If you're looking at Wilson Sophia's, check out the new Wilson Duette's. I took a friend to Glenn Poor's in Champaign, IL last night to show him some good high end stereos.
They had just received the Wilson Duette's, they're 18-24 inch tall FULL RANGE MONITORS that can be set out into a room or on a shelf up against the wall.
They were absolutely unbelievable and only $11,000.00, $1,000.00 over the $10,000.00 you mentioned.
I've heard the new Sophia's and Watt/Puppy's. I like them, but have never entertained the thought of wanting to get them.
But if I had $11,000.00 for new speaker's, I'd have to seriously check into these Duette's. Natural top to very bottom sound, deep and wide soundstage, and as quiet or loud as you want, and these were five feet off of the floor sitting on a shelf butted up against the wall.
On the flip side, I'm perfectly happy with my $5,000.00 Harmonic Precision Caravelle's w/dedicated stands, so I'd be looking first to upgrading my wires and equipment, especially the DAC to the $6,000.00 Accustic Arts DAC with a 32 bit processor.
Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on. I wish that I had an extra $10,000.00 available to upgrade with, as probably do a whole lot of other audiophiles.
Good luck, there's lots of good choices on Audiogon for $10,000.00 and down. You really need to take some time and listen where ever you can within a 100-200 mile or maybe more radius, and read as much as you can.
Like Reubent said, there's a lot of things to think about, personal taste, associated equipment, desired usage, room, etc. before laying down $10,000.00, unless the deals are so good that you can buy something, try it, and resell it for about the same money if you don't like it.
