Dissapointed with my new speakers

Another speaker that might be a stretch new but is gorgeous looking and sounding is the Quad 21L2. These little two ways look like they came out of the Steinway piano production facility and have a marvelously balanced sound to go with the stunning looks. Not bass monsters, but clean bass and midrange and treble to die for. Look for used - worth the shipping to HI if you can find.

>Also while pushing these speakers harder I found that they aren't very cohesive. I can hear the cross-over points for the woofer, the tweeter, and the mid-bass driver and they just don't come together smoothly, they sound like they're coming out of individual drivers (Which they are, I guess I just expect them to meld together better). Do you guys have any suggestions for better speakers? I auditioned a pair of Kef IQ90s and they sounded pretty good however I'd have to pay close to retail and was quoted $1100 which seems a bit much for these speakers.

With conventional speakers you need at least a three-way to get reasonable bass extension and output levels without distortion or polar response issues that make the speaker's performance very room+placement sensitive.

Parts cost on an unoffensive 2-way translates into ~$1K/pair MSRP through brick and mortar dealers, with a 3-way doubling the cost. You just can't sell a decent three way through conventional channels for less than $2K a pair.

The two-way one high and one low pass filter. The 3-way essentially has two high-pass filters and two low pass filters. The bass low pass and mid-range high pass occur at lower frequencies than in the 2-way so they use much larger and consequently expensive reactive components. IOW, cross-over costs more than double. Since little of the driver cost is in the tweeter (you see $25 tweeters on $8K speakers with $80 midrange drivers) and the bass driver requires a larger motor than the midrange driver those costs tend to at least double too, especially where multiple bass drivers are used to maintain sensitivity or provide higher output while fitting into an aesthetic narrow cabinet.

I would save up and find a used pair of Von Schweikert 4JR, they do what you want.

A word to the wise, you might stay away from Monitor Audio and be super careful of tweeter arrangement/design in any speaker you buy. MA speakers are incredibly bright (I owned two pair before). Great for home theater, brutal for music.

Textile dome tweeters may be more forgiving than metal dome in my experience, but regardless it's best to do an in home demo of at least a week to see if you can live with them. In store auditions are usually only good for an initial impression.

You might look at 2-way speakers with multiple woofers (2 or more).First order crossovers usually function the best at performing the task at hand.Seating distance can also be important in steeper sloped crossovers.
My experience with B&Ws has led me to favor the "Diamond" series,as they have changed to a 6db/oct crossover.