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$1000-$2000 Floor-standing speakers for larger room w/NAD 326bee

I’m looking for a set of floor-standing speakers for our main listening room. They will be 2 channel music only. They need to be "cat safe" (no fabric on front, or removable grills), able to fill a larger room (20x15 with vaulted ceiling) with decent volume (typical max listening level is 85-90db but a lot of listening is at low volume as well) and efficient enough for a NAD326BEE. Budget is ~$1000-$2000 for the pair. My old speakers in the room were open baffle design (Hawthorne Audio Duets) and I did like the relatively open sound stage they provided. I may move them to a different room or just sell them (they’re too wide for our current configuration in the room and they aren’t too high on the "cat safe" scale). I have a couple of Polk TSi400’s in the room now as "placeholders" until I decide on a permanent pair. Minimum distance between speakers is about 8-10 feet and listening position is about 10 feet from the speakers. The speakers will need to be within about of the wall behind them. The floor is carpeted.

Music is a mix of Jazz, Classic Rock and Classical and sources are turntable and streaming from a Roon server. I live in the Atlanta metro area and

I’ve been out of the speaker hunting game for a while so any suggestions would be very much appreciated!
ruleof72
loomisjohnson
1,948 posts
 
i believe both the psb and monitor are ported in the rear, so very close placement to a wall is a consideration--without seeing your room i'd guess you'll be fine with placement of 2', though you might have to experiment with plugging the ports (they come with foam plugs) and/or position. soundwise, i hear the psbs as quite neutral/natural w/o a lot of coloration; i'm not sure if i've heard the monitors silver, so i'd defer to others, though  i've heard the gold and had the sense of them being bright/forward and very good.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
I have a pair of rbh 1266 se/r. They’re rear ported and have side firing 12" woofers, so they move lots of air. I’ve got them 12" from the back of the speaker to the wall.. that’s what the room allows. At first, it was boomy as heck. I then put some 4" thick broadband absorbers directly behind the speakers and they’ve completely eliminated port noise and bass boom right off the wall. I obviously still need to deal with room modes, but these panels helped a lot since I couldn’t move my speakers any further out.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
In that price range I really liked the Vandersteen 1Ci. Leaves enough money for a pair of good cables.
tomcarr
1,522 posts
 
+1 for kalali.
I still have the Silver 8s (in another system), but got Vandy 2Cs for my main system. Completely different sound.
The 8s are analytical, somewhat aggressive, very clean, play very loudly, bright treble. Compared to the Vandys, they don"t:
     Image as well
     Disappear as well
     Speak as cohesively top to bottom
    Don't render timbres and tone as well
IMO, the 8s are better suited to hard rock, high SPLs, parties.
They are an excellent speaker, but they definitely sound different than Vandersteens. YMMV. Listen before you purchase...

Tom
wolf_garcia
6,708 posts
 
I’m of the opinion that Vandersteens are one of the least "cat safe" speakers made. I no longer have any cats around (not surprisingly as they eventually die or disappear) but back when I had a wonderful sounding pair of Vandy 1Bs with the seemingly irresistible "cat trampoline" on top (most Vandy models feature this, leading me to assume Richard Vandersteen at some point actually employed cats as designers), the cats thought they were a gift from the Scratching Post Gods. The "trampoline" was a fave cat sleeping spot, along with the also irresistible "cat claw cleaning" grill cloth. Eventually I sent the beleaguered speakers back to Vandy for restoration (actually worth it back then…mid 90s or so), and when I got ’em back I sold them to a catless couple. Whew. Great speaker however, and although the 1 series often gets overlooked when compared to other models, with Sound Anchor stands and good electronics they really shine.
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