Help with speaker selection, please

Wow, that's a W I D E range of speakers you have listed, everything from electrostats to horns to heavy hitters. Each of these designs will have idiosyncrocies that you absolutely MUST know about. For example, I would think the Quad ESL's are probably not going to be dynamic or "punchy" enough to make playstation or rap as exciting as the Talons or Proacs. Yet, I would guess that the Avant Garde's might drive you out of the room with some of the sharp and shrill sounds of the Playstation.

It has been my experience that "conventional" speakers (box, woofer, tweeter) tend to make for the best "all around" speakers. The exotic designs will do certain things better than cone speakers, but they're usually pretty picky about the rest of the system too.

No offense, but your asking about that collection of speakers tells me that you are not sure what "kind" of sound you want. And unfortunately, it is hard to tell what that sound is until you hear it. So, my advice would be to start with a conventional design, which will work with a wider range of music, and a wider choice of amplifiers. To push it into the "opiniated" category, I'm a fan of Proacs and Merlins.

It's me...the poster of the original message. My system consists of a Theta Data Basic II transport, which I intend to replace with a high-caliber universal player over the next couple years. It runs into an MSB Gold Link III DAC, which will be able to upsample my universal player to 24/192. My interconnects are all Kimber Select 1030. My pre-amp is an Adcom GFP-750, which I intend to keep for a while. My amp, a Rotel RB-981, will be replaced with the speakers, as will my kimber 4TC speaker cable. My thought is to get the best amp I can afford for whichever speakers I choose, and also buy the appropriate speaker wire at that time. As I said originally, I run VCR, DSS, PlayStation2, CD/DAC into my pre-amp, as my living situation requires that I have a single, comprehensive system. Again, thanks so much for all the input that's already been supplied, as well as for any further assistance you might provide.--Brian

It may be best for you, if you have the chance, to listen to as many of your speaker choices with some of your favorite music. And then make your speaker choice.

The best amp for the Quad's may not be the best choice for some of the others...etc.

The forum history is a great place to find info on many of these possibilities.

As others have pointed out, each of those speakers may have different drive requirements. Besides that, your "short list" is so diverse that i see NO continuity to the choices. In my opinion, NO electrostat or "monitor" type speaker can do justice to "rap" or anything with a LOT of high level low frequency output. While i hate to sound like "Mr Negative", you really do need to sit down and figure out what your main priorities and goals for this system are and then make your selections based on that info. There are TONS of good speakers out there, but some may be MUCH better suited to your tastes and goals than others. Sean
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I have owned the ProAc 308's and enjoyed them in my system. At that time I ran them with a Bryston 4B ST and a Bryston BP 25. They were not at all difficult to run. I know of people who use relatively low powered tube amps to run their ProAc speakers. It is a speaker that sounds very good with many different types of music.
Many of the speakers that you have listed sound exceptional with certain music in certain setups and sound poor with other types of music and different setups. I believe that the ProAcs will sound very good with many different setups, in many different locations, with many different sources. A safe bet. Good Luck!!!!!
Drew