Tannoy D700 vs. McIntosh XR250

Can you audition at least one of them? I bought Tannoys on reputation alone and got a real fizzled transitional dud of a speaker that I wouldn't evem try to pass on to someone else. Otherwise I agree with RW about the Macs, they were thick and slow sounding the last I heard them but don't know the XR250 specifically.

That's something I own a Mac 2505 one of their lesser known amps. I always found it to be on the warm side and McIntosh speakers have a reputation for warmth at least the older ones do. That amp BTW works really well with my vintage Klipsch. I would go for something much more recent.
I have blocked the name Tannoy model name out of mind ?DMT series 2000s??? and they are in "storage". Anyway they were just dreadful among the least detailed speakers I have been subjected to. I should have sent them right back at my own expense and taken a loos on them. They were less than $1000.
If you like your music to sound detailed with excellent 3D effects there are always JM Lab Focals (The 1026 floor stander) on sale at Audio Adviser. The floor stander and even the monitor are more than $2K but I would save up the money to get them. If you can buy VR2s by Von Scheickert they are really nice and more forgiving than the Focals. The Dynaudio might work. But I hear often enough, that they want power and are a difficult load.