bookshelf's to match older rotel 30watt

thank you all for helping me on my quest!!! I didnt think my meager budget would garner so many options!!I have heard good things about the dynaaudio's,usher, wharfdale and psb, but any thoughts on thier sonic signature in comparison to B&W book shelfs? I think I have read that english speakers are laid back? Is that what i liked so much? And also based on my rotel which is only 30 watt is there a minimum sensitivity I should be looking for? Thanks again you guys are great!!!! ohhhh 1 thing.....signal cables good for a system like mine?

I think it will be tough to score Dynaudios for this price point. As for the others you mention, they are all very good and do about the same thing - bring you well presented and musical sound for your investment with an emphasis on the midrange portion of the audio spectrum. Don't expect big bass from any of these, nor crystalline highs that will make you want to weep. Reviews of most can be found here:

http://search.ecoustics.com/Editorial/Reviews/Bookshelf-Speaker/Alpha-Name/All/

Given these are all very good, you may want to focus on availability and price used. Cleaneduphippy has some great advice about shopping Audiogon's For Sale pages.

And since you will be using a 30W amp, you may want to focus on the speaker's sensitivity:

PSB Alpha B1 = 89db, 4-6 ohms impedance
B&W DM302 = 91db, 8 ohms impedance !!!
Usher S-520 = 86db, 8 ohms impedance
Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 = 86db, 6ohms impedance

So the B&W and PSB are the most efficient, but the B&W has a higher impedance - so should be an easier load on the Rotel amp.

PS - I own a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C v2 and am very happy with it. You should check out others as well - with decent used players frequently available from NAD, Cambridge and others. See my review of the Cambridge 640C v1 and v2 compared with some others in this price category at AudioReview.com. I am a big believer in starting out with the best source you can afford. Your system can't reproduce musical information later on in the chain that isn't captured to start with, and there have been a lot of technological advances in DACs and their implementation that have made budget players in particular much better than they were.

Glowplug,

If you like the "sonic signature" of B&W, you might want to check out Epos and Wharfdales. In your price range, the Epos ELS3 would be an excellent speaker. This little Epos has gotten quite a number of excellent reviews and from hearing this speaker I can see why.

Epos ELS3 = 87db, 4 ohms impedance.

While I agree somewhat with Knownothing about focusing on speaker sensitivity and impedance, I would also say that your 30 watt Rotel should be able to drive any of these speakers quite well, as long as your mindful about not using excessive volume which will drive your Rotel into clipping. Basically if you listen to your music at a moderate volume level in a small/medium size room 30 watts should be plenty.

Thanks a lot I have a lot to dig through!!!! So, from what I know about car stereo's, if you have a 4 ohm speaker and drive it with an 8 ohm amp, you will get louder output but its tougher on the amp as in extra heat and clippling, my rotel probably doesnt have a protection mode or anything, so like you said just dont crank it. Which if im correct I should get louder volume without cranking the amp anyway in comparison to an 8ohm speaker....right?! Is clipping the amp going to cause permanent damage or shorten the life of the unit--other then of course sounding terrible??!!!!

Glowplug,

The damage that clipping will do is not so much to the amp, but to your speaker's tweeter. Many tweeters have been "fried" because someone trying to crank-up a lower powered amp and drove it into clipping. What's happening is, your amp can put out more power, but unfortunately that extra power comes with a high levels of distortion. And it's this distortion that kills tweeters.

The thing to remember is that unless you're cranking the amp up loud (pass the 12 o'clock position on the volume control) and/or have your tone controls on the amp turned way past their flat position (which is usually at the 12 o'clock position) then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

One thing you might want to check out is how well your Rotel can handle a 4 ohm load. Probably the best way to do that is check it's manual (if you still got it) or send an email to Rotel asking them about your amp. Some amps can handle 4 ohms loads very well, other amps not so well.