Curious what people think is the best "value" high end speaker (~5K to 15K)

@steve59
Yes, at current used prices, Salon 2s are sure tempting, but dang, those are really tall speakers with the tweeters at the top, which puts them way up in the air, well above my seated ear level.  I can only sit about 10 feet away. 

steve59,

The cost differenece between the Kanta 3 and the Sopra 2 is not much.

I know eveyone and every room is different, however if you can dedicate a space to the speakers, and provide proper amplification I dont understand how you could go wrong with magnepans. The secret to making maggies work is placing them litterally in the middle of the room with ample distance from the sidewalls. This requires a decent sized room that is dedicated only to the equipment and speakers but you should be rewarded with unboxed amazing imaging and neutral sound. Now obviously you would also want a pretty great muscle amp to drive them at 4ohms. They may not be the best for speed metal and rap but just about everything else is amazing. Maybe make sure you dont have cats either. That could be bad. I think 3.7 maggies backed by like krell fpb amps is just amazing! Even big ice amps like wyred4's are great with Maggie's. Just 2 cents worth of dribble. 

If if not Vandersteen Quatro CT then Treos, Magnepan 3.7 or 20.0.
Also I have heard the Legacy Aeros and if that could be chosen at used price, that would might work very well.

Don't be afraid of the tweeter height on the Salon 2. I just got a pair and I am astounded at  the dispersion of this speaker. You can lay on the floor in front of them and the sound barely changes. That could not be said of the JBL 250 they are replacing.

The Salon 2 is an exceptional speaker that was designed to - and does - compete with far more costly designs.