I would give odds that if you spend $1,000 on new speakers, you will be upgrading from the NAD pretty soon. There are a lot of great speakers out there that would sound good with the 7225 PE, but it does limit your choices. I think you could get a nice receiver and speaker combo for that money or just a bit more.
That being said, I have a pair of Boston Acoustic T-830s that I had connected to a 7250 PE that sounded very good. I wanted to try something with a more power after never having owned anything over 55 W in my life. Found a 100 W Rotel on fleabay, offered $225 which was accepted, and auctioned the 7250 for $260. It was a great improvement. A few months later I scored a pair of Canton Ergo 1002 DCs for $800 and a saxophone! Huge improvement!!! The 7250 probably could have driven them. Although they are rated at "6-8 Ohms" and lower sensitivity than the Bostons, they actually play louder than the Bostons at the same volume setting. Go figure!
While I was shopping for speakers, the other models I liked for under $1,000 were the SVS Prime towers. They sounded much more controlled i the bass than the Golden Ears or the SVS Ultras, to me. They have some chip/scratch models on sale as low as $300 each on their website under "Outlet" But they only come in black.
Another brand I was really interested in was Tekton. I just didn't have the courage to buy them unheard, despite the wonderful reviews. ELAC also gets a lot of good press. Vandersteens, of course, have a devoted following but NHT went out of business a few months ago. Unless someone has bought them. Last of the acoustic suspension manufactures, I believe. Sad.
