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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
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
funny story ( now )

we took a pair of MMG in trade which was a small win against our cross town arch rival and because our backwalls were pretty highly damped they never did sparkle, so on a whim i bought them from store owner
came home to find GF cat hanging stuck to panels
( btw they sounded freaking fantastic in our 10’ ceiling brick townhouse)
said to GF declaw the cat
she moved out the next week...
leemaze
330 posts
 
I have a pair of Wharfdale Diamond 10.7 speakers hooked up to a much older NAD amp (7175PE) in a similar sized room (15x40, with 8.5ft ceilings) and I love them. Great detail and great bass. They are now the older model and available for less than your budget from Music Direct.

https://www.musicdirect.com/speakers/wharfedale-diamond-107-tower-speakers-pr
therobert
51 posts
 
I second the opinion to get Monitor Audio speakers as I had some GR10's powered by a 326BEE years ago, and it was an amazing combo for the price.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
I use Silverline Preludes with a 326 in my gym. As long as you don't go too hard on the volume dial, it's a nice sounding combo.  The bonus here is a small footprint for my tight space.  If that's valuable to you and very high SPL isn't required, you could definitely do worse than the Prelude.
jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller
1,399 posts
 
@ruleof72 ,

I have only heard the T2, T3 (flagship) and Alphas (I think).  

I also have your situation where I have my speaker cables in the wall.  I started with Monoprice, like you, and now I have signalcable wire in the wall.  I thoroughly enjoyed the speakers, including my Totems, with 12-14 gauge Monoprice cable runs.  You'll get a lot of different views on the subject.  Mine is a middleview--I believe cabling makes a difference but it's hard to imagine a great system sounding terrible with good gauge hookup wire.  I found--in my room/my system that interconnects made more difference.  

And keeping the WAF high keeps me enjoying music right in the living room.  

I also like the recommendations for Monitor Audio and Totem.  The "PSB sound" was different to me than the Totems I had before.  The Totems were very lively--not harsh, yet very much forward sounding.  The PSBs are more neutral and warm and, yes, they can sound slightly laid back with some recordings.  I got very accustomed to the sound and now I prefer it just slightly over shiny, forward, etc. sounding speakers.  


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