Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers


I'm going to take a several hour road trip to the Washington DC/Baltimore area to demo some speakers in the $10,000 range for a once in a lifetime purchase. I plan on listening to some Magico A3's, Aerial Acoustic 7T's, and Spendor D-9's. One of the dealers also has Paradigm Persona 3F's on the floor, so I'll take a listen to them too. While I'm up there are there any other speakers in that price range you'd recommend I try to locate and take a listen to. I'm open to and welcome your suggestions and will take the time to research each one as well.

I'm not in the market for used equipment. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Mike



skyscraper
While you are at Command, don't overlook the Neat speakers and Devore.  They may not have the more expensive Neat models in the shop, but, that brand is worth exploring.

As to how to audition speakers, I suggest doing a lot of the listening at quite low volume level.  It is easy to get juiced when speakers are played at high volume, but, that tends to be deceiving.  If you listen at your normal, comfortable level, or even lower volume, and the music sounds flat and uninvolving, you should be concerned with being caught in the trap of looking for more and more power to get satisfying sound.  I think this is common problem with a lot of modern, high-end speaker-amp combinations.  

Also, set aside a lot of time for your visit to Deja Vu.   I doubt that you will encounter another place anything like it anywhere in your travels, so take in everything they have to offer.  In particular, listen to the custom-built stuff because it sounds quite different from most modern speakers.  The more mundane "regular" brands include Harbeth, ProAc and Audio Note.  
+1 on L.I.A.R. Live music, especially with unamplified instruments, always sounds "live" no matter where you sit or stand. If a system can pull that off, then its the optimum match among the components and high quality package. That's my acid test whenever someone asks me over to listen to their system and most systems, even some very expensive ones, can't reproduce that illusion from the adjacent room.
Duke speaks the truth.  
Thanks for mentioning the Neat speakers Larry. I've never heard of them before. I'll look at them while I'm at Command. I'll make sure I explore normal listening levels as you suggest too. Deja Vu does sound interesting.  I'm probably going to have to overnite in DC to take in all these places and speakers. Thanks

Kalali, I will definitely try listening from an adjacent room as you and Duke suggest, even if they think I'm leaving or ducking out. I can probably dig up some live acoustic music to bring along too. I think I might have some old well recorded live acoustic ECM label recordings I could locate. Thanks,

Mike
Mike, good luck.
Just please don't audition speakers that you cannot afford. On the other hand, extra $1k might be worth it if you can manage.
again I am getting fantastic sound with a $3.2 K NAIM integrated driving Vandersteen Treo CT......i am quite sure it would generate Condo eviction levels......ha
is it 1.2 KW a side like I have in the reference system?...no but it is fine and very very non fatiguing...

there are a herd of insanely good integrated amps in the $5-10 range...especially used..
Rogue
Electrocompiniet
VTL
ARC
Ayre
Pass
the list goes on and on...

your two highest distortion producers are the transducers....put the $$$$$$ there......