New Speakers up to $15k - The more I read the less I know!

Hard to imagine not giving the new 10k Revel a listen.Kevin V is one great designer with a very large budget. A wonderful alternative is a used pair of Salon 2’s for way under 15k. This is where I’d look fwiw.

new Revel model is the F228be

Yes, the state of the art loudspeaker design still involves serious compromise. 

I'll compromise on anything this side of a screechy treble to get a vivid midrange. Its the best way for me to forget that I'm listening to loudspeakers.

For some others the goal may be the imagery / disappearing act combination. Devore seem to be a modern take on the classic DC Tannoys from the past with their luxury bass.

I happily lived with the original B&W Matrix 805's for over a dozen years for just this reason. But the compromises involved were huge. The 805's were three speakers ago. I now have DeVore O/93's and have never been happier. But I have not only kept my Matrix 805's but also had John of Van L Speakerworks in Chicago upgrade my internal wiring, crossover caps, and binding posts. I intend to use them again some day. 

@fsonicsmith  Congratulations! Be they artistic or engineering approaches (ear/measurement) real advances in speaker design are slow. So slow in fact some say non-existent at the high end.

The best you can do is to find the compromises you can live with, fine tune, and then breathe a sigh of relief as you get off the dizzy upgrade roundabout.

I'm pretty sure the DeVore 0/93's will still be great speakers some 20 years down the line whatever upgrades may or may not appear between then and now. The same way the original Harbeth M40's are today.

I'm pretty sure the DeVore 0/93's will still be great speakers some 20 years down the line whatever upgrades may or may not appear between then and now. The same way the original Harbeth M40's are today.

John DeVore loves electronica according to the journalists who have visited him and attended his "monkey parties". Listening to LCD Soundsystem's "Get Innocuous", the first track on the Sound of Silver album through the O/93's powered by my ARC Ref150 SE and Ref 6 with my AMR DP777 DAC and an Aurender N100H with Cardas Clear Beyond cabling is an amazing experience. The very first bass and drum line has you thinking that the bass is lightning fast and crisp and vivid and then suddenly a whole new wave of deeper bass kicks in that is startling to anyone not expecting it. My 86 year old dad and my 80 year old mom were over for Mothers Day and my dad wanted to hear the system-recognizing that most of my components including the DeVores were new. They were amazed despite having the hearing deficits that come with age. There is something very special about a well designed 10" paper woofer combined with just a soft dome tweeter. Obviously there is much more to the "special sauce" consisting of the cabinet design, two rearward facing ports located at the bottom of the enclosure, and the crossover design, not to mention that John DeVore has that SEAS woofer built to his specs. Also, I just had my carpeting in my dedicated listening room replaced with solid walnut hardwood. This made a huge difference in the SQ-bass has a solidity that it did not quite have before and the midrange is smoother. Highs seem unchanged. It took very little time to nail down speaker positioning whereas with carpet, it took a lot of tiny adjustments to get things optimized.