10K is a *lot* of money, I don't care who's spending it. What's your room like? These days, at that price-point you could buy almost anything and it would sound amazing. These days most 2k speakers sound amazing. I mean no disrespect in asking, but I'm just emerging from the same cart - before - the - horse frustrations (albeit at a smaller budget), and in my case a set of room treatments and slightly more attentive placement are doing amazing things. And you know what they say about recent converts.
So, not knowing whether you've already got some uh-MAY-zing listening room, all custom bass traps and corner tunes and whatnot, or just a rig parked in the middle of a family den, my visceral reaction to the question, based on my own experience, is to audition some comparatively easy-to-drive speakers at a fraction of your intended budget, and spend the rest on dedicated power, cabling, and room treatments.
Again, I mean no disrespect when I make this suggestion. For all I know, you could "lose more money than that, runnin' for the bus," as Mickey from *Snatch* would say, and your room could already double as a speaker-testing lab. But after the experience I've just had, I can't imagine a speaker out there that's worth the extra seven grand over a Spendor s8e or a Devore Gibbon 8 or a Joseph Audio RM25si-mkII, with that kind of quality amplification and a really optimal room setup.
...You could also spend some of the leftover money on a new front end, if you're not already SOTA, there.
ALL of that being said, the price-is-no-object speakers that most impressed me in various shops were made by DeVore and Audio Physic, with the DeVore's doing a better job of soundstage and the AP's sounding just a tad more musical.
But I still think you should spend three grand on the speakers and the rest on the room and the associated gear -- a reaction worth exactly what you paid for it, no doubt.
So, not knowing whether you've already got some uh-MAY-zing listening room, all custom bass traps and corner tunes and whatnot, or just a rig parked in the middle of a family den, my visceral reaction to the question, based on my own experience, is to audition some comparatively easy-to-drive speakers at a fraction of your intended budget, and spend the rest on dedicated power, cabling, and room treatments.
Again, I mean no disrespect when I make this suggestion. For all I know, you could "lose more money than that, runnin' for the bus," as Mickey from *Snatch* would say, and your room could already double as a speaker-testing lab. But after the experience I've just had, I can't imagine a speaker out there that's worth the extra seven grand over a Spendor s8e or a Devore Gibbon 8 or a Joseph Audio RM25si-mkII, with that kind of quality amplification and a really optimal room setup.
...You could also spend some of the leftover money on a new front end, if you're not already SOTA, there.
ALL of that being said, the price-is-no-object speakers that most impressed me in various shops were made by DeVore and Audio Physic, with the DeVore's doing a better job of soundstage and the AP's sounding just a tad more musical.
But I still think you should spend three grand on the speakers and the rest on the room and the associated gear -- a reaction worth exactly what you paid for it, no doubt.
