Lobster king- One of the nice things about purchasing pre-owned Kimber products is that they are easily sold for what you've got in them, in the unlikely event that you don't like them. Based on what you claimed as your prerequisites, I believe you will be more than pleased with the 1130. I'm extremely finicky(probably anal) about transparency, all the same things you sited, and wouldn't think of trading out my 1130's. Matter of fact, here's a pair for sale close to your price range; (http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1226204450&/Kimber-ks1130-xlr-1-meter-pair) I'll bet they'd take a grand.