Bookshelf speaker pairing with subwoofer

Agreed, more info. Equipment you will be using. 

I assume you mean stand mounted... you're not actually going to position them on a bookshelf. Then, you want compact speakers because of the way they sound? 

I have heard spectacular sounding $15K stand mounted speakers... without subwoofers. 

I definitely would take a trip. I used to live over a hundred miles from a proper city... I'd get up early and drive up for a day of listening. Later, I would make it a point to visit shops while on buisness trips. 

Schiit Freya+ preamp, Orchard Audio mono 150w amps, Denafrips Gaia DDC, Denafrips Pontus 15th DAC, Shingling CD transport and Roon Rock

@m20j201

Not sure what your budget is.

For excellent pairing with subwoofers make sure you pick speakers that come with port plugs- e.g. KEF, B&W, Dynaudio etc. The reason is that the output from the speaker ports is usually low in frequency where it will compete with the frequencies coming out of the subwoofer. What happens when the port output mixes with the subwoofer output is that you can get cancellations in the sound, additions to the bass sounds that can create peaks or be out of phase with each other that will lack clarity and sound hard / distorted.

It is best to plug the ports and let the subs integrate with just the frequencies of the main speaker’s woofer.  Trying to integrate the subwoofers with the sound of the ports AND the woofers is impossible to get right.  

Have you tried using the REL speaker 🔈 pairing calculator that they have on their website. I think this is a useful tool that helps narrowing down choices.

Thanks for the info on port plugging. I wonder is sealed stand mounted would be better with the subs?

I forgot about the REL calculator. I will check it out.