[mcgsxr]

Ed's Horns perhaps?  They seem to work with a variety of amps, if that specific thread in his circle is any indication.

Not heard them myself, I was going to, but then got sidetracked with my DIY open baffle b200 Visatons.

[budbrew]

I use the Audio Note AN-E Spe speakers and love them. They are designed to work with low (not flea) powered SET amps. These are speakers I cannot give up. I've used them with a wide range of amps and they generally work well (they do not like some SS amps, which can drive them too hard in their corner placement - pulling them out helps with this). But with SETs they are perfect. They are very musical speakers.

[woodsyi]

Thanks for the informations so far -- I am getting a lot of reading done.   I may get to AN speakers some day, but I am concentrating on single driver for now.  Ed's Horn one or two are tempting but I am hoping for monitor size rather than floor standers.  I am in no hurry to decide although I would accept any fabulous deals if offered right now. There is a lot of information to digest and rushing audio purchase doesn't pay in the end....

[dado5]

so you are probably going to loose that 9dbs for your typical distance.....

Not quite that simple. Most specs are taken in an anechoic room, so you can expect a few dB more spl in real room most of the time. You are listening to a stereo pair so you also get a 3dB gain here. Most folks are going to loose only 3 or so dB for distance. In the end you can take an anechoic reading as it stands for good in room response and maybe even add 2 or 3 dB.

The last speaker I measured I got close to 93 dB at 1Khz 2.8V (meadowlark kestrels rated at 89dB) from my listening seat just under 2 meters way.

I'm a big fan of Rethm Audio for this type of setup..:

Yeah! I heard them at the 2002 Stereophile show.  Spooky good

[dado5]

Ed's Horn one or two are tempting but I am hoping for monitor size rather than floor standers.....

there's Doc B's Sexy project for a dirt cheap monitor.

http://www.bottlehead.com/loosep/S.E.Xy%20speakers.html

[Duke]

I see that Louis' speakers are getting lots of endorsement here.  I used to be a dealer for him, and think very very highly of his designs.  I think the Super 3 is outstanding (when I first heard a pair, they reminded me of the original Quad electrostats that I had at home) and 8 watts would be power aplenty for them. 

Duke

[JoshK]

so you are probably going to loose that 9dbs for your typical distance.....

Not quite that simple. Most specs are taken in an anechoic room, so you can expect a few dB more spl in real room most of the time. You are listening to a stereo pair so you also get a 3dB gain here. Most folks are going to loose only 3 or so dB for distance. In the end you can take an anechoic reading as it stands for good in room response and maybe even add 2 or 3 dB.

Good points.  I neglected that part in my back of the envelope calc.