Quote Originally Posted by axelsrd
$500/$600 is about right. I was really just wondering what speaks would the 2230 be able to handle. This is just a 2 channel casual (maybe sometimes loud) listening and for needledrops. But I do want the best sound I can get for the money.
The 2230 is a neat classic Marantz piece, but with just 30wpc it does not have much power compared to modern equipment. A lot of the new speakers coming out now would be semi-difficult for your receiver to drive to realistic levels without distortion. I drive me little 4 ohm rated JM Lab monitors with a 50wpc intergrated amp, but the amp is quite robust with it's power rating doubling to 100wpc into 4ohm. Your receiver wasn't designed to do that. So, I would stick with speakers that have a relatively high efficiency, say 89dB/watt and a nominal rating of 8ohm or higher.