Speaker recommendations in the $3,500-$4,000 range

In your price range, a used pair of VR4's that are upgraded at the factory (VR4 to Mod5) will be a tough act to beat.

Even though the following list has some spkrs out of your price range, I want to mention them as a point of reference as some of the better spkrs I've heard, as I'm not locked into a particular type of presentation. ML Summits, Soundlab M-1, Coincident Eclipse and the spkr I just bought, Ginko Audio Tubulous.

No, this should be posted on the top of the page, so if anybody is looking for speaker recommendation should read this first. Thanks Chazzbo!

Duke,

Thanks for your response and for the questionaire!!! Here are my responses:

Listening habits: All kinds of music from classical (orchestra + choral) to jazz (David Benoit) to classic Rock (38 Special, Foreigner, Elton John, etc).

I listen at moderate to low levels, never really crank it up loud.

What makes the magic?...good imaging, solid, tight bass, clarity of each instrument and the placement in the recorded field...like I'm there in the studio.

I do sit in the sweet spot...these speakers will be in my office about 5 feet apart, on either side of a 6 foot bookshelf. They are approximately 6-7 feet in front of me, pointed at my desk. My desk sits at one end of the room that is 18x20...concrete block walls (painted), commercial carpet, ceiling in office is 14 ft (with ceiling tiles (porous). So basically, my effective listening area is about 10 ft x 11 ft....the rest of the room (to the right, is a sitting area with an oriental rug, high-back chair (upholstered) a love seat (upholstered) two chairs and end table.

Speaker appearance...my desk is mahogany or dark cherry, as is the book shelf... it would be nice to be in that vein.

Hope that gives you an idea of what I might need to check into...thanks!

Clay

You may also want to look at the Thiel CS 2.4s, which I have seen retailing for $3900 or so.

Chazzbo: Great review, but didn't you ever run into the concept of a paragraph break? :-)

Clay: Now I have a better idea. Speakers will be 5' apart and about 7' in front of you. That rules out many big panel models. How important is bass extention? Will 45 hz do? Or does it have to be 20's? I'll watch the thread and participate as I can.

One thing I'd say though, you could do a lot worse than contacting Salk as well Tyler and discussing your needs with them.