[Robert Peirce]

I can see I am running the risk of sounding like the guy from a few
weeks ago who denied the idea of a perfect amplifier in favor of his
euphonic preferences.

I don't deny the goal of perfect sound, which to me is live,
unamplified, music in a real space. I have even heard sound
reproduction that comes very close to that. My problem is every time I
have encountered those conditions they existed for a relatively small
space in the room. Move out of that space and the soundstage collapsed.

My problem is I do not have a dedicated music room for one person. My
space is multi-purpose. I have a small sofa, which I guess, is the
prime listening spot. However, I also have a desk and chair a few feet
behind the sofa which is where I spend a lot of my time. Sometimes I
have a few friends over to listen to music, drink a little wine, wonder
around the room and chat. One time I even rolled up the rug, moved the
furniture and turned the space into a small ballroom for about 30 people.

In all those cases I had the illusion of a live group at the front of
the room. The sound wouldn't stand up to critical listening from the
sweet spot, but it was very good sound for everybody and that is what I
am after, except the space will be about 150' instead of 400'.

For a while I was very enthusiastic about the Steinway-Lyngdorf system,
as described recently in TAS. The idea of tuning a smaller, possibly
odd-shaped, room sounded very good. Then I discovered they don't
actually tune the room. The tune the sweet spot. I'm sure the sound in
that spot is just wonderful, but what is it like a few feet away?

Because of my experience with the Apogee planar speakers, I am now
thinking something from Magnepan might work. They even have a speaker
designed o mount on the wall, which makes a lot of sense for a very
small room.

However, I don't want to limit myself, but I don't want to go the sweet
spot route either. Therefore, I am open to suggestions from people who
have first-hand experience in this area, but under the circumstances, I
cannot be interested in the comments of people who just want to tell me
how wrong I am and what I should really be doing to get perfect sound
forever.