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

@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. 

I can see you are a high-hi-end listener. Me too, but I learned a lot when I was partners in Audio Tweakers over a decade ago. My then biz partner had a cost no object budget, which I got to hear regularly. He now owns Scaena Loudspeakers which combine art and sound to great results

Now, I have owned my share of exotic speakers to drive my 17 x 34 x 11 living/listening room, including building frames for rewired Accoustat 3 + 3 with 4 tweaked servo amps, Genesis Vs (as did my partner in the early days) but mine were HPs personal pair.  I much prefer dipoles, which are known to disappear, while throwing a hyge sound stage

If you have the room I suggest you investigate the new Magnepan 30.7s, but only those.  If you would like to hear what a measly $2K buys you, I am selling my pair of Emerald Physics KCIIs, internally wired with WireWorld OCC. Only reason I am selling is I got a super sweet deal on a pair of EP 3.0s. See my ad and review in AA

hth 

I pulled the trigger on the Quatro Wood CT after many hours of listening and comparing. I cant wait to get them delivered and setup. Thanks for all the great responses.

Awesome and congrats.  What helped you make that decision?  Which wood or paint did you go with?  Also, wondering which dealer?  If you have questions feel free to ask.  Glad that you went to audition to many speakers as that's the most important thing you can do.  

New gear is always fun.  Just installed three new pairs of Audioquest Hurricane power cords and even though they need breaking in, the Quatro's are crushing it like never before!