Speakers to Mate with McCormack?

PTM makes a very good point if you are willing to go that route.

I used a pair of PSB Stratus Goldi's with a McCormack DNA-225 and thought they were SUPER for the money. They can be had for about $1200 used and well worth the money. If you upgrade later, they also make great HT speakers. To my ear, they best the Vandy 2's with the Mc. If you CAN go $2500, by all means try the Vandy 3A sigs. A real bargain used at that price point and great with Mc.

Check out the NorthCreek rhythms, they seem to be around your ballpark range and DO NOT have the Msrp markup or other non-sense. It seems that they are beyond superb, near SOTA.

PS: I do have the DNA 225, make sure that whatever speaker your choose has room to breathe. Mine had my Gershman Acoustics booming with low frequency. Maybe I can blame my weak rear wall or my lack of common sense due to space constraints.

I had a pair of Vandy's with a DNA-1, I foolishly thought the Kestral HR's might be better suited to my room based on the size. There was no comparison, the Vandy's blew away the Kestral's in the bottom end & sounded better overall. Fortunately I kept the Vandy's & sold the Kestral's.

I have since moved on to a pair of Von Schweikert VR4jr's & there is no comparison. I would suggest giving the VR4's a try, they can be had cheap on the used market & while they look as ugly as the Vandersteen I would bet they are a better speaker for Rock.

Magnepan 1.6. a friend has this combo and loves it.

I own Meadowlark and Vandersteen. No comparison. The VS "house" sound is much better to my ears. Fuller, richer, great sound stage in all dimensions.