Best high-efficiency speaker under 10K

Tvad, don't get me wrong. I do listen to a lot of speakers, and local dealers know me well (and I am lucky enough to live in boston, which has pretty good dealers). all i am saying is that system integration is key, and room layout even more. it happened to me more than once to pick up a speaker i loved at a local dealer and then return it because it did not sound right in my setup. that's why listening to others' opinion is an important aspect of this hobby...and one i enjoy too. then of course you have to be intelligent enough to interpret what other people say. the purpose of this post, for me, is to know what speakers made other people happy, why, and in what system. if you think there is little information in all this, that is fine. i respect your opinion. but newbee for instance suggested that i consider a speaker that i did not consider prior to this post. it's possible that i'll have a chance to give it a listen somewhere, and that i'll like it enough to try it out in my system. to me this is useful feedback. that's all.

i think you should use the search function---this subject has been discussed ad nauseum on the forum this year.

The "you need to audition" advice is doubtless right, but sometimes overstated.

Auditioning is a lot of effort, given that many manufacturers have limited distribution: I've been looking for a speakers for about a year, and through business travel, I've now heard speakers in Carolina, California, Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois. I've tried, and failed, to set up auditions in Arkansas and Tennessee. Still no decision.

Given constraints of time, etc, the auditions may not be all that informative: like other relationships, it's difficult to project from a few hours to a dozen years.

Also, even with notes, memory fails: I know I liked speaker X pretty well, but its hard to compare the memory of X with the experience of Y as I listen now (maybe I could compare a recording of X!;).

Given all this, and given that the conditions in any audition may be only distantly related to the conditions you'll face in your room with your gear, I'm not sure how much benefit auditions are.

My experience is that the negatives are informative: if I don't enjoy it for an hour or two in audition, I eliminate the speaker, even if I suspect set up problems at the audition. As they say about marriage, "if you've got reservations now, you'll be making 'em later." To my surprise, I've quickly eliminated numerous highly regarded speakers in audition. But as for a "good" audition, who's to say: Will it work this way for me? Will it stand the test of time? Is it really better than the competing model I heard three months ago?

Given all this, I think the information found at places like this is well worth seeking out.

Happily, some manufacturers, like Salk, allow in-home demos, which can answer a lot of questions off site auditions cannot.

John

Here are two of the recent threads in which high efficiency speakers have been discussed, as Keith mentioned. These threads are lengthy, but are well worth reading imo.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1273542421

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1269555143

Also, if your listening includes classical symphonic music having wide dynamic range, which I would guess is the case since you mentioned opera, I would suggest that with your 13 watt amplifier the speakers be rated at 95db/1w/1m as an absolute minimum (and more if your listening distance is greater than about 10 feet).

For non-planar speakers, 95db/1w/1m + 13 watts + a 10 foot listening distance corresponds to a peak spl capability at the listening position of approximately 100db. That will be adequate for the peaks of most classical recordings, in my experience, but there are at least a few that I have encountered which require several db more than that.

Good luck!

-- Al