Speakers for a unique small room

Wilson TuneTots. They work well placed next to walls, in a small room. I tried many “best in class” bookshelf speakers from Magico, Raidho etc. While my favourite, cost no object are the Raidho TD 1.2 (I haven’t had the chance to listen to the Borresen yet), which just about work in a small room, although ideally they need more space to breathe, I have to say that, of all these speakers I have tried, the Tots have performed best in a small room. Not a large stand-floor performance by any standard, but really engaging and delivering just about the right amount of everything.

Many people judge the Tots by price alone, comparing them to bigger, better speakers for this reason or that. But they are missing the point. The point is that little else delivers this level of performance in a small room like yours. The larger Duettes, now discontinued, also do well close to walls but I found their output overwhelming in my small room, near-ish field.

I would NOT run a pair of stand-floor speakers in that room under any circumstances. Not even petite ones from Neat etc.

Edit. Sorry, I just saw your budget. I don’t think you can do much better than LS50 for the money. Have you considered placing the speakers on the short wall?

On second thought - would you have the opportunity to audition some Quads, say the S2 or the Z1?

And another observation. If you want soundstage you should clear the space between the speakers. Get the rack under the window. Or keep the rack and TV where they are, move the speakers on the short wall. The TV between speakers is a very bad idea if you seek soundstage.

I assume you are using the soundbar for TV duty so there is no need to have the speakers next to it. 

I would consider the British speaker sound, all non-fatiguing and there will be options new or used in your price range. Those include the Spendor Classic Series (4/5, 3/1, 2/3) and A series (A1) bookshelf models, also Audio Note UK have a bookshelf (AX One, AX Two, AN K).

You have room problems and you can change the speakers all you want and spend crazy money on upgrading (or crazy money on downgrading) but it will all be a waste unless you can fix the room first.

Speakers should be put where the left and right speakers "see" the same environment around them. ie. you cannot have one speaker in a corner and one out in the open and expect them to sound right. Fix that first. Both speakers with a rear wall behind them and a sidewall beside them. Or both out in the open with no walls nearby.

Agree with some other comments about TV reflective, etc. but also keep the stuffed chair well away from the speaker's output to the listening position.  Stuffed chair on RHS and none on LHS gives you another symmetry issue.

Agree with the suggestion to flip your setup 90 degrees; would also give some space behind your listening position.  I just set up a small room and considered many of the above suggestions - went with Omega CAMs and a 24W EL34 integrated and an SVS sub.  Very happy with this setup. Speakers are 95db efficient so I have the option going with a lower power SET in the future.  Haven’t heard ARC lately but for me, lower power tubes are the way to go in smaller spaces.