hi,
80% of the music is made in the first 20 wpc.
I’ve heard a fair amount of monitor speakers and found numbers actually do mean something, ie., sensitivity and impedance. Price too matters a good bit.
Around the $1600 to $2,000 arena there are literally tons of speakers to check out. If you can acquire squeakers whose imp stays fairly level and does not dip harshly, the sensitivity won’t matter as much in a smaller room.
It all comes down to taste and esthetics and as long as the electrical priorities are closely kept, all will be well, depending. Speaker makers like everyone else in the industry have pretty much figured out if you pay me X dollars you will get X level of performance…. Again, provided you match their electronic demands well. Loudness will be dictated by sensitivity and impedance will demonstrate how much of the bandwidth can be reproduced by the loudspeakers. The design of the speakers, driver size, enclosure type, etc. add up to giving you their sound or sonic signature. That is where the Devil lives. In the different sonic autograph of the build.
Nearfiled listening dissolves many inherent room and setup issues so that will help out a lot. Your critical area remains matching things electrically between amp and transducers. Online there is a graph which shows what can be expected in DB by each watt at particular distances, in a supposed ‘perfect’ world or scenario. However, subjective perception once more can tilt that balance.
Trust me, I know full well the drag it is to deal with shipping and handling of gear being quite physically challenged myself. So I get the ‘hassel’ portion of doing the Audiogon shuffle especially with speakers, but it sounds like you are fairly discerning with your sonic preffs, so despite the hassel, to truly optimize your budget, I’d suggest you bring in at least two or three makers models to check out, then once you’ve gained more assurance of what a particular makers perspective is with their designs, value, etc., go off on a pair of new ones from the squeaker maker you feel most confortable with overall.
I’d suggest what ever units you want to check out have steady Imp levels which hover around 8 ohms and whose db are at 90db or above. Less sensitive units will surely perform and yield decent loudness in a room of your size, the part that will be affected most, once all other parameters are maintained will be the bottom end.
In my 12 x 10 office a pr of reportedly 91db + units on Sound Anchor stands develop solid enough bass. But sliding in a Velodyne DD15 sub was a real game changer. Unquestionably.
Before I’d pitch $2K at something based on someone else’ opinion, I’d do a bit more in home interviewing of some pre owned squeakers. Good luck.