Call Jim Salk at Salk Audio. His Song3 Encores at $6,000 sound incredible. Listened to them at RMAF and they were by far the best speakers under $20,000. Jim sells direct, but uses the best speakers and his cabinet workmanship is custom and really high quality. Tell him Larry Edwards sent you. He is incredibly nice and knowledgeable.
Broken hearted...magnepan and vandersteen
I finally got an opportunity to hear the 1.7i magnepan. I will blame my ears and taste, but I was underwhelmed. I heard them with tweeters inside and outside for comparison. outside did sound a bit better. Then I allowed them to play the vandersteen quatro ct. The speakers disappeared into the music. Deep, tall, wide soundstage with excellent imaging and air around the different instruments. Full range sound. Thankfully the trio ct sounded almost the quatros equal. I really was ready to go with magnepan. I was surprised. All other speakers are sounding inferior now.