Grateful for any suggestions you might have.

best, Richard

My advice would be to find a friendly dealer, audition some speakers, and try the shortlisted ones in your own home.

I know nothing, but I’ve read good things.

Take a look at this

25 watts and CD 2.5 output requires attenuation but Elton John Rock Saturday night and Sarah Vaughn and Harry Bellafonte  or Harry Connick Jnr sing true natural and with depth. However, I have three different sets of speaker cables to add a small but good tweak to output.

In my recent experience with a loaner scheme pair and three different pairs of speakers I'd say that while they could drive most speakers they sounded best with more efficient speakers so I'd steer clear of less efficient options.

My concern is your square room. It cost me dearly to realise just how much influence room shape has on the tonal response. I was aware of acoustics but didn't think it would have such an impact as it did. I'd had an extension built to the workshop, but I'd lost one foot off the width due to the construction method I'd asked for. The extension was to be my office where amongst other things, I could audition my work. I could not audition a thing! The almost equal height to width caused boom. My posh new office ended up being workshop space, and the workshop got partitioned off to become my office. Being a foot wider with the ceiling height six inches lower solved the boom problem. I used the Amroc calculator to find where to place the partition wall, which gave a room ratio that fitted the "Bolt" area and the "Bonello" response. I went considerably further than most would do to absorb the room mode pressure zones using BBC absorber homemade clones. The room modes are still audible but not as prominent.

There is little that can be done in a domestic situation, and I'm not suggesting you go to the extremes I had to go to. However, if your aim is for good sound, which I think it is, I would seriously look at ways to improve your acoustics. I would be thinking about losing three feet off one floor area dimension - perhaps by fitting something like this?

If you can't, then I'd go for a bass reflex whose port resonates anywhere but the strong frequencies shown on the calculator, somewhere between 70 and 90 Hz.

  I run Accession MC direct to Proprius to drive a pair of PMC Twenty5.22. It’s fabulous! I agree with Graham about the square room, I’m sorry - just a month ago a I moved from a 6m x 6m room to a 8m x 5m rectangle. Holy cow! My system sounds a great deal better in every way. 

A friend built a false wall in a square room (made it a storage space) so as to have a rectangle for his hifi and it looks great. Cheaper I suspect than upgrading components or speakers to achieve the same improvement.

Good luck!

Mick.

Thanks for your response. I don’t have a particularly good dealer near me, so I’m trying to short list based on recommendations and other factors and then sort out how to audition. The KEF Reference 1’s would be right at the top end of budget. Half that price would be better, but I would spend £6.5k if it was clear that they were my speaker of choice.

Thanks for this. I will investigate....

What do you mean by more efficient and less efficient....? Where do my suggested speakers fit within this criteria?

Thanks, Graham. I don’t have much flexibility to change room dimensions, so it seems I will have to try to audition a selection in the space I have, and then choose..... There might be an option that I can explore.... What would be your opinion if the room was 18’ x 13’6” x 10’ high, with the speakers along the long wall?

Thanks very much, Mick.... I had no idea that room shape could make such a huge difference....

Those PMC Twenty5 22i speakers could be a real contender and at a great price point....

Of the resistive pairs one was 93db efficient whereas one was only 88db efficient.  As expected, the 93db speakers were louder at any given volume setting, but both were dynamic like real music is.

Bear in mind that other folk on this forum use speakers that are less resistive with propriuses and are very happy with them. I'm sure Graham also tested them with a wide variety of speakers in development..  However, to my ears the more resistive load allowed the amps to perform at their considerable best.

Good points well made. I liked Bags' earlier advice about using the new amps with your existing speakers. That allows you to start from a sound you know, then experiment with speaker positions and where you sit. Graham is right as I've written many times... room dimensions are the starting point, I have a nearly square room and it took some figuring out on the positions for hifi and furniture, then I added some bass traps.

If it helps I have used a lot of different speakers with my Proprius amps in my listening room. I suggest it will be about matching your preferred sound and the speakers you try.

Much better!

With speakers set apart 7 feet you can afford them to be 3 feet out into the room, and you would be 3 foot 6 away from the 'back wall'. Just try and keep it symmetrical.

See for yourself  https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc?l=18&w=13.5&h=10&ft=true&r60=0.6 - https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc?l=18&w=13.5&h=10&ft=true&r60=0.6

That said, I picked up a pair of one owner Kef Q35s with broken terminals for a tenner on eBay.  Having replaced the speaker terminals I tried them on the front of my Proprii, and I have to say they were a fine investment for a tenner.  They are pretty lightweight so some additional mass should help but I have a fine 3d soundstage, natural sounding bass, excellent mid range and better treble than I was expecting.  A lot of fun for a tenner and I'll make a few bob on them if I decide to sell them on.

Proprius for the balance of all frequencies and of all my 4 amps ...the lead Vocals of Harry Belafonte or Sarah Vaughn or '''' seen'' leading in front  

Proprius for the natural tone that reflect the instrument timbre 

But speakers of 88 db or above and larger boxes which relies on natural air acoustic without the large flare port to accentuate bass.

My BW620 of  1985 or Focal Choral or ARIA had never been driven better to produce music ...

Very happy listening Richard. I've heard the Twenty5 23 speakers in a demo room and they were very good. I believe the changes in the 23i model will have taken it some way forward.