Looking for "realistic" speakers

Now that Sonus Faber's Olympica line has replaced their Cremona line, you can find lightly used Cremona M's (a $10K floorstander) in excellent condition for around $6K. There are two such A-gon listings right now (I have no affiliation with either of them). I think the Cremona M is a fabulous speaker, musical, articulate, detailed, and emotionally involving. It doesn't take a very expensive amp to bring them alive, either.

They are also drop-dead gorgeous, so there's a good chance that they'd have a high WAF as well.

Yes - please let me know what you're using for whole house surge protection. When my new gear comes in I was thinking of investing in PS Audio stuff. I don't want to trust it to my lower end Furman stuff.

When I say I'm looking for scale, I don't mean floor to ceiling speakers or anything (we're currently set up in a smaller room anyway (15 X 25) but that will change.

I have to say even the Maggie MMX's now that they're breaking in have a nice sense of scale. And I have to say I'm enjoying the speed, sound staging and imaging of them even if it doesn't sound as natural as I'd like (but there's still burn in to go).

Sadly the next step up in Magnepan is already too large for the room (and WAF). I'll return the MMX's even though for $600 I see what everyone's raving about.

There's an audio store that carries Legacy speakers about an hour from my house that I'll be checking out tomorrow. Most of the ones I've seen have been pretty hulking, but hopefully they have more modest sizes that would work.

The weird thing about the insurance money is that if I don't buy any more audio gear they cut me a check for $1000 end of story. OTOH they'll compensate me for any audio gear I buy dollar for dollar up to $15,000.

Sadly I have to confess to the wife that I have no choice other than to buy a new $15,000 audio system or lose money. Needless to say the most ironclad of all possible setups for the audio connoisseur. ;)

"When I say I'm looking for scale, I don't mean floor to ceiling speakers or anything (we're currently set up in a smaller room anyway (15 X 25) but that will change."

OK, I thought you were referring to the "scale" of the musical presentation the speakers were capable of.

"The weird thing about the insurance money is that if I don't buy any more audio gear they cut me a check for $1000 end of story. OTOH they'll compensate me for any audio gear I buy dollar for dollar up to $15,000."

Wow! I've never heard of that, but, then again, I've never had this type of claim. Also, even if your Legacy store doesn't have the Classic HD or Signature HD on hand, I would think they should be willing to obtain one for you to audition, since you are clearly a serious buyer with money to burn!

Oh, also, as Johnny said, check out those Cremona M. I've heard those, and that is a sweet sounding speaker.