Responding to the questions:

Room size? 12' x 12'

What are your priorities? Stage? Resolution? Dynamics? Even / smooth FR? Precision? Bass extension and power? Prefer neutral tonal character leaning towards the darker side. Slight warmth over coldness or sharpness. Good articulation in the lower frequencies. Realism is more important than resolution or transparency for me. Marginally recessed treble is okay. Natural and neutral midrange. Extended and deep bass. Viscerality would be great but guessing it might be a no-go given my restrictions. Deep soundstage would be ideal but understand if this isn't possible.

Thought the ICEpower by W4S was okay but in general I prefer Class A amps too from a pure transparency perspective. $10k max for the entire rig. Of course would prefer to stay closer to the $5k range but if going higher opens up noticeably better options, I'm all for it. Open to any amping suggestions. Again the Duntech Sovereigns are my favorite speakers I've ever heard, so if there is anything realistic for a mini/junior rig, would love a decent facsimile.

Square rooms are not great, because the equal distances can create really problematic bass response. http://artsites.ucsc.edu/ems/Music/tech_background/TE-02/modes/Modes.html With good placement and a bit of treatment though, you can try to get the room to work with you, at least to a degree. Some will suggest placing the speakers diagonally, but in my own experience, that usually doesn't work brilliantly. Instead, I would start by trying the 5/8 formula - for every 8" you have the speakers in from the front wall, move them 5" in from the side walls. So if they are exactly 3 feet from the front wall, they should be about 22.5" in from the side walls. This is just a jumping off point, but it'll at least give you an idea of where to start. From there, you can experiment with small movements here or there, and the amount of toe-in.

Since the speakers are going to be pretty close to the side walls, if you can, try putting RPG style diffusers at the first reflection points. Most people put absorption panels there, but with very close sidewall placements, diffusers can actually provide much smoother response and better imaging. With the front wall you can experiment a bit. Going full on LEDE (live end, dead end) would mean more diffusers behind the speakers, which might help add some depth to the sound. Because of the bad room ratio though, absorption may be better, or you could try a panel with a scatter plate on the front to get a bit of both.

Aside from that, TRAP TRAP TRAP. If you opt for speakers with any real low bass response, it's gonna be messy. Floor to ceiling tri-traps in the corners are your friends, and you can add scatter plates to the ones in the front of the room. If that's not going to work, you can mount tri-traps where the walls meet the ceiling which won't reduce any floor space. If possible, set your listening position at an equilateral triangle between the speakers.   

Looking on Audiogon at floorstanders, there are a couple of pairs of KEF Reference 205/2s for sale at $6500/pr. 43.5 x 11.2 x 17 so not humongous, 72lbs. each so definitely not outrageously heavy either. Usable bass into the high 30s, but being KEF there's not going to be tons of it, just tight and accurate bass. I didn't love the prior Reference series, but the Uni-Q driver used in the /2 series was a big improvement. I don't know that I would pay the o riginal $14K list, but at $6K, really not a bad deal at all.

There's also a 203/2 for $5500, which uses two 6.5" woofs instead of the two 8s in the 205. If you went that route, you'd give up about 5Hz or so of extension.

At the same price as the 203/2 is a pair of PMC EB1is. They are up there with ATC as some of Britain's very best. Heavier than the KEFs at around 105lbs. They are more sensitive though and should be Class A friendly. Thanks to the signature PMC transmission line cabinet, they have bass, bass and more bass. We're talking 20Hz. They can definitely work with close wall placements, but you'll have to get the room response under control.

Monitor wise and starting at the top, there's a pair of NOLA Micro Grands for $8600. I know the price is really pushing it, but they are some of the best speakers I've ever heard. Just magical. There's a whole bunch of Dynaudio Confidence C1 monitors for around $5K, but I'm not sure you'll be happy with them. Imaging, detail, etc are all fantastic, but they don't do bass. Even the huge Confidence C4 runs out of breath in the 40Hz region. Other than that, I don't currently see anything hugely exciting.

On the new market, the prices of Living Voice speakers have shot up, so they're not the values they once were. The Auditorium R3 may still be worth an audition though, and as with all LV models, it's VERY Class A friendly.

