Looking for "realistic" speakers

Thanks for all the suggestions. Problem is there's a limited selection of speakers to listen to locally. I DID hear the B&W PM1's. They're nice sounding but a bit forward (at least in their setup).

Also listened to the Sonus Faber floor standers ($9K) and bookshelf ($7K) and the were good but didn't light my fire. The less expensive $3.5 floorstanders were a major step down as I expected.

I finally heard Dynaudio Confidence bookshelves ($7.5K) - These were my favorites so far. They were also a bit forward sounding on the Ayre integrated they were playing on but that could be fixed with higher end electronics. Plus the guy set them up so i had to be literally 4 feet in front of them.

They played the same CD on the Contours and it honestly sounded like completely different music - and even so they sounded good for a speaker half the price. In fact in the $3.5K range the contours were by far the best I've heard so far.

Went to another store and listened again to regular Totem Forests (not signatures) on not so great electronics and they sounded not so great.

I wish I could hear Proac, Legacy, Tetras, even KEF LS50's locally but no dice.

Where does that leave me? I might have to start auditioning speakers in home from companies that sell direct and offer that. I'm thinking of Salk Song and others. Anyone have recommendations for speaker companies that sell direct? I may start a new thread about that..

Larry, the Legacy, Deadalus(30 day no-risk audition period on all non-showroom direct sales), and Selah(45-day money-back guarantee) brands I mentioned above are sold direct.

Not sure where you are in Maryland but if you can get to Déjà Vu Audio in McLean, VA go over and have a listen. They carry a nice line of speakers including Audio Note, Spendor, ProAc and Quad. I think the classic British monitor sound might appeal to your tastes. Don't be fooled either, many of these monitors are fairly large in size and tend to image better than floorstanders.

Personally I would give a good listen to the Spendor Classic Series and specifically the 1/2. This is still one of my favorite speakers. Derek Hughes has recently designed the Stirling SB-88 which has a lot of similarities to the 1/2 and is also worth checking out.

Clio - Oooh, I'd love to hear the Proac and Spendors in particular. I'm in Ellicott City MD closer to Baltimore but it sounds like it's worth the trip.

Mtort - thanks. I'm starting to think going American or Canadian with direct in home demo could get better bank for the buck than European speakers at the moment.

I probably had an hour long phone conversation with Jim Salk this morning and am getting close to ordering the Veracity ST's for just over $4K. 30 day in home trial and was very impressed with Mr. Salk, his candor, knowledge etc. This would leave me more money to sink into electronics etc.

Vu is very knowledgeable and you will get to hear some really good speakers. He was a huge Cary dealer at one time, might still be, and he knew Dennis well. I bought my first Set of Cary gear and Spendor speakers from him.

FWIW I have heard the Salk speakers many times and even visited with Jim Salk at his home demo room in Michigan. They are very nice speakers. However, I think they will present a different sound than what you were used to.