Buying Bookshelves, I love B&W but....

it's not endemic to 'bookshelves'. suggest you demo other brands for starters. i love great beers... to me , b/w is the guinness stout of british spkrs. try some microbrews my friend and you may be surprised. it's your taste that will decide and the market these days is loaded w spkrs that i personally think are much better for the $$$. just my opinion.

Dynaudio would be on my shortlist!!

Demo their more expensive lines. I heard thei rlower line and was not impressed. I have owned two of their 800 series speakers (801's and 800's) and was very impressed by the 805's.

When it came tiem for me to buy bookshelf speakers for my office I bought ERA Design 5's here on Audiogon. About $700 and great performers.

BBC monitor-sized speakers are among the best of the smaller speakers that I've auditioned. I have a pair of Harbeth Monitor 30's and Compact 7's. There are a number of good and reasonably accurate reviews floating around, including, as I recall, a good series from Stereo Times. I've done a little listening to B&W's, and I would say that the Monitor 30's seemed (for my ear) quite a bit richer than the smaller B&W's I heard. I prefer the Harbeths to floor standers from Vandersteen and Avalon, all of which I've had at home. My listening room is about 14x20.

my experience is that the mids are a bit compressed, less open and detailed.

That is pretty standard for most speakers. It is called the BBC dip. Technically the speakers are scooped in the midrange in their power response (combined on axis and off axis signal). Small two ways with a 6" woofer tend to suffer from this because most tweeters cannot be crossed over low enough prior to the "beaming" occurring from the woofer.

The advantage of this design is that compressed pop and rock will sound good. Well recorded classical, jazz and other genres will be lacking that tangible realistic feel - sounding a bit laid back or distant.