Performer-in-Room Quality with Speakers?


I need advice regarding what kind of speakers might help provide what I'm looking for. (For some time now I've been a tube guy for amplication, and that will not change; source components and media vary.)  I want an illusion of the performer (acoustic instrument music, vocals, classical, and combo jazz,) actually being in the room, realism so convincing that it is potentially startling. The only time I've had that sensation is when I use my Stax Ear Speakers. Concerns are sensitivity to room placement, cost, and of course spouse approval factor. Soundstage, imaging, dynamics, deeeeep bass, can take a back seat if necessary. 

Any ideas?  Single-point drivers?  Crossoverless units? Open baffle?  Vertical arrays?  Electrostatrics or planars? 
(For the record I've owned Maggies, Shahinian Obelisks, mid-fi traditional boxes and so on.)

Thanks for your ideas,

OGOgre
ogogre

As with many things in audiophilia and the attempt to create a high end system, it's not a simple matter of the realism being there or not, it's a matter of degrees. Literally hundreds of systems and combinations of thousands of components are capable of varying degrees of the characteristics sought to convince the mind that one is hearing "real" performance.

Obviously, it's very difficult to attain an extremely high degree of that realism, and the vast majority of systems fall short of it, which should be expected.

Having had a vocalist in my lap I can vouch for the efficacy of that as a reasonable goal.
I heard the Sanders at last year’s T.H.E. Show in Irvine cerrot, and loved ’em. One of the two best speakers at the show I thought, the other being the Marten Coltranes in the EAR-USA room.
Truthfully, I'd prefer a studio sound than a live concert sound. Especially after the last few gigs I've been at.