ascend sierra tower with raal or Focal Aria 936

I also do not believe all internet direct companies pass along the savings. SVS and Emotiva showed that when they switched and pricing stayed the same for a lot of products while adding the standard dealer margin. 

I like Focal and others that design and manufacture all of their parts and drivers. There are a lot of companies that do not do any research and just buy off the shelf drivers. That costs less then doing research. 

The factory direct companies live or die by their online reputation, they have to make you as happy as they can.

I can only go by my own experience.  Paradigm is a loudspeaker company that designed and made their own parts and drivers for decades, and I owned their second from very top of the line speaker, the Signature S6, which cost over 5000.  I owned these speakers for 7 years, and ran them first with Emotiva gear, then Parasound.  In my time, I've also owned 5 other models from Paradigm, from the Monitor and Performance series.  

And I can tell you that you can get equal performance of those $5000 speakers for much less money from Ascend(I've also owned 3 different pairs of Ascend speakers).  I compared them side by side and could not believe my ears.  

Believe whatever makes you happy, and spend multiple thousands like I did.

"Ascend can't possibly be that ideal of a speaker"
- kosst_amojan

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out"
- the music label Decca, 1962, when announcing they were passing on signing the Beatles

"The earth can't possibly be round".
- Everyone, pre-6th Century BC