Best Speaker for audiophile-grade small room rig

Merlin TSM's or Focus Audio 688

Highly recommend you listen to the Piega C3 or C3 ltd. Stereophile has a review of the C-8 ltd in this issue . Same speaker only smaller.

PMC LB-1 Signatures or a pair of PMC DB-1's with a James EMB=1000 Sub. Both are optimized for a smaller environment. Both will knock your socks off. The LB-1's are used to monitor in many DVD and CD mastering labs.

Kevin
The Sound Broker

If you have sufficient amplifier power available , the little ATC SCM7's are very hard to beat. I've had Spendor S3/5's, SP1/5's,LS3/5a's, Harbeth P3 ES-2's, Monitor Audio Studio 2's, and find the ATC's to be the most satisfying so far. Don't try to drive these with 25-30 watts, though. They are tiny (11.8"x6"x8" lwh) but demand strong amplification and a high quality front end . They will reward you with sound and music out of all proportion to their size. I drive mine with Odyssey Stratos monoblocks, and occasionally with a 60wpc tube amp, about the bare minimum from which I would expect decent dynamics.

The Reference 3a MM de Capo i would be worth looking into, as well as the Coincident Triumph Signature UHS. Face it, there are about a zillion excellent small two-ways out there that will fill the bill.