[Archguy]

Looking for Salks, HTD3s, Wharfedale Opus 2-1 or such.
Must be a deep wood tone to co-ordinate with my furniture.
Will happily pay extra for dramatic, highly-figured veneers.
There are many speaker brands & I'm open to most of them.

Prefer wider and shallower speakers than most I'm seeing.
44" is about the maximum height for this particular application.

Maybe Klipsch R-28F, Polk Signature S55 or RBH R55Ti (none are real wood though).
JBL Studio 570 looks interesting if it's not all-black (most seem to be).

Despite those last few mentions, I prefer non-efficient speakers as my experience tells me that at my typical listening levels I'm having trouble driving my amps into their clean zones.



These Boston Acoustics look good to me but I can't find any.
Any and all advice welcome!

Richmond Virginia; will drive ~100 miles each way if required.

[Hugh]

What is your budget?

[Brettio]

In a highly personal hobby like this I can't help but think the OP would be better served to go out and listen to speakers, find ones that they like (or a 'house sound') and move forward that way. 

Or possibly post in one of the other circles where people offer suggestions.  A little homework and/or direction may pay dividends.  While I don't own Salk's I'd think if they're under consideration, as they seem to be, I'd head to that circle.

Just my $.02.

[Archguy]

What is your budget?

Good question.  Even if I fall in love I really need to stay well below $2000/pr
Otherwise I'd just commission Mr Salk to make a pair to my specifications!

In a highly personal hobby like this I can't help but think the OP would be better served to go out and listen to speakers, find ones that they like (or a 'house sound') and move forward that way. 

Or possibly post in one of the other circles where people offer suggestions.  A little homework and/or direction may pay dividends.  While I don't own Salk's I'd think if they're under consideration, as they seem to be, I'd head to that circle.

You're definitely right but there are several reasons I'm not auditioning.  Some of them practical, some of them technical.
Can we start a thread somewhere to discuss, if you're interested?  I don't want to break any forum rules by conversing in this thread as I got in trouble at another place for doing exactly that and I'm new here.  Thanks

PS: I did already post in a Salk thread but it was about veneers 

[Brettio]

I hope I didn't come across as trying to direct you or imply you shouldn't post in this circle. I honestly don't know the rules or protocol.  People here are very helpful so I'm sure you'll get good input no matter where you post.  I suggested Salk mostly because of Mr. Salk's active involvement in his circle.

No matter what, under $2,000 should give you a lot of options.  I look forward to hearing what people come up with and I hope you're happy with whatever you decide upon. 

Brett

[Archguy]

Naw, no sweat at all.  In a perfect world we could all audition speakers in our home environments with our favorite music. 

Shipping can be a monumental hassle, though, when it comes to multiple pairs.

Also, to digress further, 90%+ of my listening nowadays is Pandora One which means my source material isn't top-notch.  Therefore, critical listening is less of a factor than it would otherwise be.  Not only are the streaming services compressed, I note that Pandora goes out of its way to select the cheapest version of any piece (cheapest rights I mean), which in the case of jazz & classical often means poor recordings.  I need to work on this somehow.

[Brettio]

What amps are you using? 

I've looked aound a bit, there's not many wide and shallow speakers.  Omega has some very good looking towers that fit that criteria but they're high efficiency.

I understand the audition situation. Up here in Boise there are few opportunities to hear different speakers and shipping is a pricey proposition.

[Russell Dawkins]

The JBL Studio 570 is a fascinating anomaly, in my books, and a very good sounding speaker. However the finish, frankly, is cheap looking and it might bother your aesthetic sensibilities. They are fairly hard to find, as well, but it was the designer's (Greg Timbers) favourite of the series. Of it he was reported to have said something like "it has no right to sound as good as it does".

If I were you, I'd buy a pair if you can find them and do what you can do to fix the cosmetics. There are not many home speakers at budget prices with genuine compression drivers and well-designed horns. Also, be aware that they need to be positioned away from the wall, as they will be bass-heavy otherwise.
New, the Studio 580 seems still to be available, and at a substantial discount:
http://www.harmanaudio.com/jbl/STUDIO+580.html?dwvar_STUDIO%20580_color=Black#start=1

For wide and shallow, and for listening at very moderate loudnesses, I would consider the Jordan Eikona. Either get a cabinetmaker to make you a set from Jordan's plans:
http://www.ejjordan.co.uk/products/diy-plans/

or buy from one of the few specialist makes around the world such as Audiowood in New Orleans ($1600-$2000):
http://www.audiowood.com/retail.html

You would have to contact them to make sure they use the new Eikona driver, not the old one pictured here:

[Archguy]

...

Those are amazing looking.  To avoid breaking rules, I set up a thread in "Enclosures" for hopefully extended discussion.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=151623.0