5-10k budget... so many choices

This is interesting since I am looking into the same price range of products.  Originally I was going to start with the amp and work my way back to the speakers but was told that is not the "best" way to do it.  It seems that I have listened to same speakers that you have mentioned with the exception of the Focal's but have heard the paradigm personas.
My goal is to listen to the Focals and  Revel since I have never listened to either.  So far the personas are the only speakers that struck me as special after listening to each.  Having said that i do feel they do not have the bottom end I am looking for but is this a trade off at the given price point?  I look forward to reading about your impression of each speaker you demo!

I had the opportunity to listen to the f208 by revel and the 1028 be, kanta and sopra 2 by focal.  All were powered by a Macintosh 5200 integrated and rega cd player. 

The room was setup wider side having the speakers against it and not any acoustical treatments on the walls.  No doubt the audio equipment tested would sound better in a room setup for listening specifically.  I asked why the room had no acoustic treatment other than defusers set behind the speakers?  The sales person said we want to portray the speakers in an environment similar to what you would have in a typical home.

The revel F208 was the most linear and balanced speaker I have listened to upto the 5k  range and I would have been completely happy with these had i never listened to a speaker with beryllium tweeters or mid range.  The detail and image of speakers with beryllium are just in an entirely different league to my ears.

The 1028 be was a pleasant speaker but not for me.  This speaker was the most focused sharpest imaging speaker I have listened too to date.  There seemed to be a bit of over emphasized areas in the highs and the lows that seemed to come and go depending on music type (it felt like certain frequency ranges were over compensated for which caused an unnatural bump).  Perhaps the room was somewhat to blame but the same room and equipment powering others were all much smoother to my ears.

The Kanta was a great speaker very smooth and slightly laid back driven by the equipment in the test room.  I enjoyed the detail and sound stage that was nice and in focus although not as hyper focused as the 1028 be.  Great overall speaker it is very close to the persona 3f I listened too before.  The personas have just a sweeter mid and top end where the kanta plays down lower more linear than the personas.  I personally would want a sub with either but the kanta can get away without one.

The sopra 2 was a great speaker sounding very much like that kanta and it just had a little more of everything from detail to low end extension.  The one thing that was odd to me about this particular setup was the image was very forward with these.  The image was also unnaturally wide an even with the front speakers or even slightly forward of that.  Again this is probably due to the room setup and lack of acoustical treatments. I have seen these 15k speakers demo or used for 11k or so many places which makes them a bargain.

I still have a few speakers left to listen too but I picked out the amp for my new system and bought it today.  I picked a PS Audio BHK 250 to keep me going until I can listen to a few more speakers including the new Magicos that should be out in the next few weeks.