Well, I auditioned 3 speakers on my list today. First was the MartinLogan Motion 40s. That's a nice little speaker, very linear, quick, room-filling dispersion, doesn't take up much room. Then I refreshed my memory on the Sonus Faber Veneres. They reconfirmed on the one hand how beguiling they are, but on the other hand also revealed their limitations on sorting out large scale orchestral music.
Finally I tried the Magneplanar 1.7s, and they seem to be exactly what I was looking for, other than bass down to 30 Hz. But they do everything above 45 Hz so well that i don't care much about the rest, and anyway I can fix that with subs, which I already have. These aced everything from solo voice with one acoustic instrument to combo jazz to large scale orchestra (Respighi, Rimsky-Korsakov), and in all caess they scaled up and down according to the ensemble size, and always floated the images in space like a live concert.
Thanks for all your suggestions, especially turning me on to the Odyssey Loreleis. That's a lot of speaker, both for a modest price and demure footprint.
But at this point, the Maggies are what I'm going to put my money on.
Finally I tried the Magneplanar 1.7s, and they seem to be exactly what I was looking for, other than bass down to 30 Hz. But they do everything above 45 Hz so well that i don't care much about the rest, and anyway I can fix that with subs, which I already have. These aced everything from solo voice with one acoustic instrument to combo jazz to large scale orchestra (Respighi, Rimsky-Korsakov), and in all caess they scaled up and down according to the ensemble size, and always floated the images in space like a live concert.
Thanks for all your suggestions, especially turning me on to the Odyssey Loreleis. That's a lot of speaker, both for a modest price and demure footprint.
But at this point, the Maggies are what I'm going to put my money on.