Floor Stander with Small Footprint 7K - 15K

Shelby+Kroll Reference

I have the Nano Series and absolutely love what they do with acoustic and voice. They throw an sound stage that is spooky real. They have impeccable tonal balance with clarity in spades. My room is 11' x 15' x 8' and they work very well there. The Reference takes everything I like about the Nano up a few notches. There is a great review of the Reference Stereo Mojo from last Spring.

http://www.shelbykroll.com/

http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649183528-demo-shelby-kroll-reference-system/

Chapman T-7. The latest version. Extremely musical and balanced. Easy to drive. No affiliation except I have owned an older pair for many years. Stuart is passionate about his craft and is great to deal with. He's been quietly building world-class speakers for about 40 years. Even with the gorgeous wood trim option, price is well within your budget.

There are some excellent reviews online if you care to investigate.

I'm surprised Janszen zA2.1 has not been suggested yet. Clearly they fit the size and price measures. I suspect with an audition they would satisfy the musical requirements as well.

This thread really got me thinking, so I went out and auditioned some of the speakers in this price range and the Vandersteen Quatro's will give you the ability to tune the bass to your room. You mentioned your wife. I have the same situation and she likes the various veneer choices and the different color grills that Vandersteen offers. She also liked the shape as they look even smaller than they really are. Then when I told her that the Quatro's can be set up within inches of the wall (due to their ability to tune the bass) she was on board in a big way. It's always cool when the wife likes the look of your speakers as anything else can be hidden away, lol.

Wondering what you are looking to audition?

Certainly late to this party, the solution to your quandary is the Chapman T –8 MKII loudspeaker.

if you want something aesthetically pleasing but a little bit more money go to the Chapman T – 7 in the special rounded dual cabinet version.

There’s absolutely no need for a sub with the speakers as they go down past 20 cycles with response climbing even at 20 cycles. Incredibly natural sounding speakers with fantastic depth, resolution ,easy non-fatiguing listening yet with incredible life like detail. They look rather plain and simple on the outside but the engineering inside is extremely complex. Unlike so many other speakers where you pay for what you see – here you pay for what you cannot see but what you can hear… Isn’t that what a truly great value and accurate musical speaker is supposed to do?

 The internal designs are complex involving transmission line cabinets, specially cured woods for bracing , elaborate acoustic silica sand chambers for the Crossovers whose components are potted in various hardnesses of sand dampening urethane, speaker wire is individually cryogenically treated internally, and the crossover design is quite advanced using extremely large and high-quality parts from some of the worlds best manufacturers of capacitors, inductors , resistors etc. by weight alone the crossover designs are typically 5 to 6 times as much as other competitors.


Ahem, remarkably the speakers are very easy to drive despite the electronics inside, and offer a very benign impedance to amplifiers. As such even with a nominal 89 db of sensitivity they can play satisfyingly lifelike and loudly with just 30 W of tube application. Yet they can also withstand 450 W of solid-state amplification provided you feel like throwing a dance party that night.