Eggleston, Merlin, Jean Marie Reynaud????

i also have the merlin vsm-mm's with the superbam and they are the best speakers i have ever owned. i went from paradigm studio 20's (still a fave in many ways), to dali grand coupes, to amphion xenons and have gotten off the upgrade highway with my merlins. they are clean, punchy and not the least bit fatiguing. my xenons went down to 28khz and the merlins do not, but to my ears, i'm not missing any bass--at least not in a musical sense. i am running mine with channel islands d200 amps and a modwright preamp. when i hit the lotto i will go with some joule/berning stuff but for now my ears can't tell the difference.

I have the Fontaines with an Opera Audio Consonance a120 Hybrid Integrated and I love the sound. My room is so huge I have to replace the a120, but the sound quality is great. The a120 uses a Sovtek 6H30 in the line stage for a dreamy sound, but solid state power adds a very nice punch. Great combo IMO.

You should really hear the TSM's, we're just die hard Merlin fans but does not mean it's the speaker for you, the VSM doesn't take up any more footprint really over the TSM but oh, oh, oh! There must be somebody near you with a pair of these.

I would go with either the Eggleston Fontaine or Merlin VSM.
I have owned most of what is mentioned above personally. They are all good suggestions, but you consider auditioning the 2 mentioned above. The Eggleston Fontaine with the Jeff Rowland Concentra is to die for if you need a warm and detailed sound, if you want more attack go with a Krell 500i or something and its absolutely enjoyable, I can NOT describe the sound, its just so much fun to listen, every CD sounds better than the prior...

The Merlins are easier to match since they are actually smaller in footprint size. The Eggleston are heavy for bookshelfs so..... but overall I prefered the Egglestons..you wont go wrong with either one for sure :) Good luck! Speakers of Esotar Tweeters, dont forget the Sonus Faber Electa Amators mk1 as well :)One of my favourites!

Pluto, my advise to you would be to use the system that Merlin showed at the Stereophile show in NY this year - Merlin MMX speakers with the SUPERB Filharmonia (tube) integrated amplifier. This was one of the best sounding systems I have ever heard at any of the major shows for the past 5 years! Absolutely breathtaking, musical, and non-fatiguing - in a far higher league than either of the Egglestons, which aren't bad, but suffer in comparison. This is a system one could easily hang onto for life!