Best speaker a wife would tolerate

Not knowing your wife, this is an impossible guess. I will give it a try , and suggest the small Magnaplaners. She can be told they are cloth covered room dividers or Japanese screens.....whatever appeals to her aesthetic value. Another option is the small Soundlab speakers, same description on overall appearance. I have the largest Soundlab speakers in our living room, over 7 feet tall. One of my best friends has a very beautiful wife who upon laying eyes on them the first time, ran over to them, put her hand on the face and said "these are really beautiful, I love them.....what do they do?" My wife has much greater appreciation of these speakers now.

Just upgraded from Vandersteens (huge black things) to elegant Meadowlarks. My wife actually said she liked the new speakers (a first). Check out the lighter "ash" color. Lots of bass and easy to drive.
Hands down best finish is the Vienna Acoustics. Mozart has good (not great) bass.

Probably the best finish-out on speakers goes to Legacy Audio. Unfortunately, the sonics don't keep up with the
cosmetics.

My B&W P5 are well received in Cherry. The Matrix I had for a while were a little too obnoxious (they were tolerated). The Nautilus 804 and 803 look stylish in Cherry also (The 803 my next upgrade).

If size is an issue, the Mordant-short mentioned above is a nice small speaker. B&W CDM-2 look nice too.