How far, how much?

UsBlues, I assume from your response that the "quantum leap" you refer to would exceed, say, 3k or so, correct? Does it make sense to have $5k speakers in the context of my rig?

Braudio,

Pricing of a speaker is whatever the manufacturer thinks he can sell for. It has little direct correlation to how it sounds. A $5k speaker from brand A may not sound better than a $3k speaker from brand B. Often, depending on your system and your room, a $10k speaker may not sound better than a $5k speaker from the same brand.

What I am trying to say is don't use price alone to judge the sound quality of a speaker. You got to audition them yourself, preferably with your own equipment in your own room. If that isn't possible, at least audition them with equipment in the same class as yours and listen often with different equipment to get a true sense of the characteristic of the speaker. For example, if a speaker sounds aggressive in three different rooms driven by different amps of different brands, it most likely is an aggressive speaker.

One thing I have learned over the past 30 some odd years as an audiophile is that never judge a book by its cover and never judge a piece of audio equipment by its price.

I think Sidssp really summed it up well!!
I totally agree with what he said and wish more people would learn by what he said.

"How far, how much?"

Farther than I wanted, and more than I had planned.