High efficiency monitors for SET amp in small room - budget 2.5k

Thanks for the helpful suggestions, Glen, a lot to chew on there. 

I've had my eye on a pair of the Audio Note UK AN-K/SPe for sale at $2,300, which look beautiful, are somewhat sensitive at 90dB, and nicely priced.  But my current setup is 86dB, and I'd like to get closer to the mid 90s to see how that pairs with my amp.

There is a Klipsch Palladium P-17b here on the 'Gon that would fit the bill.. I'm very curious as to what horns do, don't have a lot of direct experience with them, but I'm super sensitive to brightness in my system so I'm also very cautious about going there.  That said, I've also lost a bit of high frequency hearing, so horns might just give me something I'm missing.

I've also done some investigation into Spatial Audio - very very interested in these but a bit nervous about how finicky dipole speakers might be with proximity to front wall.  Given my tiny room, the speakers will need to be very close to walls.  I probably should have mentioned that initially.

I'm going to check out some of your other suggestions now.  Thanks for the input!

yogiboy - you’re essentially correct, when I take measurements while listening I average between 70-80db, with transient peaks around 90db at most.  In fact, My current speakers are Harbeth SHL5+, which sound quite beautiful.  But they are, in fact, too much speaker for the room and I should really use smaller monitors.  You’re right, though, this doesn’t have much to do with efficiency.

I’ve had so many fellow Harbeth owners give me hell for not feeding the SHL5+ more power, I guess I wanted to see what higher efficiency speakers would get out of this amp.  Sometimes I do feel like the speakers are a bit congested at lower levels.  I don’t know if higher efficiency speakers would wring more detail out of the amp at low volumes?

Riaa, my room is smaller than yours (2nd bedroom in a NYC apartment.)  it’s probably 11 x 9 and I am listening in the nearfield.   

Don't get me wrong, the SHL5+ sounds gorgeous, even in these less than ideal conditions.  I do not blame the speaker, which is very well designed. But what does happen is because the speakers are necessarily placed relatively close to corners, and the room is square-ish, there are some room modes that can cause problems with the bass in some recordings.  And I can’t say I obtain much in the way of soundstage depth in this room.

Again, most of my issues here have to do with the room and not the Harbeths.  They would likely perform better in your bigger room.  They need more air than I can give them to perform their best.

David_ten, thanks for your comment. What you’re suggesting is exactly what I’m curious about with respect to a higher efficiency speaker. What I’m looking for is something that lets me inside the music even at lower volumes. The Harbeths are very sweet speakers, and I love their tonal balance, but I do find myself driving the volume up beyond what I would like to in order to retrieve inner details in the music.

jazzman, thanks for your observations.  I have been very keen on trying the Spatials or another open baffle design in my tiny room, but I have been a bit wary since I've read completely contradictory accounts of how OB speakers perform in tight spaces.  Some say it's OK, others say they need much more room to breathe.  I guess I'll just have to try and let my ears be the judge.

The Tekton OB Sigma 2 is nicely priced, but that looks like a whole lot of speaker for my limited space...

Update: I ended up with a pair of customshop Omega Super Alcino Monitors XRS.  What they do well, I have never heard another speaker do better.  It's a trade off, of course, as the single driver design does have limitations of its own.  I won't go into more detail here unless others are interested, as there are plenty of write ups on Omega here and on other forums.