What do you consider the most musical speakers—$15000 & under

@helomech I am a long time Vandersteen owner (2C, 3, 3A, 3A Sig.) now Treo CT with two 2wq subs. When I was picking up the Treo’s at John Rutan’s Audio Connection, he played Doug McLeod on Vandy 1C’s. I never would have imagined that RV’s most humble offering could sound like that! Fantastic stuff. If you feed them a clean signal you are in for a real treat.😀

It's strange to me as RV is all about making a great sounding product that hits above it's price.  He even does that his 
Treo CT on up.  It's pretty amazing as I audition them all the time and I audition others all the time.  I honestly haven't heard anything twice the price that I personally would buy.  They are extended and not bright like so many others.  I would listen to a bunch of the speakers talked about here and see what you love.  They all have a different taste if you would, so it's important to hear them.  I have the Quatro and honestly, I may even get a pair of the Sub 9's.  I just like the ability to tune the bass to the room.  

15k is the 'sweet spot' IMO

my two favorite........

Revel Studio II

Martin Logan 13a

@hifiman5 ,

I am slack jawed by the Vandy 1cis. I ordered them online, expecting to likely return them because I'm used to $4K Spendors. I'm just amazed at what these Vandys can do for the price, and can't imagine how the 7s must sound.

Now I have the dilemma of deciding whether to step up to 2ce Sig IIs.

helomech, the performance range of audio systems is FAR greater than many realize. Experience in the home is often the only thing that can change that perception. The change which caused your  jaw to fail is a small part of a broad spectrum of performance change possible in the realm of systems.  :) 

I owned the 1B and 2CE in the past, and there is a nice bump in performance in the 2. Don't worry that you wouldn't hear a significant difference. 

The 7's are quite nice, but imo not inherently superior to many other super-speakers. YMMV 

You may wish to hang on to the Spendor speakers for a while, and conduct comparisons as time goes on. That would be informative.