I’m doing a bit of forward planning and looking for a pair of high efficiency speaker kits to match the Bottlehead 2A3 amps I intend to build this year. Also to be built this year is a separate building to house the stereo and home cinema in our garden. The dimensions on the initial plans are (internal) 12.5 x 17.8 x 8 feet (WxLxH) of double skin brick with a filled cavity.

I play all types of music from classical to rock to folk and jazz. I have a total dislike of prominent treble and find all the modern commercial designs I’ve heard far too bright for my taste. As for the bass region, I’m happy for it to go deep but this also needs to be absolutely integrated and offer detail & speed. Again I find most of the modern commercial designs I’ve heard to provide exaggerated and overblown bass to provide the impression of bass detail without really delivering. This has led me time and time again to return to small (and probably old fashioned) stand-mount speakers for the speed and detail I like and do without the bass.

So given all the above, would you recommend any of the Pi speakers for me to try? I’d really like to give corner horns a try and the ones I quite fancy are either the Theatre 7 or Thermionic 8. My assumption here is that given the size of the base driver I’ll be able to get real and not pseudo bass, or would either of these be too big for the size of room. Placement would be in the corners at on (narrow) end. Obviously I’ve got plenty of time to think about this over the next few months, but I do like to have a planned direction of travel. The use of corner horns appeal as they will allow maximum use of the room space. Any advice will be most appreciated. I assume shipping to the UK is no problem, just expensive?