Speakers - Your "Safest" Choice

Pre owned is a great recommendation.  Speakers come down to personal preference and advice on speakers is almost always colored by the preferences of whoever is giving the advice.  Electronica and room acoustics also play a big role as well.  Spending 20 k on speakers you haven’t heard seems crazy unless you have a trial period. 
 

I’ve had Focal, Alta Audio and Omega speakers.  You’ll find a loyal following for all of them, they all have a unique sound signature, dans if one are not likely fans of the others but that doesn’t mean that are all not great speakers.  
 

Good Luck! 

@gnoworyta 

Your post (question) sounds like a fishing expedition to me.  Particularly the "If one had a budget of $20K max".  Not being snarky. 

My advice is to get a map and spend a good while, days at least, and mark all the audio stores that are within striking distance by car.  Exhaust those stores and then go flying to get to the next level.

The best advice above is to go to the Florida show, which includes another great piece from above. Spend $1k on your search and $19K on speakers.

Regards,

barts

@audiokinesis --

+1

There are actually some Audio dealers that will reimburse you for the plane ticket. If you go see them and buy something,

What I did was shopped the market to get a feel for actual value, read all the reviews of the speakers in my price range and then shopped used so I could get my money back if my ears didn't hear what everyone else did. 

I learned that when a reviewer says a speaker needs 100 watts it usually means 500 watts and while measurements may show ports extend measured bass more often than not I can't hear it. Metal tweeters are much smoother than they were in the 90's...Stepping up my speaker game required me to step up my component game to really appreciate what was capable in home audio.