High Efficiency Speakers Your top 3 or more

"03-28-10: Tvad
Mmike84, you never mentioned price range (or ceiling), or room size restrictions (if there are any).

Do any of these criteria matter, or is your question intended to be as broad as possible?
Tvad (Threads | Answers)"

Sorry for my tardy reply. I didn't want to limit it as I'm looking for a comprehensive resource (for me and others) of all of the high efficiency speakers that exist.

However I am looking for my own purposes so I could say less than $15k, and preferably less than $10k. My room is pretty big (18x25) and open behind the listening position.

I have been considering Coincident Pure Reference or TV IV's but I'm fearful of spending that much on a speaker I've never heard (and cannot unless I am willing to go to the factory). What if I decided not to keep it? I'd lose a lot of $.

But I am by no means decided. Audio Notes, Audiokinesis, and Tonians (these were added as a result of this thread)are definitely up for consideration.

One serious limitation I have is I can only bring them out about 18" unless they are light enough they can be moved out and back. Audio notes actually prefer that (from what I've heard) and so have a real advantage. I'm going to drag my amps up to Audio Federation and give them another listen. Primarily because I highly respect the opinions about them from many of you.

I'll check them out. Thanks!

Mmike84, having long ago auditioned the AudioNote SEs and having heard them sound wonderful in Peter Qvortrup's home earlier, especially in conveying the emotions of the music, I must say there is a major issue of setting them up properly. At shows, where Peter sets them up, they are always in the room corners and substantially toed in. In Peter's listening room they were not so carefully placed and not in the corners. In my room they were away from the rear wall and side walls, and I could not get anywhere near with the sounds I had previously heard.

At the last THE Show, the Audio Federation room did not sound very good until the last days and Peter's alignment.

Mapman, driving a speaker with a class D amp does not mean that you get the liveliness and emotive capability that high-efficiency speakers seem to bring. The point of HE is more than just drivability. And, while in general ICE, Tripath, and other chip amps are VERY good for the money they are still missing some of what SETs do. IME.