Performer-in-Room Quality with Speakers?

OGOgre,

I think you would do yourself a great disservice if you do not take a serious look at the Omega Super Alnico Monitor (SAM) or its floor stander version (http://omegaloudspeakers.com/home.html).  Single driver, ported, very good bass, fantastic imaging, detail and dynamics.  While they continue to amaze me with all types of music, they especially shine with acoustic instruments, combo jazz, and vocals.  Many owners use SET amps with these, and I am using an integrated hybrid with 12au7 preamp section and ss power amp section.  I cannot get over how really good these speakers sound!  They are available in a variety of finishes - mine were done in cherry and they look fantastic.  Both the look and sound have gotten nothing but the highest wife approval factor, and she was especially taken by the sound.  As a point of reference, I went from Spendors (BC-1 and s5e) and was ready to buy the much more expensive Harbeth M30.1, but then heard the Omega SAM.  With the free 30-day home trial, you can't lose.  I went this route and have not looked back.  

OGOgre,
i’ve found what you are looking for with only 1st-order x-over time-coherent speakers no matter what the type of driver. Some examples of such types of speakers are (these I’ve personally heard/owned): Green Mountain Audio (cone drivers), SoundLab (electrostatic), Sanders Sound Systems (ESL again).
From the list of speakers that are 1st-order x-over & time-coherent that I have not listened to: Vandersteen, Eminent Technology, some older Quads & there were a couple of older Martin-Logans.
There are some other brands than either member Nonoise or Onhwy61 shared with the group in the "Is DEQX a game changer?" thread but I cannot recall them right now.
Some A’gon members have found what you’re looking for by investing in a hardware-software package called DEQX (you have to buy their hardware & install their software on your computer, let their software measure your room & let it build a frequency correction profile such that your speaker becomes time-coherent, it does real-time processing to make your speaker time-coherent as you playback the program material). My understanding (from the "Is DEQX a game changer?" thread) is that, when done correctly, the results are superior & all those members who partook in DEQX are shaking their resp. heads as to how much better their sonics have become with DEQX activated.

Thanks to those who've so far responded.  I've had a feeling that the magic formula might involve time-coherence and / or apart-from-the-usual crossovers.  Regarding the former, I've thought about rebuilt Dahlquist DQ-10s.  For the latter I've considered Vandersteens.  I've thought about electrostatic, but WAF, cost, and placement sensitivity make me reluctant.

For amps I have a medium-powered push-pull integrated and a high-power power amp with a homebrew tube pre.  But I am open to SE, triode or pentode.  I will probably have a Revox open-reel in my near future, and I will soon need a new CD system.  I have an old Dual and a Yamaha PX-3 for platter-spinning, but vinyl has increasingly become a WAF issue. (Snap, crackle, and pop + cleaning and wear and tear = disapproving looks.)

I've considered horns, but every horn system I've ever listened to quickly gave me ear fatigue.

I also have considered doing a DIY with a single "full range" driver with no crossover at all, and / or a small-scale baffle-less arrangement.  I've heard from a friend that going with very small high compliance drivers in an extremely narrow baffle tower might produce much of what I'm looking for.

The Maggies I had (MG-IIBs), were great.  Actually, I have still  have them in storage, but we moved to a house that was bigger but has smaller rooms, plus, while the soundstage was huge and the sound ethereal, they did not sound like the musicians were actually in the room, unless that room were a concert hall.

My Shahinians do a similar thing but in a smaller space and with very deep bass, but again, I do not actually feel like Chet Baker is seven feet from me in the room.

My DCMs are quite rare, with only a few ever made, the two-piece Time Window Cubed (or Time Window with a third power superscript).  Those were time aligned and also went down to an F3 of about 15hz when I drove them with two Thresholds.  They really shined with 30 - 50 amperes. 

But those days of volume and bass and a big listening room are gone.  Now I'm looking for a smaller, simpler arrangement that could make a singer sound like there is no recording, not even a microphone and P.A. involved, just Tracy Chapman on a stool singing in the living room.

OGOgre

Ohm and mbl but not for most tube amps.    Decware radials might be better suited.   

Your priorities are the same as mine---above all else, the voice(s) right there in the room, standing ten feet away (if that’s what’s on the recording, of course). In addition to lifelike tonality and freedom from (to quote Gordon Holt) vowel colorations (which rules out horns for me), for me that requires life-size scale and image height (I don't like looking down on the stage, or voices three feet off the floor), and I’ve been satisfied in those regards only by big planars---ESLs (Quads on stands, Sanders, Sound Lab, Martin-Logan, etc.) and Magnetics (Maggie and Eminent Technology). Planars excel in all those regards, as well as transparency (which you know all about, having as do I Stax ESL phones). But planars as you know require considerable space, the availability of which you don’t specifically mention. Some of the big 6’ floor-standing box speakers come close, but point source radiators don’t do it for me. There are a lot of great speakers out there, if you’ve got the cash and floor space! Try to hear the Sanders if you can---they’re really, really good.