best 5-20K speakers for high-end tube amp?

Thanks for the encouragement-- I stayed up the whole night doing my speaker research, armed with my auditioning experience of the last few weeks. I also think I can put together a great system well within that budget.

I couldn't find "skuhino" using member lookup or searching in Virtual Systems.

Another speaker that you might consider is the Classic Audio Reproductions Project T1 or Project T3. The two are very similar, being full range (read: cutoff at 20Hz) and easy to drive all at once. Their efficiency is a little lower then most horns (97db) but they are a uniform impedance- either 8 or 16 ohms depending on options.

I have used these as reference for some time, and while I have heard some speakers that do some things better, I have heard no speaker that does all things better. They are easy to place in the room (mine are 6" from the rear wall, which makes speaker choice difficult in my room).

They are quite revealing and relaxed. Listening all day at any volume level is a treat. I would not put transistor amps on them though! Imaging is excellent and the speaker overall lacks coloration. Its faults: while easily as fast as any cone speaker I have heard, it is not quite as fast as some planar speakers, although for that lack it more then makes up for it by being easy to drive and dynamic, something that all planars lack. If you don't have to strain your tube amp to make it work, your system will sound better.

Finally, the price, which not cheap, is very reasonable compared to some of the lessor speakers listed elsewhere in this thread.

Good Hunting!

Sorry, No Slouch, it should be member Skushino.

Also, I believe that many Audiogon members would advise taking any recommendation by Atmasphere as golden. I think that he is pointing you in exactly the direction you want to go.

Hi No Slouch,

I'll second Ralph Karsten's recommendation of Classic Audio Reproductions speakers. You might try e-mailing them; I seem to recall their having a dealer in Hong Kong once upon a time.

http://www.classicaudiorepro.com/

If you like the Wilson WP sound then a Von Schweikert VR-4JR will give you the same (or better) performance for 1/5 of the price. The VR-4sr's will give you even better performance.