I would like to take the time to tell you about a great bargain I've encountered recently. The BR-1 bookshelf speaker kit from partsexpress.com. I've been listening to a lot of different speakers lately across a wide range of prices and am absoulutely stunned by the price/performance ratio of these little wonders. They're smooth, well extended in the highs, not forward or laid back, and extremely "musical". I find myself following "a tune" more easily with these speakers than I have with much higher priced competition. RGA always talks about many speakers being to analytical and bright and not having "enough meat on the bones" as he often says but boy to these speakers have some meat! I'd even recommend that you, RGA, buy these speakers for their $140 price tag. The one speaker that to my ears they resemble the closest is the Joseph Audio RM7si bookshelf speaker that retails for $1700. They are a bit of work to put together but they are a great first step into the world of hifi.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=300-640