speaker suggestions for modest arcam alpha system

Avguygeorge here's adding to the minisystem speaker confusion:
ELF 1.5
For $125 hard to go wrong. They sound natural.

Mark, I heard some Ruark speakers with Arcam electronics at a dealer a few years ago. They sounded like a good match. I was going to get them until I came across Kinima G1 speakers. They are monitors so you will need stands. There is a new pair for sale on Agon if you need some info and they do fall into your price range.

The guy I bought my Hales T-5's from; said, Arcams are a nice match. You can find the T-5's on the used market for usually a great price. I've seen them sold her on the Gon a number of times. They are amazing speakers. IMO better than anything that has been recommended so far.

so many options...i love it....i am glad to see all the replys and also glad there are so many companies devoted to making great speakers...i am no where close to making a decision :)...

dawgbyte, i love your all encompasing statement that the hales are better than everything else listed (have you heard some of the other speaker's listed?...which ones?....why are they better IYHO?...thanks)...anyone else able to throw a little contradiction into the discussion...the more experience you've had with the aformentioned equipment, the more valuable your opinion will be to me...IMHO :)

Tom, it sounds like you have some experience with the theil's (and i am eager to hear your experience with the ProAcs), I have some concerns with the Thiels that you might be able to shed some light on. Based solely on web reviews, I am afraid that the Thiels may be too revealing for my musical tastes, too fucused on the sweetspot listening position and more than once, i've encountered posts about reliabilty issues, which may be due to neglect/ignorance or truely meritable)...any thoughts?

I've also come to the conclussion that my love of floorstanders is dumb....thanks everyone that has recommended monitor style speakers

the scariest part of all of this for me is that i have no way of touching/smelling/hearing most of the aformentioned speakers....this is not good...(local audio shops offer paradigm, totem, and tannoy)...unfortunately for me, your guy's opinions are going to help steer me to my next speaker choice :0

Thiels are indeed revealing, but when you pair them with good gear, I consider that to be a very good thing. It means that they aren't covering anything up. Not having the new ProAcs in my home yet, from my in store auditioning, I'd say that as a brand, they are warmer than the Thiels, though perhaps not as spot on accurate. With regard to reliability of Thiels, I happen to think that they have some of the best customer support out there. I picked up my 3.6's second hand, and before I did, I contacted Thiel to ask about the warranty. They said that technically, it is non-transferable, and lasts 10 years. However, they said that no matter if you are the original owner or not, and no matter how old they are, if they fail on the account of a manufacturing defect, they will generally repair/replace it for free. On the flip side, even if they are brand new, if they fail due to your own abuse, they don't cover anything. I recently had a chance to put that policy to the test when both of my woofers developed damage from aparently excessive excursion. This, despite the fact that I had never pushed them very loud. We could not find the source of the problem (and my amps were fully checked out, and came back fine), but Thiel fixed them for free, even though it is quite possible that it was something other than speaker failure that caused the problem (my amps were Adcom GFA-555II's run in bridged mono, one for each speaker, and this would have presented a 2 ohm nominal, 1 ohm occassional, load, which may have been the culprit). Thiel was great. The also had my other drivers and crossovers checked out, too.

That said, any of those speakers on your short list are capable of providing very good, very enjoyable music. It is unfortunate that you cannot hear them all, but such is often the case. What sonic traits do you prefer?

Tom.