Kal was right!

I had auditioned these and QLN Prestige 5. For my application the QLN's won out. But the St7 was a very very very close second. Wife liked the QLN better and she is younger and makes more money than me so I need to keep her happy as she will be choosing the Nursing Home I go to. LOL.

Great speakers enjoy.

Thank you Nonoise, an excellent review of the loudspeakers.  I am now even more eager for them to be here.  Soon.  I have three options for driving them (well, maybe 4), and will try them each in turn.  Three tubed, one ss.  

I'll be very curious to read how it goes, rpeluso!

I'm intrigued by these speakers and the fact you drove them with a tube amp is cool.  I use Conrad Johnson Premier 12s, 140W/side tube monos.  

I'm actually most intrigued by the smaller S5M monitors - the towers would be too imposing in my room and the specs for the monitors look impressive!

They are 92 dB/2.83V/1M. This is a job for a 100 watt plus class A amplifier. If you like tubes go for an Atmasphere MA1. This assumes subwoofers down the line. If you really wanted to knock yourself out of the ballpark Parasound JC1+s will definitely do it. 

Stereophile measured some demanding impedance though.

I wouldn't be too concerned in my case.  I've found my CJ Prem 12s to have little problem powering some demanding speakers I've owned, including my current Thiels and the brutally demanding MBL omnis.