speaker suggestions- $1200 or so

To achieve realism in playback, not only is the transparency of the speakers a cardinal rule, but the acoustics of the room as well: since they interact directly upon each other.

The enclosed cabinet (box) speaker designs, though the more popular, are the worst case scenario in that their enclosed dynamic drivers radiate in a spherical 360 degrees, exciting every possible sound pressure zone and room mode in the space they operate in. And they offer more direct reflection problems as well, for the same reason. They also have inherent cabinet resonance problems that are not adequately solved by porting.

Those 'audiophiles' who aspire to 'true to the original' tend to end up with dipole designs, aleviating most of such acoustic problems.

That is, ELS, or electrostatic (like Martin-Logan); planer/ribbion (like Magnapan), or the best of both worlds, the open baffle dynamic driver designs (Audio Artistry, Gradient Revolution). They rather radiate in a figure 8 pattern, front to back, with an off axis radiation of about only 30 degrees. Not exciting those pesky room modes in the first place, and reducing direct side reflections. They also can accomplish a seamless integration throughout the frequency range never achieved by other designs.

For those on a budget the little 'Maggies' (1.6 model), offer limited low frequency range, but pristine upper bass, mid, and highs. Especially suited to small rooms. Popular and usually available on the preowned market within your budget I believe.

Open baffle DIY woofers can be added to extend the bass with high degree of accuracy in keeping with the main panels http://www.linkwitzlab.com /Phoenix/Woofers.

The next in priority is a distortion free amp to power the selected speaker system. The vintage Hafler DH-200/220 100/125wpc is usually available for $200; or Muse 160 at 175wpc for $7-1400; ATI is in my opinion the best build quality/performance value ranging from 60wpc up at $500-$2k; or the pricy Bryston, and the luxurous Jeff Rowland line. All comparable performers at a wildly swinging price range. Hmmm. Interesting :-)

Once there, the music should be so involving, that concerns for the top end gear, cables and tweaks, will diminish for all but the 'Monk' types. I kid the fanatics :-) ...which is anyone that does it more than you do.

Try listening to the source material with reference earphones (Shure ER2 $100, test results at http://www.linkwitzlab.com /Reference Earphones) and compare to what you hear through the system and the room. Now the truth, then you can deal with it in effective, realistic ways.

Also reviewed at the site is an option to EQ (equalize) earphones to individual hearing. If you are not into electronics, perhaps you know someone willing to do it for you.

Before I upgraded my stereo to Musical Fidelity amp and cd player I used an older NAD 7175PE receiver, 75W. It is probably similar to your NAD in its sound characteristics. I purchased a pair of Paradigm Studio 40 v.3's. They listed for $1100.00 in October 2003. I also listen to jazz and a lot of Dylan along with classical on occasion. My listening room is about 20 X 15. The Paradigm's sounded very good with NAD. They are a brighter speaker than a similar B&W, for example. They matched the warmer sounding NAD quite well. Look at Paradigm's website for the specs and pics of the Studio v.3 series. They are certainly worth checking out.

valinar and didactic - t hanks for responses. at some point i will upgrade, but for the foreseable future, i will stick with NAD, which seems to do 'fine'. will check out the paradigm studio 40 v.3's; the 'brightness' is a plus, for me. any thougts re the green mountain? lots of good press, as did the axiom m80s, lest i forget, the alternative of going with the m22s and a sub, or some other monitor and sub , for example the quad 12L. all these options ...

Dear Johnnyturbo - I own the green mountain audio europa's and heartily recommend them. I have replaced my innersound eros with them (a highly regarded electrostatic hybrid desing). I will never look back. If you are at all interested in learning about why phase and time aligned speakers in general are likely to be better reproducers of the original recording as intended by the artist, please check out the audio publication "the audio perfectionist". They accept no advertising and while they are certainly opinionated, they are not held accountable by their advertisers. They have some nice articles about loudspeaker accuracy in layman's terms and explain how to read performance measurement charts that you may see in stereophile. In addition, there is some good information on why dipole designs, by their inherent nature, will never be phase and time aligned, which, to my ears at least, is critical for accurate reproduction (read no time smear). Vandersteen also makes a great in your budget speaker. Anyway, good luck and happy listening!