Great bookshelf or small towers suggestions

I really don't know yet.  I need to do a lot more listening.  Next up for me to go hear are a few PMC's, a Linn bookshelf, and then I'll have to go to another dealer to hear other things like the B&W 805's and Focals again.  I live in NYC so there are a lot of dealers. 

But I tell you I keep coming close to just buying ascend towers with the ribbon tweeters or maybe the Sierra 2's because really, I just hate the hunt and I like what I've read!

Maybe this hobby's not in my bones.  Probably whatever I buy I'll get used to!  :-)

Usually if you expect to get used to something in your system, it never happens and you end up wanting to swap it out.  You should definitely take your time and buy what you like - you'll know it right away when you hear it.

If you like the PMCs, it's a great time to get a deal on the Twenty series since the Twenty5 series just came out.  I am traveling and haven't picked up my demo Twenty.23s yet so thinking about moving up the PMC line a bit because of that.

You should also try to find a dealer that sells NEAT out there.  The Motive SX2 is a very underrated small tower speaker that simply disappears in the right sized room.

Heard a few more good speakers this weekend. Dynaudio Excite X18, Dynaudio Contour S1.4, Spendor SP3, and Rega RX3 (or maybe Rx5?).

I liked the Excite X18 a lot. Not a ton of bass but amazing imaging.   The Contour had a lot more bass and almost the same imaging.  Overall it did sound better than the X18 but not by much to me.  I didn't care for the Rega's much - and the side speaker might be strange in my layout since one side of the room has an open side wall.

I was surprised by the Spendors since I'd heard them before and did not like them at all the first time.   Of course different room, different equip but both stores are top shelf so odds are one setup wasn't particularly inferior.  I might have to hear them again in the first store again.   

The good news was that there are a lot of small speakers that really sound great.   And having smaller speakers than my sound dynamics would be nice for living purposes.

But what's kind of bugging me is that the stores don't really do the A/B speaker switching thing with the high end gear.  So you hear things 10 minutes apart.  And frankly that doesn't work unless something's glaringly  obvious, which at this level of gear isn't all that apparent. 

So I'm thinking maybe just taking an in home trial of one of the ID speakers makes sense so I can live with them a bit.  I think more dealers would be wise to try to meet that convenience.  

Anyway, I have a few more speakers on my list to hear.  PMC, a few more Dynaudios, Linn 109, and if none blow me away, I'll just take a chance on something mail order and try to get used to them.  If that's the case it would prob be the ascend sierra 2's or towers.

wow, thanks for sharing your experiences... you are lucky to have access to all these models.  Focal 714 still high on your list when compared to speakers costing 2-3 times more ?

wolfernyc, in a slight fit of insanity, I did upgrade to the FACT 8 so the demo Twenty.23 pair is available again.  If you like the PMCs you should give Len a call fast.