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Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please

Hi,

I recently sold my dearly beloved, old Vandersteen 2C's here on Audiogon (and I hope SgtPeppers is loving them at this moment!) :-) I did this because in our remodeled house, my new listening room (which will double as a guest room) is just too small for the 2C's. The Spousal Acceptance Factor was just too low. ;-)

I have a PS Audio Elite-Plus integrated amp for power (around 70 W/Ch) and a soon-to-be-shipped-off-for-a-refurb Sota Sapphire for an analog front end (I have "miles" of vinyl)! I will also get a CD player at some point.

For now, I need to find a pair of best-of-breed, truly "budget" speakers. By "budget," I'm talking upper limit of $850/pair. (Gone are my free-spending, single days... I'm a dad now...) :-)

Listening habits: lots of 60's and 70's folk and rock, some jazz, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, a little classical. Listening volume: not too loud. Sonic preferences: I value transparency and imaging/soundstage. Bass should be accurate above all, as opposed to chest-pounding powerful.

I've looked at Paradigms, which I know are highly regarded at lower price points. Trouble is, our one, local dealer is primarily a TV/home theater outfit, so you're trying to hear them in a showroom crammed with other stuff... you know the drill. I've also hit a high end shop. Listened to a pair of PSB small towers and disliked them; they sounded muddy and veiled to me. Listened to a pair of the smallest Rega's and liked them quite a bit, but would want to go back to listen again. I even wrote to PS Audio for advice; they recommended the "baby" Epos monitors, but they're out of my price range.

Thanks if you've read this far. Knowing how subjective all this is, I'd still welcome any advice you have to offer about what I should try to audition.
rebbi
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,464 posts
 
Tawaundabomb,

I think the original Walsh 2's are the speaker that has exposed the most people to the Ohm Walsh sound over the years. They used to be sold via a significant dealer network through the 80's and had a lot of exposure. Then Ohm went factory direct only in the 90's I believe with the series 2 and now series 3.

The thing for those who associate the Ohm sound with original Walsh 2's to remember is that the newer series are a much improved beast when it comes to accurate imaging. That is a fact.

I auditioned Ohm Walsh2 series 3 speaks in my house in detail against my original Walsh 2's, Dynaudios and Triangles before taking the plunge on the Walsh 5 S3s as opposed to a larger full range box design.

The Walsh pseudo-omni soundstage is different from most all conventional box designs, as has been discussed, but the imaging accuracy of the Series 3 is in the same league as Dynaudio and Triangle I can assert.
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Tawaundabomb,
Thanks for the kind words. This thread certainly went on longer than I'd expected, which is a tribute to the generosity and passion of all the respondents. Really, as I said earlier, I did get a complete education in contemporary speaker trends from this thread! It's been over 20 years since I've been involved in High End Audio, meaning that I'd never heard of brands like Totem because they didn't exist the last time that I was actively following the scene.

By the way, to give you an idea how active I'd been before, my greatest claim to high end glory was having a letter to the editor published in TAS and commented on by HP somewhere back in the 1980's. :-)

Anyway, thanks again to everybody for their sage advice.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,464 posts
 
Thanks for the kind words!
zkzpb8
212 posts
 
Hey Rebbi -how are the Totems working out?!
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Zkzpb8,

They're still in their box! :-( (This is how you know I'm a dad with a small child!) But I've nearly assembled the shelving that the new system will live in, so I hope to get 'em hooked up this week!

I'll report back soon!
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