Real world Loudspeakers what does very good cost ?

@rsf507 Damn good question.  Seller has a stellar reputation and speakers look near flawless and are in the gorgeous Sapele finish — my personal favorite.  Personally, if I was in the market at that price level I’d be all over them but would try to bargain down a bit as they’ve had two owners and as you said have been available for a bit.  But still, I wouldn’t be unhappy owning them at the asking price. 

I think what you are proposing is correct… that if you want a speaker that is overall a high performance speaker… (I stay away from highly resolving as there are inexpensive high resolving speakers that sound terrible on other dimensions). You can expect high standards on all aspects of sound quality. The $12 - $15K category has some real good products.

I actually bought Sonus Faber Olympica 3 (~$12K) when I was approaching retirement… as my final speakers. Great choice, and happily after I retired I was able to upgrade again to the Sonus Faber Amati Traditional ($32K).

So, in that category you just have to audition them. They have very different house sounds. If you actually are looking for really high resolving… then Magico is probably your choice, but make sure you have the right electronics or you may not like what you hear.

So I would find places to listen to:

Sonus Faber … once retired you may also really appreciate looking at them.

Dynaudio Contour 20

Wilson

Magico

That would be my short list… if I wasn’t completely sure Sonus Faber is the sound I want.

Speaker "sound" is so dependent on the room,  the source,  the amplification and the positioning.  Matching all those components working together to provide the endpoint the proper load and power is critical to getting the desired result. 

There are so many posts here about matching components that  focusing on just  speakers without  considering all the other pieces would make it near impossible to extract value from your decision.  

Music type, volume level, size constraints are more important than the brand of speaker I think.  I haven't heard them all but would guess that any 20K speaker under optimum conditions for that speaker would sound terrific but that same speaker under non optimal conditions would have deficiencies that would make it not  completive with a better matched lower cost unit.  

Why are Vandersteens so infrequently mentioned anymore? I would much rather pay for and live with one of them than any of the Wilsons.

Auditioned tons of speakers. 
 

settled on a 3K pair, which sound the best to me.

most are too bright for my ears

price is subjective 

Ears , rooms, deflection, music style, all different.