denom you have hit the nail on the budget thing, however i visited the AV Max expo in delhi and, stretched my budget to 2.5 L and more or less zeroed on to the Sonus faber venere 2.5, it had a nice worm sound, though lacking at the low thump a bit on "hotel California" the mid,s and highs were warm and smooth though in the price bracket of 2.4 L. may be i will attach a sub to compensate. has any one auditioned the SF 2.5 at the show and can give me a second opinion. I am using a (Jugar) for the speakers , custom crossover with bose 901 for the lower mids, One sub from Klipsch for the lows and titanium horn for the Highs. ( i am planning to sell that off now), they do not sound well with the Mcintosh, but went well with my Yamaha SA2000 amp & CD player CD-S1000, also up for sale. I intend to upgrade my Yamaha CD player with a DAC - M1 music fidelity. any recommendation whether it will make a great difference to the sound. or any other dack in the same price range, then i will keep the CD payer.