"Best" mini-monitor?


I have a relatively small listening room (12x10) and have always owned mini-monitors.  Currently I have proac tablette anniversaries, but have had the original 15 ohm rogers ls3/5a, proac response 1, KEF, and reference 3a through out the years.  As you can see, these are all moderate priced speakers, having never spent more than 3k on any pair.  I am now in a position to spend a bit more money, certainly 5k, and maybe up to 10k.  So what out there should I be listening to?  I am in the Chicago area, so I would love something that I can listen to at a local (Midwest) dealer, but I do travel a lot and have auditioned/purchased things across the country from time to time.  New or used, does not matter to me.

as you can probably guess, I really don't care much about deep base, but live for soundstage and warm midrange, listening to a lot of female vocalists, acoustic rock/jazz/blues, and light (non full orchestra) classical.  

With my musical tastes, I have always loved el34 tube amps.  I currently have the prima Luna hp premium, which has 4 el34 per channel, giving me in the 70 wpc range, more than enough for a small room.  I am running naim digital source material (no bad remarks from the analog folks... I know I have have traded off).

so, what should I spend time auditioning?  I have used "best" in quotes because of the 10k price limit, but I suspect there are many more candidates below 10k than above it.

thanks.

Bill


meiatflask
+ 1 glennewdick just got a pair of AN/J's love them and the AN/K's are great too you can't go wrong with either. Great with tubes too!
I have had mini monitors in my study for many years. Originally the Rogers LS3/5a (the improved 11 Ohm version, however) and more recently the far better Harbeth P3ESR. I have obviously not heard all mini monitors, but I do believe these are likely to be the best you can buy, at any price. The midrange is to die for, with a reproduction of voices that comes very close to that of my Quad electrostats in the main listening room. Imaging is similarly realistic, without any listening fatigue. Bass output is clean, and remarkable for the size. Measurement data give an equally outstanding result. I sympathise with your desire to have the very best, and your willingness to pay for that, but small speakers do not cost that much to make.
You are quite right not to go for deep bass. In a room of that size it is impossible to reproduce deep bass accurately. The Schroeder Frequency would be about 240 Hz, and below that you will have problems with room modes (and their upper harmonics at higher frequencies). In bigger rooms that Schroeder frequency would not only be rather lower, but room modes at lower frequencies are also easier to equalize because the equalization would apply over a much wider area. In your case, with equalization, you would really have to sit very still in just one position. So in a small room there is only one option, and that is not to have deep bass.
The Harbeth P3ESR is a closed system, and that has the additional advantage that it can be located a bit closer to the walls, which is a real bonus in a small room.
They do like a bit of power - in my case a 2x100 watt Quad 405-2 is not excessive in my 16x12x9 feet study. Personally I prefer solid state amplification because there is less risk of load dependent frequency response due to high output impedance. Harbeth speakers are a benign load, however. At the advice of Harbeth’s designer, I do not use any fancy cables.
These Harbeths are also interesting in medium sized rooms if combined with a subwoofer. I tried that by way of an experiment in our big living room, and with the B&W PV1d subwoofer and more powerful amplification of the main system (equalized by an Antimode 8033). The PV1d can be set up very precisely for crossover frequency and slope, and when that was done, integration was perfect and the result very impressive. In this big room the sound bubble remained a bit too small, and dynamics were a bit restrained, but that was to be expected from such a small speaker in a large space. The combination would have been perfect in a room of, say, 15x20 feet.
Check out Salk Exoctic monitors.  Those Seas drivers are incredible.  $5999.00
Check out Salk Exoctic monitors.  Those Seas drivers are incredible.  $5999.00