Best monitor for female vocals?

Northwoods_maine: Harbeths are hard to find used. However, incredibly both Super HL-5 and somewhat less expensive classic Compact 7-es2 are listed at A'gon. You can't go wrong, you can always sell at the same price.

If you like this British sound, you could listen to Proacs. Otherwise the usual Americna suspects at A'gon: GMA, Salk, Silverline Tyler, Zu. They all have great models in your budget. They work on direct sale model and are not easy to find for audition.

I third the Merlin TSM's for any music and awesome support

End where you started--get the Harbeth HL 5 Supers. For your room size and listening tastes I am confident you cannot do better.

I was out of town and out of touch for a couple days - thanks for all the responses. Actually, I did get a chance to audition a pair of B&W 805s and Paradigm Signature 4s this week in Grand Rapids. My ears liked the 805s a lot better than the Paradigms. Set up both pairs of speakers in the exact same spot and about the same distance from the listening position as in my home. The most radical difference to me was the soundstage. Not saying the Paradigm might not have gotten better with position tweaking but as it was there was no contest. Also good was this demo room was not one of their high-end rooms so there was virtually no room treatment other than rug and leather furniture so it gave me a good "baseline" to work against.

Has anyone out there been able to do an A/B of the 805s vs. the Harbeth Super 5s? How would you describe the difference? It's VERY unlikely I'll ever get to hear them in the same room so it would be a big help to get your opinion.

I'll try to demo the Merlins as three of you have highly recommended them. Thanks for your input and have a great weekend. I plan on spending my fishing.

If you can live with their limitations, the old Quad (eg 57) is breathtaking.