Help chossing a good speaker. $ 3-5 K

Thanks Shadorne. Do you think I will need to crank the ATC's volume up to more than an average of 75-80 db to get them to sound good? That would definetly be a problem for me. That is my average listening level and I do want to get good/decent orchestral/symphonic sound that is not congested and grainy.

small room! Well, it looks as if you have narrowed it down, but if you are still open to suggestions,I would probably look at Tyler Acoustics new offerings. I have been extremely pleased with his Linbrook Sig System, and he has smaller floorstanding monitors that would be a good match. He told me that his newest offerings (Decade line) are a better match with tubes. I may try a Mac MA2275 with my new D2's. I demoed a bunch of items before purchasing my Linbrooks, and for the money, nothing I demoed at retail was close.

Do you think I will need to crank the ATC's volume up to more than an average of 75-80 db to get them to sound good?

Sincs you have a sub you will be able to compensate for teh lean bass response of ATC at low volume levels. However, I think that ATC 40 will be overkill if used this way. Why pay for something with typically less than 1% THD at very high SPL levels if you only ever need to listen at modest levels. I'd go with Harbeth's for your application.

FWIW - your concern about congestion might be related to your room (most any speakers perform quite well at such modest SPL levels). Unless heavily treated with acoustic panels, a small reflective room will tend to sound congested with most any speaker...you get a "claustrophobic" of cluttered kind of soundfield. So it might not be a speaker issue at all...

Musicfile: Yes check out John's KCS SEAS for the money...

Website, specs, reviews? Thanks.

The Proac D2s should be considered, amazing sound, very transparent with great bass. Must be heard! There is a review in Absolute sound you can check out.