Audio Consonance Eric-1 mini-monitors at 1K/pr. new. They may have some polarizing looks, but the sound is quite good, and way better than I would expect for 1K monitors.

Also worth consideration used would be either the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference Monitors, or Ellis 1801Bs (both about 1K used).

---Dave
I have an Underwood modded 502B driving a pair of Totem Sttafs and this is a lovely combination. Totems are not the most efficient but not a problem at all with 502, i think people tend to exaggerate about how much power some less efficient speakers need to be happy. Any Totems will match well with the larger Jolida tube amps. I upgraded from an Arcam A75 which was terrible with the Totems which revealed all kinds of grain and high frequency garbage, very revealing speakers. My Arcam CD72 is next on the chopping block to be repleced by an Eastsound CD-5.
From a fellow lover of mostly classical orchestral (along with rock, jazz, R&B and acoustic) I highly recommend the Nola Minis. (They aren't really as small as the name suggests - more like medium size monitors.)

Frankly, IMO many speakers (especially monitors) in this price range fall down on large scale orchestral music. Very few do justice to big complex music at reasonable sound levels without becoming congested. Floorstanders tend to do better than monitors for presentation of symphonic music but that probably means buying used to meet your budget.

Except for the Minis (fomerly Alon Lil Rascals II).

The Minis are coherent, very open, very spacious and *very* dynamic. They are resolving without sacrificing upper end sweetness plus they have an excellent midrange along with surprising bass heft. (They sound like much larger speakers.) The Minis are also affordable at $695 list ($595 street). These are my go-to speakers for new at under 1K - you'll have to spend much more on new speakers to better them for large scale music. Alas, "scale" is just what you don't get with many affordable monitors on classical music.

I'd also second the suggestion of used Vandersteen 2ce/or Signatures. These are floorstanders that do well on classical and all types of music.

It's a personal thing, but I don't find single driver speakers very satisfying for symphonic music.
Thanks everyone for your help and advice. I decided to go with a pair of used Vandersteen 2Ce's. We'll see how it goes.

Tony