Requesting Your Expertise - Best Options - High Sensitivity Speakers For A Smaller Room


As the title says, I am looking into the best options for higher sensitivity speakers for a somewhat small room. The room itself is 12.5 feet by 9.5 feet. The speakers would be placed along the 12.5 foot wall. Amplifier power is 8wpc. 

The system will be used for a variety of music, including folk, instrumental, rock, jazz, and singer songwriter offerings. Budget is a max of $3k, used. And a quality subwoofer, chosen specifically for the room, and use with whatever speakers that I choose, is available to employ.  

I already have some ideas, but, clearly, none of us are aware of everything, and, in the higher sensitivity space, things can get a bit tricky. Your experiences, thoughts, recommendations and expertise would be appreciated in terms of outlining all the worthwhile options available. Thanks. 

nightfall

I had Omega SAM and while they sounded very good I started to miss not having a tweeter.   They were in my second system which wasn’t tube , it was a 40 watt integrated 

I thought I would rotate them with my Forte IV which I use a few different amps with.   Never got around to that.  I did run them with a few PP tube amps but never my 300b.   The Omega sounded great but fell apart at moderately loud levels.  And that was with several 40 - 50 watt amps. 
 

I sold the Omega and went with a medium efficiency speaker and got a more powerful amp.   For that room it was the right choice.  
 

Unfortunately with a 8 watt Amp you are limited to highly efficient speakers.   I would look at conventional two ways 93 dB send or more in a small room.   Something like a British monitor or Sonus Faber at 86 or so I think will cause any low power amp to run out of steam fast.   You only want to use the first watt or less , if you push a 300b to half power you are really asking a lot of it.  
 

I’m 58 and I hear well enough to really miss a tweeter not being there.  The Omega claim 18 or 20 k but they are really lacking sparkle.    You can’t have everything with a single driver and I’m glad I tried a pair but they ultimately were not for me. 
 

 

I once considered these to use with DH/SET amps, but my listening room is too large.

Had I gone with them anyway I would have added 2 small Gallo subs located under the speakers.

The link is to the current version (before they had the original and then a signature version was added).

https://stereonet.com/reviews/audio-note-ax-two-standmount-loudspeakers-review

 

DeKay

You really can't have a conversation about this type of speaker without mentioning the Klipsch Heresy IV.