A lover of rock and metal who doesn't need a lot of bass. Hmm... Floor-standers for a small listening room. Hmm... Why floor standers? Why not higher quality stand-mounters? Generally speaking, floor standers will give you more bass, especially if you put them too close to the wall behind them. If you are hellbent on floor-standers, I would recommend you stay away from anything with rear-firing bass ports or even side-firing bass ports if you have to place any of them close to a side wall. Acoustic suspension designs are probably going to be your best bet. With your amp, I would stick with 8 ohm nominal load speakers. I would also stay away from AMT type tweeters unless you have at least 6' of space behind your listening position. You have nice components and a great advantage that you, yourself, pointed out (i.e. being close to Music Direct). The folks at Music Direct are great! Pay them a visit, tell them what kind of componentry you have, what kind(s) of music you enjoy listening to, describe your listening room in detail and tell them what you're after. I'm certain they will steer you in the right direction. Bring some of your favorite recordings with you and do some serious, critical listening to what they recommend. Also, make certain they set up your audition(s) with componentry that is as similar to yours, as possible, and, hopefully, in a listening room that is as close to the size of your listening room with as close to the same acoustic properties as yours, as well. Make sure they place the speakers as close to the wall(s) and separated from one another as you would envision the placement to be at your house, if possible. That will be a good start but, regardless, no speakers will sound the same in your room as they will at a shop. That being said, the good folks at Music Direct will not want to sell you something you will want to bring back during the return & refund period. Make sure you ask what the break-in time is for the speakers you end up buying, unless they're demos. Most new speakers require break-in time to sound their best. You want to make sure you'll have enough time to break them in and that they will sound their best under your roof within the return time & refund policy. Happy hunting and, out of curiosity, please let us know what you end up buying. Good Luck!

I'll assume that 15" to the back wall would be the space between the wall and the back of the speakers, which would put the baffles or front of those Wharfedale about 26" from the back wall. That looks very good for those speakers and gives you some wiggle room to experiment with room placement. I haven't heard the Diamond 11.3 but have heard older, similar Wharfedale in the past and always liked what I heard. Wharfedale makes some very good speakers. The given frequency response specification of 44Hz through 20kHz, which I assume is on-axis (the sweet spot) and probably generally accurate, should give you plenty of good bass response with your amp, in your room, with the kind of music you enjoy. Your Music Direct friend is pointing you in the right direction.

For comparison, you might want to ask your friend about the similarly priced Klipsch RP6000F. That Klipsch has better specs (on paper), is more efficient and would likely provide a better home theater experience than the Wharfedale. That being said, keep in mind that speaker specs are generally very misleading and tell you virtually nothing about what a speaker will really sound like in your room. Always, always, always let your ears tell you what sounds best! In general, Klipsch floor-standers tend to perform better when they are further out into a room. The RP6000F is a bit larger than the Wharfedale. As such, the Wharfedale may very well be the better choice for your particular circumstances. However, if the size of the Klipsch prove not to be an issue, I would encourage you to arrange for an A/B shout-out between it and the Wharfedale to see what you think. I'm confident you would hear very noticeable and immediate differences in performance, especially off-axis. Some people really like the Klipsch horn loaded sound design but some don't. Only your ears can decide. Another issue to consider with the Klipsch is the amount of room I believe they need behind the listening position because of their horn loaded design. I would factor that into an A/B shoot-out if you decide to do that.

Happy hunting, good luck and please let us know what you decide to do! I would especially be interested in your critical analysis of any A/B shoot-out.

Depends on what you are willing to spend. In the under $2,000 a pair region SVS makes a nice Prime Pinnacle tower speaker that plays very well close to walls. The Monitor Audio Silver 300 is very hard to beat in it’s price range. The Klipsch 8000F is also good.
If you are keeping things below $1,000, the SVS Prime Towers do well. You want enough bass to lend weight and authority to the music without being anemic thin or boomy.

For your type of music go with the Klipsch, you won't be disappointed

Those Paradigm should work very nicely with your Marantz. They are 8 ohm nominal load speakers and very efficient. I had a pair of Paradigm Monitor 9 (the originals) for 19 years and loved every minute of them. Played them for years with a Sansui 2000X (39 conservative watts of clean power) and, then, an 80 watt Yamaha receiver. You should read Kalman Rubinson's 12-19-04 review of the Paradigm Reference Studio/60 v.3 in Stereophile. Good Luck!

P.S. I see an Ortofon Blue in your future.

If they are in great condition the Paradigms are miles ahead of all else you have contemplated.

Kresho, don't give up on that Rega just yet. That is a good TT. Does it do that skipping on warped records? If so, a good record clamp (e.g. Michell) might resolve that. If you do invest in a record clamp, make sure it works with Rega's spindle clearance. Are the VTF and anti-skate settings really set properly? You might want to double-check that very carefully or bring it to a shop or expert to have that, the cartridge and the arm examined and, if necessary, re-calibrated. They have tools & instruments to do that with you may not have. Although VTF and anti-skating are relatively straightforward settings on most TTs, mounting cartridges properly is tricky stuff, even for the well-initiated. That come & go skipping shouldn't be happening on a good TT. How old is the cartridge and/or stylus? If there is some serious problem, like the arm or something, an experienced technician should be able to diagnose that in short order and the fix might be inexpensive. On the other hand, if it is time to go with a new TT, the Fluance is well reviewed. My brother-in-law purchased the 83 or 84 this year (can't remember which) and he loves it. He wasn't crazy about the cartridge it came bundled with, though. So, he replaced it with something he likes better.

Good Luck!

It is normal for the cost of a cartridge to be a significant chunk of the total cost of a TT. The cartridge that came with my TT represents 41% of the total cost of the TT. When you think about it, the cartridge is probably the most technologically complicated part of the whole works.

Going used can sure bring a whole lot more speaker to the table than buying new. Those Paradigms are fine loudspeakers, imo.
Too bad on the rear wall situation. I bought Elac Debut B5.2 for fun, then the F5.2s and a C5.2 and put them in a TV room finally.
Those F5.2s are fabulous as examples of superb sound engineering for very little money, out of one of the industry's best.

Look for sales on the JBL studio series (560, 580). I think a couple of times a year they go on sale at the JBL site and possibly elsewhere..... like a half price sale !

I've heard good things about them on several sites and they're often recommended as something to look for in your price range.

Good luck.

Those ML are a 4 ohm nominal load design. Haven't heard those but have heard the ML Motion 60Xti, which are a 6 ohm nominal load design. Heard the Motion 60XTi with 250 watts of Classe stack muscle. As I've said before, with your receiver I would stick with an 8 ohm nominal design that'd as efficient as you can get. Although you have enough watts to drive the ML40i, watts aren't everything. Those babies will much prefer more juice (i.e. current). Take a look at Monitor Audio, Revel or Klipsch, to name but a few. Your ears will thank you.

I goofed! My second and last audition of the ML Motion 60Xti was with a Simaudio Moon Neo 340 IX; not the Classe Delta Stack. That Simaudio is rated at 100 watts into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 ohms. My ears told me that is probably a very conservative rating. That Simaudio also has an outstanding power supply. Very sorry for any confusion!