12' x 14' room; $10k budget for speakers; help

The room treatment consists of floor to ceiling curtains across the front wall.
An 8' x 10' area rug over hardwood floor.
Side panel absorbers for first reflection.

The Silverline Sonata IIs are 3' from the front wall and 2' from the side walls.

I just deleted a very long post. Be thankful! :-)

FWIW Your goal was my goal, non-fatiguing but very articulate speakers. I found them about 5 years ago. Silverline Boleros. They sound NOTHING like the other full range Silverline speakers which IMHO were voiced for typical audiophiles, i.e. dynamic, articulate, and forward. Especially the Silverline Sonata III which I heard at Silverlines store in the Bay area when I auditioned the Boleros.

What drew me to the Boleros was the selection of the drivers (which other speakers I have used) including the Esotar tweeter. The impedence curve and sensitivity which made them an excellent potential for driving with tubes. Also the speakers drivers are spaced closely together which makes semi nearfield listening possible. I use them in a 13x19x9 room in a classical equallateral triangle and find them both easy to drive, easy to listen to, articulate as hell, and they fully explore the potential for three dimensional soundstage (as one could expect in a room that size). And they are really beautiful speakers. Women visitors love the appearance/size/finish. So do I.

I know the pirce is a bit more than your target, but personal contact with Alan and optimally a listening session might result in some serious price accomodation. BTW, there are several excellent on-line reviews if you are interested.

For a difficult, small room with limited passive treatments, you might want look at any (or all) of:

1) Tunable bass, either Vandersteen Quattro/5/7 style or via separate subwoofers.

2) Controlled dispersion (horns or similar)

3) Digital room correction (Audyssey type for full range or Meridien/ARC/Velodyne for bass only)

IME, all of the above will allow you to minimize the damage inflicted by a small, modestly treated room.

Marty

I think you should take a very close look at the Daedalus Athena. It meets all your performance parameters and can be placed fairly close to the rear wall due to an aperiodic venting system. These are hand made speakers built from solid hardwood--they look and sound amazing. I ran my DA-1.1's with ARC electronics and this was a good match. The Athena's are very efficient though so you could always go with some interesting low power tube options for that size room if you want to explore that direction. Best of luck!

I agree that Digital Room Correction would be good idea in such a small space. The DSPeaker Dual Core 2.0 I just installed did wonders to the bass in my 13x15 room.

As for speaker options, maybe check out the Von Schwekert VR-22, VR-33, or VR-35. The first 2 are manufacturer direct with a trial period. All three are designed to be placed near walls.