Audio Person could be a cool new gender fluid superhero.

$300 CAD isn't much for a pair. Also a square room and wooden floor is definitely an issue.

Speaker positioning will be very important in your case, your system will only sound as good as your room and you're already starting with a bit of a disadvantage. Do you have speaker stands?

At the same time, your room is small so you can probably go for a bass-reflex setup. I don't think that you need a lot of power, so you can focus on having a decent range from a two-channel speaker (tweeter+woofer) with good imaging.

I'd look for something used, just make sure it matches your amp's specs.

Sorry if this is not very helpful, but I think the best way is to test some speakers @home.
Some people like their speakers "neutral" some like more bass. It also depends on your position/distance to the speakers.
Maybe try some small KEF, Canton or B&W speakers.
For speaker cable i really like the kimber 4pr, it should be enough for some bookshelf speakers.
Have fun, testing speakers is very cool!

save some $ and go with an Onkyo

Audio Person could be a cool new gender fluid superhero.

Audio Person could be a cool new gender fluid superhero.

Audio Person could be a cool new gender fluid superhero.

Whatever setup you end up with, check out sonarworks speaker/room calibration software.. you measure your rooms frequency response and EQ whatever stands out to make it flat. You can also emulate rooms and other speakers.. some expensive studio monitors have this room correction option already built in, but this is all new tech and very affordable. For 300 bucks you get the software and measuring mic, the result is you save a couple $k on room treatment and a couple more you would spend on speakers that give you a somewhat flat sound...

I made a mistake and bought new. headphones just before i came acros all this because they also have headphone calibration sofrware which gets you a flat response with max 3db peaks.. if you send them your phones they measure it and get you an eq curve that only peaks for 1db.. or you can just buy a set directly from them pre measured with itts unique eq curve...

Have a look at Nubert speakers. High quality for a reasonable price. http://www.nubert.de Iirc there was a discussion about Nuberts some months ago here in the forum...

get the sony's!

good brands and advice , unfortunately those brands are unavailable to me here

*plus i need to stay reasonably within budget.

well theyre germany speakers and i am from canada so the pound thing wont do much.

plus duties dont fluctuate with currency ey

they seem ok

Sorry, but they are not just OK. They are great. Been living with the NuPro A-200s for a good year now, as monitor speakers for the PC. Nationalism /off

Those look nice but they're 345 EUR each.

True, out of his range. 300 CanDolls is not something you go fishing for a decent pair of speakers, though. Only used ones. Maybe some Brauns Nationalism /off again. No, honestly even older Braun models sound pretty fantastic. I got the M12 as stereo speakers with Kimber cables, spectacular. Maybe look for the LS 550 wall-mount speakers? Got a pair of those as well. Flat as they are, they do sound good.

British DAC/preamp though

True that. The UK kills at those.

I'm actually not happy with mine to be honest. My first one broke, luckily it was right before its warranty expired. We'll see how long the replacement lasts.

You did not tell the brand, did you?