I will check into Audio Mirror. Thanks.
Regarding imaging, the other thing worth mentioning is the recording. Certainly there are recordings that are close mic'd pianos, for example, and therefore the piano will sound giant even if it's perfectly reproduced. But I just don't want images to be much larger than they would sound with a normal push pull amplifier, which I find fools my brain into thinking it's a real instrument and real space. As one of you pointed out this may be partly due to what each of us gets accustomed to over time. So it could be just my preference.
Regarding how much money I want to spend, I bought my REL subs used and have about $12,000 invested in the subs and cables. One of the best upgrades I ever made, and not just for bass. They make everything sound so much more real and more analogue. It's not easy to understand exactly why that is, but it is. $7,000 on a used amplifier probably equates to a $15,000 retail, so I don't know why that seems so odd. Also I don't know that it's always meaningful to calibrate how much money you put into each component, especially at this level. Just picking the right component is more important. And of course affordability comes into play. My Quicksilver amps were $6,500 new and I bought them for $3,000 used. They are quite at home in a system of almost any level.