Genelec look like Doctor Who Adipose; what's not to love?
I understand the issue of appearance and not over whelming your living space. I live with 45 year old active floor standing speakers equally hated by my ex-wife and not appreciated by my daughter either.
For looks I found the cylinder JR149 from the 80s well liked and this applies to speakers like the Devialet Phantoms, Cabasse Pearl Akoya Wireless Speaker and many B&O life style speakers. These cost and £5k for room compensation streaming DSP active speakers that don't lock you out of expanding to full surround or have a dangle mess of wires for external equipment is not documented in the brochures and reviewers don't mention it either.
Some have mentioned Adams Audio. They offer the lowest price active speakers up to some very high end models. Against the T5V and T7V other speakers are powered. Active speakers have an active cross over and usually each speaker needs a mains input. A few take their own amplification from a primary and use a four way lead to the secondary speaker. Powered speakers put an amplifier into the primary speaker and have bell wire cables to the secondary passive speaker. Some models are called Active but do not have an active cross over.
Speakers may be wireless but then you need to plug in RCA and HDMI cables into the primary as well as mains. Many wireless speakers are not suitable for play back from a TV or computer. Usually if they have a HDMI connection it will work but having fibre optical isn't a given. The issue is poor latency where the sound can be 30 seconds behind the video. In some case an Apple 4K TV using Airplay over comes the problem but Bluetooth, wi-fi DNLA and uPnP still have latency issues. Airplay 2 is not as good as WiSA and is limited to stereo.
The "best" wireless solution is WiSA as it can be found from several manufacturers and works for wireless stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 surround but a mix and matching from several manufacturers best to avoid.
What is possible, with appearance heavily in mind, might best be demonstrated with a visit to a B&O store (take a trip to Harrods). Listen to Beosound Theatre with tiny Emerge speakers with the newest Beolink Surround. You can hang two Beosound Levels off a wall for rear with the Theatre for centre and front speakers or use them as full replacement for a rack of electronics and floor standing speakers. Full streaming inputs. They listen to Beosound Theatre with Beolab 8 and Beolab 28. Beolab 8 offer full streaming, wireless and work with a TV or computer over powerlink or WiSA (needing an Axiim Link USB or Sound send HDMI or a B&O WiSA transmitter).Then go away and look for what you can afford. The hubs for WiSA, EQUI (Dali), Formation Audio (B&W) can be hidden away from view behind a TV or in a unit a mobile phone app or remote for control.
Buchardt have the A500 and A10 which come with a hub to transmit wirelessly using WiSA (B&O Beolabs use WiSA). These have DSP, room compensation and streaming wired connections with the hub. Buchardt offer a 30 day return to base so you can set them up, have a good listen and if you don't like the A500 return them free of charge and get the A700 (nearly in your budget). Going direct saves you about 30% over high street alternatives. Buchardt are nice looking speakers, for a more traditional box than the round spheres or column towers.
Kef LS60 £4,999.00 (but are heavily discounted) have been mentioned, DSP packs a lot into a smaller speaker. Can't scale up to surround. Many offer some form of wired connection as well as wi-fi or other wireless connection. Below £5k include:-
DALI RUBICON 2C EQUI 4,549.00
Dynaudio Focus 10 WiSA 4,399.00
Sonus Faber Duetto wi-fi 3,490.00
Buchardt A10 WiSA 3,192.00
DALI Oberon 7C (without hub) 1,799.00
AVI DM12 wired 2,995.00
Buchardt A500 WiSA 2,940.00
B&O Beolab 17 WiSA 3,000.00 (2nd hand)
Devialet Phantom fibre optic/Ethernet 98db 2 2,800.00
Cabasse Pearl Akoya Wireless Speaker WiSA 1,495.00
B&O Beosound Level oak wi-fi/Airplay 2,898.00
B&O Beosound Balance Natural oak wi-fi/Airpla 4,798.00
close:-
Buchardt A700 WiSA 5,040.00
B&O Beolab 8 gold/light oak WiSA/wi-fi 5,398.00 (going up to £6000 Nov 2025)
Devialet Phantom 108dB I fibre optic.Ethernet 5,600.00
Although a rectangular box the Buchardt A10/A500 are a bargain offering modern features and keep the costs down. Devialet speakers pack a huge bass into tiny speakers. I have a pair of Phantom Gold 108db and they are as fun to watch as listen to. They offer streaming but it used to be built into the speaker and now is external to the mobile phone app. Fibre optic and Ethernet for lossless stereo and no latency problems now.
Out of all of those I would pick B&O Beolab 17 with a Soundsend using streaming frm the TV apps or Axiim Link streaming from a laptop or 1 litre PC box (tiny PC that uses Vesa mounts on a TV). B&O Beolab speakers can also get streaming services and intenet radio from Beosound Core and Beoconnect Core but are then wired to the box over powerlink. Beolab 17 are a much underrated speaker never promoted enough. Not a box, but have a "flat" front square available in different colours. Mine are brass and black. They can have bookshelf stands, floor stands or ceiling mounts. You hardly notice them.
For music only B&O Beosound Levels are flexible being able to use as a single speaker, table top or wall mounts. Full stereo sound stage with a pair. Multi-room, battery so work in the shed or patio or on a trip. Work with Apple 4K TV and an ad hoc work around for use with a PC or TV over 3.5mm analogue cable. It is hard to justify huge expensive systems against this quality and convenience. Beosound Balance offer more bass bigger heavier speakers costing a lot more but less portable and no battery and get into the Beolab 8 price point which offers the same features even more with powerlink and WiSA.
But regardless do note powered speakers v. active, DSP and room correction is not offered by all, DSP may have latency problems with video sources, many do not scale from stereo to full surround or have the option of an added sub-woofer. 80% of the time a pair of B&O Beosound Emerge is sufficient it is that last bit and the full blown block buster movie sound effects that the neighbours don't like.
Your ears, your budget, your choice.
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