Great bookshelf or small towers suggestions

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.

Try My Sonata -001 30 day no problem return

hmm, I would agree with sunnyjim and NOT BIASED to say that the Wharfedale Denton sound musical, engaging, romantic, excited, and you feel great when you listen to it, and yet I found that it sound absolutely the best if pair with Fostex HP-A3 DAC preamp & any reputable power amp, the only thing you may consider is to add a sub to cover up the lack of dynamic at some dangerous extreme volume, which I dun think most people need to do that in order to enjoy music. My current thought is the Denton is nothing short of amazing, except if you would like to showcase some extreme dynamic bass sonic, there are better speakers I think, but not at $500 price, and it look as good as any decent furniture you can find.