Best speakers for a small room

Vandersteen VLR CT is perfect for a small room. They are designed to be placed close to wall and will not eat up much space. 

Several great options... these are some of the better ones:

1. Harbeth 3PSR

2. Triangle Comete EZ

3. Wave Touch Audio Antero

All of these sound superb.

I have the Harbeth 30.1’s, which I got because they have such captivating sound with the right amplifier. But, they’re more expensive. And require a properly matched amplifier (SS amp like Hegel).

I do not have the Triangle Comete EZ - but, they get some very good reviews by a lot of reviewers, who have reviewed them highly with some good tube amps.

I also have the Wavetouch Audio Antero’s - which also sound amazing - perhaps as good as these others, have a room filling sound, with great transparency and resolution. These are efficient enough to be driven by a good tube integrated amp - such as a Line Magnetic.

Hard to choose one set over the others... Though, the Harbeths have a big brand name, and are easy to resell... and... tend to sound a lot like the venerable Quad ESL-57’s with the right amp. But, they are much more expensive.

So... you have quite a choice...

First priority is room correction.  Second is actively driven. Then look for sonically neutral / flat speakers.  I use Dirac, Linn to achieve all three, Kii has some interesting looking kit…

Check out Aerial 5T bookshelf speakers!  These speakers are front ported so you can use them against a wall if desired.  A well balanced sound!  Price is around $4K.  Read the online reviews!

What would probably be one of your best values and certainly the most fun, would be to build two 8 foot tall line arrays with 3" drivers.   That would be something like 24 drivers/side for a total of 48 drivers.  This one at the link is about $12 each.

You do that and add a couple of decent powered subs and a miniDSP DDRC24 active crossover.  That would be an awesome system in your little room.   And you could probably build the whole project and be done for less than $3k.  Take the other $7k and go to Europe for a week or so.