I haven't experienced any brightness or the speaker being forward, once the tweeters were broken in. These are a ceramic / metal hybrid tweeter, and they take some use to sound good. When I first started listening to them out-of-the-box, they sucked, and I thought "what is all the fuss about". The tweeters need about 200 hours break-in time, but sound great once that is done. Bass is unmatched in my experience for a monitor. Match the 2.6s with the 1.2s (I have a pair) and they are killer....especially given the prices on Ebay.
The stands are unavailable from Harmon. I modified some Premier stands so they bolt on. Harmon also has a very limited supply of the wood trim, if you want to change colors. These things won't be around much longer. Where else can you get a Stereophile Class A and TAS recommended speaker for under $800.?
Amplification is everything on these guys, since you are only powering the tweeter, so be careful what you match them up with.