I want to thank everyone again. Travel is starting to shut down again in the Northeast, so I'll likely be putting off my speaker auditions until ?. To make matters worse, my old Bryston amp just lost a channel; that's fine, I've been anticipating buying a new amp to match new speakers, but it means that I'm listening to music lopsided until the covid fog lifts.
I love all the recommendations. Some of these speaker companies I've never heard of, some barely have dealers in the US. I'm excited to get at it.
I will, though, reiterate that my question is not so much about great small speakers but whether folks feel they can be *completely* satisfied with small speakers. I'm not surprised to get answers that are all over the place as I did ask for personal opinions. Some interesting patterns emerge: many suggest some variation on the elusive idea that "small speakers can be fantastic if you don't have the space or budget for floor-standers." But I'm interested in hypothetically bracketing off budget and room; I'm really asking whether stand mounts can be entirely satisfying regardless of room and budget. @prof got at it when he wrote: "Can a stand mounted monitor be satisfying to listen to? Hell yes! Can it be satisfying in the long run as the only speaker to own? Not so sure." I'll repeat that I don't want to buy "better" speakers or "great speakers"; I want to buy a speaker that can reward serious listening, that can transport me. (Again, I realize this is subjective. At the risk of waxing nostalgic, when I would listen to my Maggies, I could feel my blood pressure going down, my body melting, my emotions thoroughly engaged. I want *that* again.)
A number of you have reasonably asked about my room, budget, listening preferences, and so on. Of course I understand that the speaker itself can only take me so far, and that I need to think into the entire system and into the room. One reason that I've wanted to make my question theoretical rather than situational is that I have three possible rooms, all of which present problems ... and we may well be moving in the next few years anyway (most likely downsizing). Suffice it to say that one room is quite small (10x12) in which the speakers would have to go up against glass windows; one is a living room with an "open" design, also with glass windows as a "front wall"; and the third is a monstrous vault of a room, the house's original garage, with 12' ceilings, echos, etc. So in one sense I have options, in another sense those options present some challenges. I've talked over the rooms with some specialists/dealers and I have a sense of room treatments, panels, etc.
But I'm also a theory guy and I like abstracting from specific situations. I am genuinely interested in whether folks here can be fully satisfied with small speakers regardless of budget or room. I also wouldn't mind narrowing my search to either stand mounts or floor-standing speakers. If, for example, there had been some consensus that floorstanding speakers are necessary to cross the threshold into bliss, then I'd focus on that (and deal with the rooms accordingly); on the other hand, if there was consensus that stand mounts could be a forever speaker, I might lean that way. Mostly, I enjoy the experience and intelligence out here and wanted to pose an existential and admittedly subjective question.
I love all the recommendations. Some of these speaker companies I've never heard of, some barely have dealers in the US. I'm excited to get at it.
I will, though, reiterate that my question is not so much about great small speakers but whether folks feel they can be *completely* satisfied with small speakers. I'm not surprised to get answers that are all over the place as I did ask for personal opinions. Some interesting patterns emerge: many suggest some variation on the elusive idea that "small speakers can be fantastic if you don't have the space or budget for floor-standers." But I'm interested in hypothetically bracketing off budget and room; I'm really asking whether stand mounts can be entirely satisfying regardless of room and budget. @prof got at it when he wrote: "Can a stand mounted monitor be satisfying to listen to? Hell yes! Can it be satisfying in the long run as the only speaker to own? Not so sure." I'll repeat that I don't want to buy "better" speakers or "great speakers"; I want to buy a speaker that can reward serious listening, that can transport me. (Again, I realize this is subjective. At the risk of waxing nostalgic, when I would listen to my Maggies, I could feel my blood pressure going down, my body melting, my emotions thoroughly engaged. I want *that* again.)
A number of you have reasonably asked about my room, budget, listening preferences, and so on. Of course I understand that the speaker itself can only take me so far, and that I need to think into the entire system and into the room. One reason that I've wanted to make my question theoretical rather than situational is that I have three possible rooms, all of which present problems ... and we may well be moving in the next few years anyway (most likely downsizing). Suffice it to say that one room is quite small (10x12) in which the speakers would have to go up against glass windows; one is a living room with an "open" design, also with glass windows as a "front wall"; and the third is a monstrous vault of a room, the house's original garage, with 12' ceilings, echos, etc. So in one sense I have options, in another sense those options present some challenges. I've talked over the rooms with some specialists/dealers and I have a sense of room treatments, panels, etc.
But I'm also a theory guy and I like abstracting from specific situations. I am genuinely interested in whether folks here can be fully satisfied with small speakers regardless of budget or room. I also wouldn't mind narrowing my search to either stand mounts or floor-standing speakers. If, for example, there had been some consensus that floorstanding speakers are necessary to cross the threshold into bliss, then I'd focus on that (and deal with the rooms accordingly); on the other hand, if there was consensus that stand mounts could be a forever speaker, I might lean that way. Mostly, I enjoy the experience and intelligence out here and wanted to pose an existential and admittedly subjective question.