Quote Originally Posted by Nich
Sorry; I should went into detail about my situation. I've been looking around for the last 2 months. I looked at the Paradigm Monitors, Klipsch RF, Definitive BiPolars, Totem Staff & Hawk. I like the Totem Hawks out of all of them but way too much for me interms of price. The Klipsch horns are too bright for my liking. The Paradigm Monitors are clear but didn't like the midrange. Definitive was nice and well built but also expensive.
Is that $1,100 budget for a pair, or for five speakers? It seems that you're limiting yourself to floorstanders, but you should expand your list to include standmounts because floorstanders in this price range generally have issues with box resonance. I started my speaker search a few years ago the exact same way, and decided to go with standmounts after several disappointing auditions with tower speakers. And if you plan to eventually add a subwoofer and let a HT receiver handle the bass management, you're basically paying for unused capacity by going with floorstanding tower speakers.


If you're okay with a decent standmount, you should try out the Paradigm Studio 20 v.3, which lists for $800 a pair and has amazing imaging and a big sound for the price. Also, B&W has discontinued its CDM line, so you should be able to find a pair of the CDM1NTs for well under its previous $1,200 list price. Energy, Boston, PSB, and Dynaudio are other brands that you should take for a listen. Make sure that you try them out at home before buying (most dealers will let you borrow them for home audition) so you can assess how they mate with your room acoustics and if your amp can comfortably drive them.