need recommendations for standmount speakers

I just wanted to give a quick update.

No more speaker recommendations needed for now as I’ll have my work cut out for me trying to demo some of the speakers above.

Yesterday i managed to audition the Dynaudio Special 40 again.

The Dyn S40 was hooked up to a Hegel 190, with the same speaker cables as my own (chord epic) and similar stands. The speakers were about 10 cm away from back wall and in a small cove ie not much space to right and left of speakers. Speakers placed about 5 ft apart. Room was smaller than my own.

Wow! I was blown away. These are some pretty amazing speakers.. So dynamic. Very clear highs. Super sweet vocals. I seriously thought there was a subwoofer connected, because the bass was just so deep, full, punchy and textured.

Hegel volume display was at 60 so I think lots more headroom to go, but speakers were already plenty loud.

If this is the first speaker in the list.. I really hope the rest of the speakers are just as good.

Price for new is around usd3240. Grey cabinet..

In the same showroom I saw the new Confidence line. They’re really huge speakers! Much bigger in real life than I thought, with the price to match.

The speakers were about 10 cm away from back wall and in a small cove ie not much space to right and left of speakers. Speakers placed about 5 ft apart. Room was smaller than my own.

Were there any foam bungs in the rear ports? Surprised it didn't get all messy in the bass given those confines.

I checked with the dealer yesterday; there were no foam bungs in place.

Went to audition the Focal Aria 906. They were connected to a Naim Uniti. Mids and bass were good, but occasionally sounded a bit muddy and congested when passages were complex. The highs sounded a bit too rolled off for my preferences. 

I went to the Kef dealer to try to audition the R3 but he was a bit of an ass and just didn't want to hook up the speakers, even though there was no one else in his shop and he was just playing on his phone. Asked me to come back over the weekend instead.. Whaaat? I'm trying to spend some money here and you don't even wanna get off your ass to hook up two speakers? I got annoyed and left.

Not sure if it was a loss to me as I just read a thread on avsforum where this guy did blind a/b test between kef r3 and ascend Sierra 2ex and the 2ex won.. 

Close to pulling trigger.. 

I wold still give the KEFs an audition from the jackass. You don’t want to be wondering “what if” after you make your purchase.

 If you happen to prefer the KEFs, buy  them from someone else!

PS, I'm a KEF guy. LS50's at home and REF 1's at the office. I've had both close to a rear wall and didn't think things got too muddy.