Speaker Recommendation: 20K range

Dave and Troy raise some interesting questions:

1: Is the size and look of the loudspeakers important?

Few small speakers can fill a big room at high SPLs without significant thermal and/or mechanical compression.  Briefly, having a fair amount of speaker headroom above the loudest anticipated peaks helps to keep those peaks uncompressed.  Uncompressed peaks = better dynamic contrast = more emotion from the music, because musicians use dynamic contrast to convey emotion.  I like to shoot for 10 dB of speaker headroom above the loudest anticipated peaks. 

2: Are you willing to look at fringe brands you can not easily demo?

It's probably not worthwhile buying a plane ticket to audition a $1000 speaker.  However it might be worthwhile buying a ticket to audition a  $10,000+ speaker IF it seems to meet your criteria exceptionally well and the only real question left is how it sounds.  I used to sell fairly expensive speakers (Sound Labs) and most of my customers bought a plane ticket to audition them.   

3: Are you the type of person who would prefer getting the sevice and support of a larger manufacturer vs dealing with some of the issues with smaller companies?

I disagree with the implication here that small manufacturers do not offer customer service every bit as attentive as the big boys (and maybe ever moreso sometimes), though I will admit that our delivery times are usually longer.  But there is one thing a big company with a dealer network CAN offer you that us little guys usually cannot - the DEALER!   If you find a dealer who takes good care of you and who sells a speaker that meets your criteria and makes the magic happen for you, then by all means offer him your business!  And if not, well, you still have options.

Duke

dealer/manufacturer/on both sides of the fence

@tomic601, good observation!  With a small direct-selling company, in effect the manufacturer becomes the dealer.  But I think having a local dealer would usually be preferable, all else being equal.

Most of my work is in prosound.  Agreed that 500 watts is a lot, easily enough to cook most home audio speakers (and most ears) of one is not careful.   Like Peter Parker's uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. 

Headroom is a nice thing to have, a luxury seldom enjoyed in abundance in prosound, at least not in small to medium venues.  Seems like most musicians want just enough amp & speaker to get by, because they'd much rather put their money into instruments and effects. 

I guess 500 unclipped watts doesn't intimidate me all that much.  I'd have to beef up some of my crossover parts, but my drivers can handle it.  I use similar drivers in prosound cabs that get pounded by 500 watt amps two or three nights a week. 

Duke