great little speakers

My favorite small speaker for many years has been the Pyramid MET-7, designed and made by Richard Sequerra, one of the audio "greats". I took them with me when I was teaching in the Far East, and really enjoyed their excellent performance in smaller rooms.

The MET-7's are extremely coherent, with a warm musical sound, and excellent imaging. Sometimes the MET-7's can be purchased used here on Audiogon, but they can be purchased new for $1200 directly from Sequerra. Here is the link to Sequerra's web site, where you can get more info about the Pyramid MET-7:
http://www.sequerra.com/electronics/data/index.html

In addition to the Sequerra MET-7, I also strongly recommend the speakers from PSB and Paradigm that are in your price range. These two Canadian manufacturers make some of the best value speakers (price-to-performance ratio) on the market.

The Penaudio Rebel 2 and Charisma fall into this category. They are based in Finland with distribution in the Netherlands and UK, as well as the Nordics. www.penaudio.fi

I second the Reference 3A de capos. Wife bought them to use with a cj cav-50 tube integrated but when the conrad johnson was being serviced I swiped them and hooked them up my Decware zen amp (about 1 1/2- 2 wpc SET). They are simply outstanding. More efficient than their specs (rated 92db) would indicate. Very clean and dynamic and not edgy at all. Great bass and just a fantastic all round speaker. No subwoofer needed.

I second the recommendation for Reference 3A. I just heard their new Dulcet at the CES2004 and was simply in awe of the musicality and coherence these little monitors possess. They seem fairly easy to drive.
Good luck.

I've got the speaker just for you. Coherent? Never heard anything, anywhere as coherent as the new Harmonic Precision Caravelles. How about no subwoofer needed. (well maybe) Flat to 30 Hz!! Powerful, prodigious, bass comprable to , (forget about comparing to other monitors), high end floorstanders. I'm not kidding.. Hey I can give you all the adjectives. Means diddlysquat 'til you listen to these babies. I've had mine, just over 4 days. Got 75 hours on them, but Starsound says another 125 and I'll be in nirvana. I thought I was there already. This is a very exciting speaker. They have developed a series crossover like no other in the business. Quite incredible. I sold my Revel M20s for these babies. Couldn't go one round with the Caravelles. Whole other league. I listened to the new Jmlab Micros Be. Best monitor I had ever heard, until the Caravelles. I'm still freakin out. After a few more weeks listening, and really putting this baby through the mill, I'm going to attempt a review. Not one of my strong points. My golden ears are, (a strong point) though, and the Caravelles are a phenom. More to come,soon, from me, as well as others, I hope.... peace, warren