Speakers for Cyrus system

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The most recent edition of WHF has a very useful article on building a system around the Cyrus 8XPd Qx amp. I have an all Cyrus set up (see below) and would like to upgrade the speakers. The WHF article recommends 4 different speakers, so before thinking about auditioning them, does anyone have any views on their different presentations. My room is about 4m by 4m, with a high ceiling and I'm looking for something that will work well with classical music - I have Monitor Audio RS8s at the moment, which are very impressive, but a little too harsh/bright with acoustic instruments such as violins. I'm looking for something just a tad more refined and natural sounding. The speakers in the WHF system builder are:

Spendor A5, ProAc D18, VA Baby Beethoven, Dynaudio (can't remember model)

My system is 8XPD Qx as pre with Mono Xs, fed by CD 8x (probably will upgrade all these in time). Budget isn't really a problem as I want to get this absolutely right (and speakers do tend to last for quite a while).

 

[Frank Harvey]

Dynaudio has always been popular with Cyrus as their generous bass tended to bring out the lower end that earlier Cyrus products lacked. Now that more recent Cyrus products sound fuller, a demo of the combo is recommended for any of those with a smaller room or limited space to play about with speaker placement. Having said that, because you're using Mono X's, this should keep most of the Dynaudio's bass in check.

Spendor has also been a very popular choice with Cyrus, again, brcause of the leaner, more forward presentation of the Cyrus was 'tamed' by the smooth sounding Spendor range. Again, because of the fuller sound that Cyrus now produces, this isn't so much of an issue, but many still like the more laid back sound that the Spendors produce. These are much easier to accomodate into a room than say the Dyns as their rear firing slot port tends to be less 'effective' than normal reflex ports.

ProAc are one of the most popular choices with Cyrus nowadays. I think this is down to the slight change in the Cyrus sound, which suits these better than the others mentioned (I feel). They tend to sound sweeter than the others, which seems to be more suited to different styles of music (as chosen by our customers).

One thing I would definitely recommend at some point in the future, would be to replace your 8Xpd with the DACxp+. It really seems to bring Cyrus' top systems to life.