salesperson recomends what do you think

What sound characteristics are most important to you? Imaging, soundstaging, tone, dynamics, PRaT, etc.?

Schubert...it was a weird score as I'd just heard a set of Preludes at a friend's house, and my then current speakers had a midrange mush issue (Vienna Bachs bad crossover component maybe)...a wonderful accident that happened to me because I'm such a consistently good person. I often remind my friend of my score since he paid full retail for his, and did the research to find 'em in the first place. I wonder sometimes about the "large room" issue as it seems that only matters if you're planning a drunk ass dance party...do people listen to stuff in "large rooms" from 50 feet away? Do they insist on sound that knocks the dust off the chandeliers? Cause the butler to drop the tray of caviar? Note that a good sub does more than play obvious bass notes...it sort of "charges" a room and warms up everything...used RELs are always a good idea.

Your are a good person Wolf, I just always feel any room sound better if its "pressurized" to use the common term, not that I know what that really means.

It like when you're listening to music taking over the room,not necessarily at loud volumes mind you, as opposed to listening to music thats just in in the room.

I do blast my hifi sometimes...and the entire house resonates...I like that.

08-05-13: Schubert
Personally I think B& W are the most over rated speakers ever made.
Sonus Fabers are great, especially for acoustic music.

For me, there's something about most B&Ws I've heard that just don't quite bring it together. I'm always aware that I'm listening to transducers. The one big exception is their little PM1 mini-monitor, but at $2800/pair it's out of range for the OP. Matched up with their PV1D sub it's a killer combo. It comes to about $4800 with stands, but is very competitive at that price. Most other B&Ws don't move me. Sonus Fabers almost always do. Some late '90s Concertos could be a good solution.

Golden Ears are good sounding, very good for large scale orchestra music but the smaller two-ways are not near as good according to my ears.

It could be that they weren't sufficiently broken in or were paired with mediocre electronics (I'm guessing here). I've heard both the GoldenEar Triton Two tower and the Aon 3 larger standmount speaker. Both were factory demos at a high end dealer open house a couple of years apart. I heard the Aon 3's just this past Feb. in a medium-small room and the tonal balance, timbre-correctness, speed, smoothness, dynamic range and bass extension were all remarkable for a $1K/pair speaker regardless of size.

In fact they reminded me very much of the dynamic and frequency range of a good $1500-2000 small tower such as what I listen to at home. Unlike most other speakers in its price range, however, the Aons' motion transformer ribbon tweeter isn't subject to metal dome resonances or dynamic piston overshoot or ringing. That tweeter is smooth, extended, and classy, making the Aons sound like a more expensive speaker.