Was hoping you guys, any of you guys, would chime in on this one.

Thanks for the feedback! Truly appreciated! Actually, it was after reading your review of the MA Silver 300 in Stereophile that I put the MA on my radar screen. Haven't heard any of their contemporary stuff, yet, but do remember hearing some of their older speakers; has to be, at least, a good 20 years ago now. No clear auditory memories other than I remember liking them. One of the things my ears will have to wrestle with is whether the extra bucks will be worth stepping up to the 500 for the sake of those few extra low-end HZ. Might be superfluous in my listening room. Hopefully, the shops I'll be arranging critical listening sessions with will have broken-in pairs because I really don't know how to factor in that general -6db roll-off spec MA offers for the entire frequency range. Have you heard the 500? Curious what your take might be on this. The Revel were on my radar but the models in my budget range are not bi-wire capable and I have some nice AudioQuest cables I want to keep in the works. Don't think this will help much but, if forced to narrow down what I listen to most times, I guess I'd have to say: 60s, 70s, and 80s rock & folk; acoustic guitar artists, in general; classical and modern jazz and stuff I hesitate to pigeonhole (e.g. Acoustic Alchemy; Hiroshima; Tom Waits; Jesse Winchester; Ry Cooder; Bert Jansch; John Renbourn; etc.). Again, thanks so much for the input!

Thanks again, Kal! You're the best! May music be with you always!

Good to hear from you, Bierfeldt! Yes, I was/am aware of your new enterprise and have checked out your site. Very interesting stuff! The very best of luck to you, old chap!

Yes! I do understand about Vienna Acoustics. Heard a pair in a shop in the high rollers room about 10 years ago. Wasn't in a position to part with that kind of green back then but they were nothing short of fanfreakintastic! Unfortunately, there are no shops near me, nowadays, that have Vienna Acoustics products. Unfortunate! Manufacturers would do themselves (and potential consumers) well if they made it easier for small shops to feature their products. No way I'm going to shell out that kind of cash without hearing the speakers I'm interested in, first, and I am definitely not going to order speakers at this price point on-line, audition them in my home and put up with the potential hassle of boxing them back up again and sending them back if they don't measure up. That's just nuts! I miss the days when there were shops with a good enough inventory, near enough, so one could go and do some serious shopping. Bring back the good ol' days! May the music always be with you, Dave59!

Thought I'd throw this out there for what it's worth. A friend and I spent over 3 hours in a shop doing serious critical listening to Monitor Audio 300, Monitor Audio 500 and Focal 926 Arias in as close to an A/B listening comparison as possible without having the proverbial button in your hand, if you know what I mean. All very nice speakers. All of them would have been a small improvement over my Paradigm Monitor 9 (original first version). Of the 3, the MA 500 were my and my friend's favorite. However, even they failed to produce that WOW moment that would make me gleefully and enthusiastically want to part with almost $3,000.00. Can anyone recommend floor-standers I should go out and listen to that you think might produce that WOW moment?

Kal, thanks for chiming in again. I appreciate your guidance on this more than you know! Could you be a bit less cryptic? Am I at that proverbial audiophile point of diminishing returns? Do I need to squirrel away more moolah to achieve that WOW moment or just suck it up, spend the 2.5K, or so, and accept an incremental improvement? Inquiring audiophiles want to know. So does my significant other, She Who Must Be Obeyed.

BTW: for anyone who's interested, I listened to the new Classe Delta Stereo amp and pre-amp last Thursday. In short, that was a real treat, indeed. Definitely a contender if I win the lottery.

Yes. I completely understand. I listened to all 3 for 3+ hours with the same cuts or snippets of cuts of the same music on all 3, music I am very familiar with. (God Bless that salesman!) All were truly wonderful. I thought differences in performance characteristics were very slight but audible in critical listening mode; differences that could easily be ignored in listening for enjoyment mode. I was truly amazed by how much bass the 300 and the Focal could deliver in such a small box with relatively small woofers, especially the 300, which I thought were comparatively more accurate in the lower registers compared to the Focal. Similarly, I thought both MA were faster, tighter and smoother than the Focal throughout the frequency range. I also thought the Focal were a tiny bit more forward than both MA but that could be an efficiency factor. I felt the 500 were just as fast & tight as the 300 and handled the crossover frequencies best. The only area I felt the Focal bested the MA in was brushed cymbals but only by a hair and that could be attributed to a number of factors. Tuba also gave all 3 fits.

