Your thoughts on best audiophile speakers in $10,000 neighborhood?

It appears everyone recommends what they chose for themselves. Allow me to offer an alternative idea.

  Write a list of speakers you've been interested in before you ever thought you could afford them and start following their resale prices, HIFI shark is a great tool for this. As speakers come up at prices you think(thru your own research) you can buy and resell without $$$ loss buy them. What I learned, and what you'll learn is how speakers in your room compare to what you expect. It takes patience and an ability to drive some distance if you really want to insure not taking a $$$ loss until you find the speaker that does what it's supposed to do in your room, but it's worth the effort and going through the process will remove all doubt once you get it right and it won't matter what anyone else prefers. 

Sonus Faber are pretty laid back and warm speakers. Which measurements confirm. May be a good thing with bright SS amp, may be a bad thing with a warm tube gear. 

Congrats on your choice of the Treo CTs.

I was going to say, if you have heard or owned a speaker with a certain ’sound character’ that you like or know that you will miss if you don’t have it, that goes a long way in a future decision. The old saying ’we like what we know and we know what we like..’ A reason to choose outside of that ’preference’ is if you want an entirely different presentation or sea change in technology/upgrade.

Another way to eliminate speakers from contention is to understand what you don’t like (and especially the midrange reproduction). Ie - I have always liked a [midrange] speaker with a paper based driver. I know technology has improved greatly, but over the years, I could almost tell you I wouldn’t buy a speaker with a metal or polypropylene cone midrange driver, regardless of how well it imaged or how accurate it measured..

Staying within a brand you have owned and liked is a safe choice. Enjoy.

Good choice!

Given my values of musical and natural sounding music Sonus Faber and tube equipment like Audio Research, Conrad Johnson, and VAC is perfect. The combination captures the warmth and depth from a sax or female vocals, but rises to high impact electronic music not sounding sluggish or muted in any way.