Finally stepping into the hobby after 30 years of watching from the sidelines

Day two is in the books and it was a great day!
My wife was with me today and she had a blast.  To be honest, I purchased the baby blue set of Zu Soul Supremes from the cover of Stereophile yesterday.  I didn't want to say anything, because I had a small case of second guessing myself.  I left today feeling like I 100% made the right choice and my wife agreed.  She even said, that there wasn't anything close within $7-10k of their price. We hit every room that was in our range, all the flagship rooms, some solid state rooms, and every tube room we could find.  She also left saying that she doesn't understand why everyone doesn't run tubes...I married wisely :-)  We spent a fair amount of time in the Austin Audio room because she didn't want to leave.  They were our, "cost is no option" room of the day.  

Zu also brought a new prototype speaker to the show called the Experience.  They have been running them on the Peachtree Nova 300 both days.  Supposedly, it will be in the 30K price range and appears to feature 2 of their 10 inch drivers, their top of the line tweeter, and a massive 18 inch woofer.  There hasn't been a person in the room who wasn't blown away by the range and presence of that set up.  I can't wait to see the final product.  

Another thing I should mention, is that we were both really impressed by the fact that the Peachtree/Zu room is at least 2000 square feet.  The Soul Supremes had no problem filling the room with a significant amount of tight bass that extended lower today than I thought it did yesterday.  Again, I don't think a single person could believe that that speaker only cost $4,500 and while running on an "entry level" amp.  I really can't tell you how many people were blown away by that room. 

We couldn't make it to the Zu party last night, but we will be there tonight...tomorrow I get to bring my new speakers home :-) 

@inna I forgot to mention, that every system that had VAC components was really solid.  You are right in saying that the amazing soundstage that I heard on the Harbeths was as a result of their amps.  That was a common characteristic in all set ups that featured their gear.  I'm leaning towards the Audion 300b Silver Night Special Edition, but If I can find the right used deal, I may grab a VAC.  I have had several people tell me that the Audion/Zu combo is a home run, so I'm torn.  For the time being, we will be running a peachtree Nova 150.  We need to save some funds because our budget has almost doubled.  We will be completing the system by the start of summer at the latest.  

Glad you gound something. I have a peach tree integrated in my office system. They run a pair of Celestion SL6S's in the near field on my desk. For a cass d solid state with tube buffer they do a good job.

Now, what will the front end consist of?  BTW, I sold the maxed out Thorens 150. But i do have a Acoustech ph1 sitting around with upgraded opamps. 

Blue Zu's sound like a nice pick.   Congrats.

Others may disagree but I think that having a great amp, often more expensive than speakers, brings great advantage even with modest but fundamentally very good speakers.  Many good speakers are capable of more than they might seem, just give them great source amplification and cables. And wall current, of course.