Speaker choice, help please.

Khokugo there's one pair of Bob Brines FTA-2000s in New York city.Audiogon member Bemopti123 (AKA Paul) owns them.
He may give you a listen. Do a members search and email him. He's a nice fellow. FYI there's only four pairs of this speaker in the world built by Mr.Brines and one is close enough for you to get a listen.

Good luck!

Thanks. But FTA-2000 seems to be too big. I may, however, contact him in the future. Thanks.

By the way, how far can those single drive speakers by apart? This may be a dumb question - depends on the design, etc., but since there is already something between my speakers, I MUST keep the speakers 8t apart from 9ft distance without worrying about the sound stage gap. Please share your experiences. Ken

Ken my speakers are 8ft apart..no problems. I've listened to 5 inch single drivers that were 10ft apart..no gaps.LOL
You have nothing to worry about in that area.You would be surprised with how wide the stage can be with some 4 inch drivers..probably amazed .If you haven't experienced it before , your in for a shocker!!

Infact you'll spend several days trying to figure out how the designer got so much sound out of one driver. I find it quite amazing ...that's why I'm constantly looking for and reading about the designs of these speakers.

I figured the FTAs would be too big. It was more for field trip experience.So you can get an idea of how some of these different implementations using a wide range driver sound.

BLH or backloaded horns have their strengths. They play a little louder before compression than the Transmission line designs.The BLH is also more efficient. The TL's are not as efficient but have much better low end response.In order to get the same low end response the BLH cabinets must be huge.

In your and my position the TL is where it's at. The cabinets aren't overly large but don't sacrifice low end grunt.As you look through the different types. Look up the prices on some of these drivers.You will quickly realize that a good portion of the cost of some of these speakers. Is attributed to the very high grade expensive drivers some of them use. We're talking $3000 just for a pair of drivers!!

Here's a good site to give you more to think about Full-range Driver & Loudspeaker Theory.

Look into the Green Mountain Audio Callisto's. They do everything you want. You can see a review from Sixmoons.com here:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/gma2/callisto.html

Update.
I got Essence second-hand here. The coherence, musicality, and enjoyment of this single driver speaker is truly amazing. I know I may be missing real low bass as well as extreme treble, but so far I don't feel I am missing much. I got rid of subwoofer also. I like Essence more than Sonus Faber + REL combo, from musical enjoyment stand point. Really happy with less and smaller equipment. And another amazing aspect of Essence is they can be separated apart, I mean really apart. Almost 10ft apart, with listening position is just 8ft or less. Stereo imaging seems infinite, even though there are equipment rack and TV set in between. If only I can sit back further, I would try even further apart. Thanks, Jeff and everyone! Ken

PS: Sead of Konus is very kind to guide me through the set-up as well as other questions, although I bought them used. He was happy that I was happy. I think he is one of the friendliest manufacturers out there.

PPS: I put Symposiums's Svelt Shelves under the speakers. It give another notch, for sure. Anybody should try them.