Road trip to demo $10,000 speakers

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......

Skyscraper i apologize for the late reply. To answer your question about how I made difficult speakers sound good well I kept bringing in different components and cables. most amps built to a price which at the time was nad, adcom, nak, B&K, all sounded pretty much alike and I could hear a run of nordost wire sounded a little different than my kimber 4tc, but I really didn’t think it was better! way back in the 90’s it wasn’t until I stepped up my game and drove my kef’s with a krell and bi amped did those speakers sound good, But here’s the thing, I demoed those speakers on a HK receiver and they were amazing because that room was dead acoustically. There’s the camp that claims ’all amps sound the same’ and for casual listening with unfamiliar gear that’s probably true, but I found a relative bargain in amplification when I brought home the hegel h360 $6000 to drive my $22,000 speakers and when you’re listening at home you will need an amp that compliments your speakers and a good b&m dealer can help you there

@skyscraper, if you're going to do Gifted Listener, Deja Vu, Evolution Audio and Command Performance, you'll definitely need to overnight somewhere in the area.  With those four, you get Vienna Acoustics, Vandersteen, Magnepan, Linn, Audio Note, Harbeth, ProAc, Aerial Acoustics, Dynaudio, Focal, Devote, Neat, Magico, and probably others.  That takes time.  Throw in IQ Home Entertainment, and you get a couple more.