I greatly appreciate all the input - it is very helpful. I feel like I am making all the newbie mistakes - did not buy separates; did not buy tons of power; getting enamored with brands before fully understanding how to match the parts of my system to both my tastes and budget.

At the moment I realize I am struggling with straying from the original concept (which may have been flawed from the start). While my circumstances would allow me to spend more, I had started with the premise of "quality at LOW cost". I am only now beginning to understand the compromises this entails.

I have put my faith in one brand at the moment - Marantz. I have no direct experience with the equipment and have gone entirely on its reputation. I hope I will be pleasantly surprised once I have everything together. While the time when I can spend $5k+ for an audiophile system is certainly in my future, now is not that time.

So I have a good quality but modest power 60 watt integrated amp (with built in DAC) and a well thought of CD player. For the moment I have my Sennheiser HD700 headphones ( which I love to listen through despite some internet criticism of these). These HP's are indicative of the sound quality I would like to achieve with two speakers - clear, accurate, fast with great bass reproduction WITHOUT an overwhelming bass emphasis. All this from inexpensive and very efficient speakers.

Perhaps I am starting to go in the wrong direction, but Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers seem they might fit the bill. I know they are "budget" speakers, but many people seem to like their sound. I have focused on the Monitor 7 v4 series, which was a design demarcation for this line - these represent the last generation to use 6.5 drivers for the mid and bass and recommend power of 15-180 watts with a sensitivity of 93db. And they are fairly cheap - less than $350 / pair. Later versions have similar specs but use 5.5' drivers. Not sure how much this matters though.

There are a variety of NHT speakers available in my area, both floorstanders and bookshelf (NHT Classic 3) but they all appear to need much more power to drive them.

I plan to audition a couple of pair of Paradigms this weekend. Of course these are all at least 5-10 year old speakers. Does this pursuit make any sense or am I interpreting the data / specs wrong. BTW - I found a website for PA speaker systems that had some layman's rules of thumb for pairing power and speakers ( I guess DJ's need this approach more than people on Audio Review forums). They recommended amp power should be 1.6x to 2.5x the minimum power handling of the speaker depending on the listening environment. Using this approach, the Paradigms should be driven by an amp with at least 22.5W - 37.5w per channel. Does this rule of thumb make any sense? I am presuming this is based on horn style speaker systems which appear to be very efficient, but the systems are also an order of magnitude larger in every respect.