12'x16'x8' room OK for good stand mounts?

I think you have a lot of room to choose your speakers. Your room is big enough for a 6 - 7’ triangle.. so three feet behind the speakers and three feet on either side of the speakers. And to have 4 - 5’ feet behind. If you add dampening to the front and rear walls, then at sidewall reflections you can use towers.

I prefer towers to stand mount myself. I like the coherency. I have heard and really like Joseph Audio speakers. But I am a Sonus Faber fan for me.

A few years before I retired, I did the same thing you are doing. Got my system thinking I would not want to upgrade after, but I could tweak. I think it was a great plan. I went from 45 minutes a day, to 3 + hours and it is my most enjoyable hours each day. I can’t begin to tell you how much joy my system brings to me.

FYI. For me I had bought a pair of Sonus Faber Olympica 3 for my retirement speakers (I’m not trying to convince you… these were perfect for my tastes). Anyway after a couple years of retirement I realized I could upgrade again. I over doubled my investment to what I have now. The difference was amazing and also led to the three + hours a day I spend here.

So, I think you are doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right sequence. My recommendation: don’t compromise if you can avoid it. You should have the time to enjoy it and, well, life is short… and getting shorter.

If the JA Audio speakers do it for you, as they do me, you can get them to work. Do as Jeff Joseph did in a small NYC room and position the Pulsars or Prisms so they’re in the corner and the corner is at the highest depth of the speakers and pull them out as far as you can until the sound just gels. This way you maximize the space/benefit of the room but definitely look at GIK for room treatments to further benefit the sound. If it worked for Jeff Joseph I’m sure it can work for you too. 

That room size is perfect for the Prism or the Pulsar2’s. Depending on your musical tastes, you always add a sub or two later.

All the best.

actually you won't need room treatments if you treat the vibration coming from your speakers with Townshend podiums, they're not cheap but they totally eliminate the problems in the room that speaker vibration cause, room problems just disappear, look them up, best upgrade I've ever done, it sounded like I had upgraded all my electronics, it also gets rid of the constant Earth vibration that's in the Earth all the time, the improvement is mind-blowing. they isolate down to three Hertz.

the monitor audio gold 200 and 300 sound amazing and your room is not too small my room is only eight and a half by 23 and I have the platinum 200 ll and they sound incredible.