Full circle and thinking about speakers

91dB is just below my (admittedly arbitrary) cutoff of 92dB. In any case you definitely want higher. No idea why audiophiles don’t pay more attention to this. Every time I read one of these posts where the guy is searching for the "right amp to mate with blah blah blah" the first thing I do is search and after a while I am no longer surprised when sure enough it always turns out they are low sensitivity speakers.

So save yourself a whole lot of grief and look for ones around 95 and up. Do this one simple thing and you will find almost every amp 20 watts and up works just fine. And there are some mighty fine sounding amps in that range and very affordable too.

Recommending speakers used to be really hard because they are all so very different. Then engineering and design improved so much the lower end where all the crap was has elevated up a lot. Now as long as you avoid some of the old school offenders like B&W, Wilson, et al, it is pretty easy. Especially in your price range where Eric Alexander has that market nailed down. Search around Tekton, look for something in your price range, keep in mind whatever you select will be so much better than expected your only regret may be not stretching for even more, order and enjoy!

There are multitudes of terrific speakers with sensitivity at or below 91, so I suggest you ignore millercarbon's tired, pedantic, and self-admittedly arbitrary cutoff.  Oh, and B&W and Wilson make some great speakers.    He also relishes in pushing Tekton at every opportunity, so perhaps factor that into your calculus (as if anyone has a major slice of the market "nailed down," ... good grief).  Nevertheless, Tekton does have many fans and some good critical reviews, so may be worth considering.  

Ahh yes, the crime of being enthusiastic about that which is good, while helping others avoid that which is not. Oh, the humanity!

But wait- where did I say Tekton has a "major slice" of anything nailed down? If you cannot argue a point without distorting the other fellows position, that is more often than not indicative of having taken a weak position. Or weak reasoning skills. Or poor reading comprehension. Take your pick.

Well it appears I'm in the  right place. LOL. A lot of passionate responses and much appreciated. Thanks everyone.
Hombre -  admittedly I  am at the beginning of  this journey  and know little. I'll  trust your  words and have a listen when the opportunity presents itself.
Thanks