Spendor S8e, Dynaudio Focus 220, VA Grand Mozart

My two cents.

I really like all three of these speakers.

You mentioned the Totem Forest too, and that is also one of my favorites.

Totem Forest: Great bass for moderately sized two way speaker. Terrific spatial images. Can be a little splashy in the treble. Beautiful understated cabinets.

Spender S8e: As stated above, midrange to die for and other good stuff too. Cabinets a little on the "boxy" side compared to these others.

VA Grand Mozart: with the right electronics (e.g. Primare) smooth and musical performance. These are such good all around speakers I am surprised they aren't talked about more often on here - perhaps too laid back for some, balance is not always perceived as a virture.

Dynaudio Focus 220: Detailed, punchy when need be, neutral, throws good images, furniture grade cabinets. The best all around performer in this bunch I think. Stiff drivers take several Congressional terms to loosen up.

Other way around. IMO the Spender is more colored, not in a bad way, but perhaps a bit overly glorious - like a tubed speaker. The VA on the other hand is a very neutral but terrific sounding speaker through the whole frequency spectrum.

Since I am at a loss for words right now, here are some comments from Michael Fremer of Stereophile Magazine regarding the Mozart's bigger brother, the Beethoven Concert Grand. I have listened to both, and suggest the Beethoven just sounds bigger, but not really different in character compared with its sibling. I will let you decide from this description if they are "recessed", "quite laid back", "dynamic" or "flat". In any case, Fremer's comments resonate with me.

An Associate of Fremer's to Fremer:

"They're designed more for music lovers than for audiophiles,"

And Fremer himself

"Long-term listening pleasure
For well over a month, the Beethoven Concert Grand provided me with exceptionally well-balanced, nearly full-range listening pleasure. On top, the speaker was silky smooth, airy, open, and neither overly aggressive (unless pushed) nor frustratingly polite and soft. Bass extension—down to the 30Hz area—was on the full, rich, supple side, but never sloppy or thick. The midrange was equally expressive and vivid, but not to where it was cloying or sounded like a coloration. The speaker's rhythmic agility was well matched to its transient performance: not the fastest and cleanest, but pleasing and natural to the point where I felt the best-sounding recordings I own were worth a spin, while the shriller, less listenable ones became more pleasing. That strikes me as an excellent real-world balance. Wine analogy: less Cabernet than Merlot.

While the Beethoven could rock and deliver large-scale symphonic thrills at reasonable listening levels, it excelled at putting me in the room with small acoustic ensembles—especially those recorded live. Then, its airy, smooth, somewhat laid-back, enriched harmonic presentation offered a sufficiently well-developed illusion of reality to keep me coming back night after night, never feeling as if I were missing anything, and keeping me guessing the speaker's price."

After thinking about this some more and given your musical preferences, going over the reviews of the other speakers, and noting that your Anthem amp nearly doubles output to into 4 ohms, I think you should go with the Dynaudios. They will stride proudly into rock and pop territory where the others tread lightly, and will do a very admirable job reproducing all other kinds of music as well. The key is gobs of current, and even the Anthem may be borderline under certain demanding conditions in this respect, although a dampening factor of 200 @ 1 kHz (ref. 8) is quite high.

Again, if you choose these speakers, patience of Jobe is required before you will hear the full benefits.