NAC172XS & 155XS - speakers?

Good choice! From my experience, PMCs twenty.21 would be my recommendation, particularly with their matching stands. They are small, well made, look good, are easy to place about 6" from the wall, and most importantly sound excellent. You can get all sorts of much bigger floorstandes for the same price, but for the relatively modest power of the 155, a small standmount is likely to be most successful. 

Agreed, however I was impressed by the more lowly Focal Chorus SE / Aria standmounts in larger rooms, the 21 majors on speed neutrality and detail but is not bass heavy.

A few other pieces of information are needed before useful recommendations can be made (other than just specifying my own preferences).

Size of room

Stand mount / Floor standing

Predominant genre of music (if there is one)

Your preference for the style of presentation of the music

Any characteristic you specifically don't want

There are a huge number of speakers of appropriate quality and price, and even within all the criteria above you'll still find speakers recommended that you'll find to be nowhere near your personal tastes.

I don't have any real world experience, but heard the bigger 1.7 at Audio Show East and were amazing at what they did well. However asking the guys running demo said the 1.7 recommended a NAP 300 to get singing and not so far off for small 0.7.

I do wonder if the 155 would be sufficient for 0.7?

Cheers guys - my criteria is:

Standmounts/bookshelf type.

Easy to drive.

Good with electronic but also acoustic music, and some neo-classic on the odd occasion too.

Ideally available in black ash/oak not too big but then again not too small for dance music.

The RX2 are big enough and have an 8" main driver but I feel they might be a little un-refined at times.

The Proac D2's, Studio 118's and Dynaudio F160's are on my list so far.  

Twenty.21 in oak it is!

Fair enough, I think it was all about the 4ohm load requirements from memory. They were using an unknown AMP to me costing £3-4k designed for this load.

I agree having heard Maggies for first time they made quite an impression.

I auditioned Proac D2s - I'd been keen on them since hearing them at the Bristol HiFi Show. Massive disappointment when I heard them outside the show (at the dealer's and at a friend's) - aggressively bright treble. Somewhat tamed in my own home, but very wary of what that treble had done elsewhere.

You should probably consider putting Harbeth P3ESRs on your list if you want bookshelf speakers. I owned them for some years and only fairly recently upgraded to floorstanding panels (Martin Logans). Lovely warmth in the midrange. Pretty classic.

And how about listening to Maggie Minis? I'd be really interested to hear from someone who has them or has auditioned them...

A little update now the systems running in, simply put It's brilliant - totally amazed with the sound I've now got from what I'd refer too and a very modest outlay. Saying I'm chuffed would be a slight understatement...

I bought the NAC172XS new, and the NAP155XS is from 2011 but was in storage and virtually unused, like new. The MA Silver RX2 speakers I've owned for about 14 months, again like new, purchased from someone who had them as part of a little used 5.1 system. Cable wise, the 4 pin SNAIC was supplied FOC by the shop who supplied me the 172, the speaker cable is something I had left over from a previous system being a German jobbie; Sommer Meridian SP225, which is a pure OFC 2 x 2.5mm cable made for studio use.

All in all I got the system for a touch over £2K which considering its absolutely undetectable from new (even the boxes are mint), and an RRP of a touch over £4K, has to be my bargain of the year

I've auditioned many systems over the last two years since I cleared out my active kit, and have IMHO found something rather special,  much preferring the 172/155 to the Supernait/HC which I owned in 2008, and Superuniti and ND5XS/NaitXS-2 which I demoed a few weeks ago. 

I encourage anyone to try this combo, even at full RRP, the sound per sound is a bargain  

I'm still going to try more speakers but It'll be a slow-go with many home dems

Excellent. I've not have the pleasure of listening to the 172/155, buy having recently got a 272/250DR I reckon that streaming preamps and a power amp are going to be massively popular going forward. You can get such great sound from two boxes. As for speakers, there's no rush. As well as the PMCs I mentioned before, I wonder if a pair of used Allaes might be a viable option, or Credos maybe. The 155 should be up to the task as both are easy to drive. 

272/250 - brill. Bet that sounds ace, nice choice HH. What speakers have you again? you sold your .23s yet?

I'm going to take my time changing/demoing speakers. Was listening to some familiar tunes today and felt like the sound wanted for nothing; effortless, realistic, simply right...

Liking the Scansonic designs but I doubt there's a UK distributor.  

If you have a Raidho dealer then you should have a Scansonic dealer. If you get a chance they are definetly worth an audition. For the money they are tough to beat.

http://www.decentaudio.co.uk

I take it you're in the EU? what are the prices like where you are?

No I'm in the U.S. I just googled UK distributor and got that. Here in the U.S. They sell for less than retail so I assume they do over there too.  Retail here is $3600 for the MB2.5 and I think $3200 for the MB1 and stands. I have been told that the stands do make a difference with them. They are a bit flimsy but designed that way to get the best sound out of them. They also like to be spread wide and toed in a good bit. They like 9' apart or so and toed in to MLP shoulders. Great sound from small speakers.

Seen £2249 UK supplier for MB2.5 they look great.

Cheers Dan, Retailer being?

Ta