[Mass. Wine Guy]

I have an opportunity to buy a pair of lightly used demo B&W 686 speakers for $300. The Tannoy Mercury F1 Customs get amazing writeups, as well, and would cost $280. I'm using the speakers just for two channel stereo in a small (20 x 18 ft.) room.

My system is a Morrison Elad preamplifier, Adcom GFA-535 power amp and an Arcam CD72 CD player. My current speakers is a pair of Axiom M2i bookshelf speakers. Clean, neutral, smooth and good, but I want to step up a bit.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts/opinions on both speakers.

Thank you very much.

[Zerogravity]

 I dont know? For the price point I think there are many better speakers, especially DIY or I.D. The best advice I could give is to try and demo everything you can in your own home environment! Many retail speakers might not have a liberal return policy but there are quite a few Internet Direct companies who have free 30 day trials and all you have to do is pay shipping. Im not aware of any Tannoy dealers but Independentaudiovideo.com has some Mercury F1's that you might want to e-mail and ask for a trial period or even buy it and return it if they allow. I usually ask before as I dont think its right to purchase if you dont intend to keep it and you should know before hand. I think the best thing any speaker company can do is allow for home trial periods! Im sure it would eat into there profits a little, however if they are made well and people like them, they will purchase what they like! There are many great speaker makers right here on AudioCircle, but in your price range I would look at GR-Research and a few others. They also have free demo's to try out in your home, which will give you the best idea of how they will sound!

[eclein]

I have the N2X's from GR that are being sent around ready for the next person in the NE, they would be an excellent choice and you can try them first just talk to Danny at GR research and I can send them to you right away.