Best Monitor Up To 5K - Tube Friendly

Why not audition the Silverline SR-17 and consider loosing the sub? The SR-17 is so far my favorite tube friendly monitor, hands down. In regard to the sub, I auditioned it with the 5.0's and did not feel that it was a good match with them either.

Thanks to all you guys. I got a little from everyone and spend a good deal of time reading on the web this weekend.

Snooker: I have a buddy who owns the 805N's. I asked him and he agreed to come over so that we could compare the two (SR15's vs. 805N's) on my gear and there was a clear difference. While we both felt that the two were nearly identical in the bottom end dept., the SR's were clearly a smoother sounding speaker on top. The N's use an aluminum dome while the SR's use a soft dome which was much more warm sounding. We both agreed that we prefered the SR's. If you want something warmer, I would suggest the SR17's as later suggested to me.

Wirehead: Thanks for the suggestion. Don't know much about these other than what I read. Can't figure out how I could listen to them beforehand. I don't go blind very often on speaker purchases. OTOH, the Q-10's are much more nuetral than the T-14's, which I owned before the Q's. When I fist got the Q's I was scared shitless, because I hate bright sounding anything. Jeff Delman insisted that I let them break in for 80-100 hours and I'm glad I did. Not only to they look better (I'm snobby like that), they perform better in my system. I even had double runs of the T-14.

Prostarsound: Trying to find a way to listen to the 3a's. Everything I read sounds great. Those are some EXPENSIVE monitors. Don't see any used, though.

Bbroussard: I'm with Dekay. I don't know how you could make a sub that didn't match well with your monitors, but Soliloquy seems to have done just that. I am a fan of the bigger REL products, but can't see even spending $2k on a sub for this little office system. The system is over $10k so far and it isn't scoring me many browine points. Dumping these and picking up different monitors is going to be a big hurdle as it is. Thanks, though, I know your heart was in the right place. :-)

Dekay: I am thinking strongly about the SR17's at this point, but as I was cruising A'gon I noticed a lot of Sonatas that could be picked up for a song. Even the new ones aren't that bad. Will I lose the intimacy of the soundstage if I go with floorstander at such nearfield listening? I could really scrap the sub with the Sonatas. What about Meadowlark Heron or i's or Blue Herons?

Marchman: I auditioned the Sonatas at the same time as the SR-17's. I started using mini monitors in the late 70's to early 80's so am accustomed their wide dispersion angle and therefore find wider floorstanders to sound a bit odd at first. I did however really like the sound of the Sonatas and enjoyed listening to them. This was also in a fairly large room though (approx. 20 x 30) and I can't imagine how they would sound in a small room. I would look into this first since your's is on the small side. Another speaker that might be interesting is the Harbeth 7 that Charlie and Paul at the site are using (I know that Charlie is using his in a small office with very good results), though these are large stand mounters.

Marchman,

The Meadowlark Herons apparently have some way of adjusting them for a smaller room, could be a possibility. But I gotta tell ya, my Shearwaters mate beautifully with the sli80 and they go way down, definitely enough bass for me, but then again I'm not listening to very loud rock. The Shearwaters do a perfect job on acoustic bass, even Charlie Haden's super huge bottom end, no problem. If there's somewhere you can listen to them, I'd give 'em a try. Soundstaging is also top notch.