Great suggestions -- keep 'em coming!
I think the PSB speakers are very nice, and I'm especially fond of the Synchrony One. But they're harder to drive than their specs suggest. Kinda like Focal 1008Be or Usher Tiny Dancer or B&W 805d -- all excellent brands, all excellent speakers. But all of those designs just do better with more watts than what most tube amps can put out.
Absolutely love the look of Sonus Faber, but thought they were all 4ohm speakers. The Toy Speaker seems to have upped the ante to 8ohms, which certainly makes it a contender. I'm a little concerned about the lack of bass, but I need to find out more about this one.
As for Tekton, Eric is working on something new right now: a compact 2-way that leverages a Fostex for most of the range. High sensitivity in a small footprint -- that should be very interesting. Eric does great work.
But all things being equal, the Joseph Audio Pulsars would have solved this "problem" for me. While they're not necessarily terribly sensitive (mid-80s), they sound so good I really don't even care. They're a bit big, however (17" tall), which makes them unsuitable for near field. I did have them here to try out, but I think their free air (read: not up against a wall or even a wall anywhere near their back) performance sounds best when you're sitting back from them, around 5', when all that bass integrates in. Then, they're pretty much untouchable. But again, I was hoping for something more compact in the 3' listening near field. I think less than 15" tall would do the trick perfectly.
Which precludes the Merlin TSM as too tall (16") for my use case. Full disclosure: I've owned several pairs of Merlin speakers and have sold them all.
Moving on to other bad experiences, single drivers, as a rule, do bad things at frequency extremes. This really can't be helped in that kind of design and those compromises tend to bug me. Love coherence (I have Maggies, so that's very familiar), love the mid range, but bass and treble tend to go to The Bad Place. Not ragging, just saying it's not really my cuppa.
The Yara from Audio Physic are only 4ohms, which makes them unsuitable for most tube amps (not all, just most), and I want something I can drive well with many different amps. The Step 25, however, is 8ohms. Need to check that one out, too.
I have a pair of Vaughn Loudspeaker Pinot Monitors on the way in, too. They're too tall (17") for my desktop, but they're 94dB and 8ohms. Fostex mid/woofer and a ribbon tweeter with a passive cone radiator. They may have all the "criteria" to make me reconsider my current layout. We'll see.
I also have a pair of Sjofn Hifi (the clue) being sent in for review. Those are really neat and are designed to work up against a wall. If they sound as good here as they did at RMAF, they may actually anchor a 3rd system.
As for amps, I love the Manley Stingray, and the Manley aesthetic, generally, but the line feels a bit expensive now. The Stingray is very ballsy, which is fun, but it is a bit large! Haven't ruled it out, but haven't really ruled it in, either.
I have a Red Wine Audio Signature 15 on loan right now (never did pull the trigger on the 30.2), but I'm looking for a tube amp to make the speakers go. Once I settle on the speakers, I'll start sorting out the amp. I have a few thoughts, including the following tube integrateds:
LM Audio 211 EL34
Almarro 318b
PrimaLuna DiaLogue Two
Decware Zen Torii
Luxman SQ-38u
Leben CS600
