Used speakers $7,000-$10,000

These were designed for SACD and they are indeed exceptional speakers. Phillips/Sony had a demo booth of SACD multi-channel with these speakers at the 2000 and 2001 AES conventions.

I am not sure why they dropped the production of these great speakers... I only know that in 2002 and 2003 AES conventions Phillips/Sony switched to using ATC speakers for SACD multi-channel demos.

Probably a big company like Sony could not justify selling only a handful of speakers a year (this is a very very small market at such high prices and high quality).

Dave, you're right.
The SS M9ES speakers were borderline Class A and the SS M9ED are a Class A reference speaker, competitive with the rest of the reasonably priced class A speakers.

Rarely, the OLD, 3 box version of the Audio Physic Caldera comes up used. Phenomenal sound, imo. Within the last few months a pair was for sale on Audiogon for ABOUT 10,000. Audio Physic Avanti III's have been highly praised, but I've not heard them. Would try them out first with the Odyssey Stratos Extreme monoblock amps and Tempest Extreme preamp that I already own.

Tyler Acoustics Woodmere, McIntosh XRT-28, VonSchweikert DB99.

---Dave

From personal experience I won’t give a 2nd or 3rd choice but as a first choice I would consider a pair of Sound Lab full range electrostatics. I have noticed several available recently between 6-10K. Others are in a better position to recommend appropriate amplification but it should act as a good voltage source given the speaker’s high impedance.