I was thinking along the same lines with regards to the Arcam. Changing the speakers is an option, but they need to be bookshelves. The Matrixes are front ported and seem mostly immune to room placement. My listening area is 13'x15'x9'high with carpet. Its interesting you say "room treatment". NAD's 390DD compensates for standing waves and I thought this may be an option for me. The video on the link is interesting.
C 390DD Direct Digital Powered DAC Amplifier - NAD Electronics.
The more I think about it the more I look at the speakers. Will modern day bookshelves give that much better sound then the 805"s. I would be looking at the PMC 21's or 22's or like.
Modern Rock, with some jazz and chamber music. No orchestra. I usually listen, read off the Amp, no louder than 85 decibels.
Thanks for your input.
"Better" is subjective. I recommend that you go to all of the local audio stores in your area, with a CDR of music with which you are familiar, of all of the types to which you listen, and audition every type of speaker you can find (e.g., ribbon, horn, dome, whatever) as you can find, of all the brands that you can stand to audition, that are in your price range.
Restricting it to bookshelf speakers limits you quite a bit, but there are many good bookshelf speakers. I personally use Aurum Cantus Leisure 2SE (original U.S. version) for my home theater, where I need small speakers, which can be seen here:
http://www.kellsieavdesign.com/AC_brochure002.JPG
The (less good) international version can be seen here:
Aurum cantus
I have not compared them with your speakers, and even if I had, it would not matter, as it is your opinion, and not mine, that matters when you listen to your system.
Regardless, to improve on what you have, you should expect to pay a good amount of money. If you had junk instead of what you have, it would be relatively inexpensive to get something substantially better.