When it comes to getting a lot for your money though, factory direct speaker companies are the way to go. Tylers don't have the sound signature that you're looking for, but I would highly recommend taking a look at Daedalus. The Muse is within your price range, lightweight, not too big, VERY efficient as all DA speakers are, (96dB/W/m) and -2dB at 34Hz. It's close wall and small room friendly, being a floor standing outgrowth of the Pan monitor that Daedalus developed as a nearfield/midfield monitor. And those cabinets, yowza. You'll find no MDF in a Daedalus. Just solid, gorgeous wood. I think Lou may still be offering them at the introductory $6450 price.

Another VERY interesting new entry is Vapor Sound's Derecho, which I'm dying to get a chance to hear. It's basically a floorstanding Cirrus, and starts at $7895.

If those are too steep, then definitely check out Odyssey's Kismet, the Philharmonic Audio Slim, and Ascend's Sierra Tower which are just $2600/pr with the RAAL tweeter option.

Most of these guys would probably work with your First Watt, the LV and DA definitely would, but if you're in the market for a new amp, I would snap up the Valvet A3.5 monos on Audiogon. They are the size of ICEpower monos, but they output 50W of Class A. One of my very favorite amps, and they can probably be upgraded to the current MKII status.

IMO ICEpower is the worst of a bad bunch. UcD based amps like the Spectron Musician are better, but as I said I would take just about any good Class A/B amp over all of them. The only ones I've seen that may be able to elevate Class D beyond mid-fi status are the Hypex Ncore based amps, and as far as I'm aware, those are all still close to 5 figures in price, or above.

I think you would be OK with the princess since the WMTMW arrangement runs tightly spaced over middle area of the total height of the speaker. It's a tall speaker, so it could look ridiculous in a small room, so really it's just a matter of you caring whether people think you are weird or not. I've seen people put Wilsons in small rooms, so nothing wrong with doing that.


The question really is if they are designed to be placed away from a wall several feet* like in Dave's diagram (I suspect so) and if this will be an issue.


*Or if the speaker designer has implemented baffle compensation dial for flexibility on close to wall or away from wall placement. At 90db efficiency, you'll be OK with 20 watts in a small room.

Although everything here is way out of my price range, this is some really great info.

A lot of interesting (and some very exotic) recommendations here. Just to throw a couple of cents in, I would recommend to check out: 

Ayre AX-7c integrated amplifier. Excellent sound (especially for solid-state), will accommodate single ended or balanced inputs, remote controlled (of course), enough power for a small/medium room with the vast majority of speakers, not difficult to find dealers. I heard this with the CX-7e driving both Vandersteen Trio and B&W PM-1 loudspeakers to wonderful effect.

The Trio's are probably a bit out of your price range (don't rule out the current iteration of the Vandersteen 2 or 3) and some people have a bit of reverse snobbism about Vandersteen, but they really are good speakers at reasonable price points, well worth checking out and would seem to meet your preferences.

The B&W PM-1 is a bit more of a "specialist" loudspeaker, it is a small monitor not suitable for very large rooms, for people who listen very loud or expect the deepest of deep bass, but is quite extraordinary in what it CAN do. And for it's size, it does make a credible stab at bass. A bit warm, VERY good with transients and clean and clear with very little blurring and excellent soundstaging. I have the little KEF LS-50 monitors that are excellent in their own right, but I suspect that overall the PM-1's are better. Hopefully, I will get some listening time to the PM-1 at home at some point to verify this.

I like Magnepans, but I don't think they would be good in your small square room. Salk Sound and Vapor Sound are two companies that sell factory direct and sounded good at the shows, but you can't audition them in advance generally.

You might look for a pair of Audio Note AN-E on the used market (you will have to do some research, there are many iterations of these out there) as they are designed to go in to the corners (if you can make space there). I had a pair of these in a room similar to yours and liked them very much. They are fairly efficient and they even make the room seem bigger by not being out in it. More of a beautiful sound than a strictly accurate one, (but not wildly inaccurate to be sure) but a quite nice speaker to just sit back and enjoy music with.

If you are looking for a quite tonally accurate speaker, look for a used pair of Spendor SP-1 or SP1/2. These are large stand mounts and excel, especially on vocals with bass that is good down into the 40 hz area (in my mind, as low as I would risk in a small room, others disagree with this but getting deep bass right in a small room is not at all easy).

Just a few more thoughts for your quest. Good luck!