Of course, throughout my demo time I was trying to extrapolate how each might perform in my room and asking myself if any of them would represent a significant step up from my Paradigm Monitor 9 originals. I had listened to my Paradigm immediately before the demo (30 minutes away) and, again, when I returned home. Honestly, I think any of the 3 would represent an improvement from my old faithfuls but the 500, in my opinion, would provide the most distinct upgrade by a hair over the 300. The question for me is whether what I feel might be a relatively small increase in performance is worth approximately $2.5K. Thus far, every audiophile I've compared notes with on this has told me that, for my room and room placement issues, this is as good as it gets in this price range and if I want that "Holy Cow" or "Wow" factor above and beyond my Paradigm I'm going to have to consider extending my budget range.

I have one more jaunt scheduled to demo a few other contenders. I'm still hoping to hear something in my budget range that will put that proverbial crap-eating grin on my face and make me say "Oh, yeah; this is much better than my Paradigm". If not, I'll be faced with the same question and wrestling with the law of diminishing returns.

Commsysman! So good to hear from you again! I miss the input and guidance you and Bierfeldt provided when I was shopping for a new amp and TT. I'd like to press you into action, once again!

I've not heard the Treo. Unfortunately, beyond my budget range unless I find demos or trade-ins. I have, however, spent some time with the Model 2Ce Signature II and Model 1Ci. Of these, I much preferred the former but it is too wide for my room placement issues. The latter would work but I found its sound way too lean, surprisingly so. It was very accurate but sorely lacking in some muscle to put on the bone, if you know what I mean. The 2Ce, IMO, was much more musical.

What would you recommend for a McIntosh MA5200 with the source equipment and listening room dimensions I described at the outset of this thread? I've previously indicated a few examples of what I've heard and liked, thus far, with the notable exception of aggressively discounted Triangle Esprit Australe EZ demos. I think I would have purchased them on the spot had they not done something very odd and very immediately noticeable. Their tonal balance was wonderful. Bass reach was tight and impressive. Overall response was reasonably tight, fast and accurate throughout. Imaging and sound-staging was spectacular and very musical except for what they did with voices, more so with female than male. That completely turned me off. It was as if the sound engineer significantly turned down the input on singers' microphones. Bizarre! I've never heard speakers do that before, even cheap ones. A little (didn't have time for a lot) quick room rep-positioning didn't have any appreciable effect. I intend to contact the salesman again to see if there might have been some problem with a cross-over, driver(s) or something that could conceivably explain such a phenomenon.

Another unmentioned notable exception was a pair of (again, aggressively discounted trade-ins) Aerial Acoustics 6T, which I thought were phenomenal. Very accurate but not overly so. Very smooth, balanced and very musical. Very nice speakers, indeed! Wish they were in my budget range! That being said, I do think they do better with tubes than SS.

Congrats on your speaker purchase! I've done extensive critical listening to the Aria 926 and 936 through high-end amplification and other source equipment (i.e. McIntosh; Luxman; Classe; Marantz; Oppo). Both very fine speakers in their respective price points. I'm certain you will be happy with your selection and, yes, I know how agonizing that can be as a fellow audiophile. Just out of curiosity, judging from your post, you were looking at a very wide range of fine quality speakers but most, if not all of them, representing significantly distinct and different performance characteristics. Did you do any critical live listening before making your choice or did your rely exclusively on reviews and specifications or a combination thereof? Regardless of your approach, what made you ultimately decide on the Focal?

For anyone interested in where this quest ultimately led, please see "Sequel to 'Time to Upgrade Speakers'".