Vote for the best speakers in 10K range

Rosstaman - thanks for the reply on the Confidence 5's vs. the 3.3's. I've never heard the 5's, but I find it almost weird that I've seen so many practically new ones advertised for 40-45% of retail, and you practically never see 3.3's used for sale.

KThomas- I am currently running a pair of Confidence 5s and couldn't be happier. In my room (25'x19'), I don't find the bass to be lacking at all. The 5s are much more "analytical" than the 3.3s. This means that the 5s will more readily show deficiencies in the rest of the system. I also find that the 5s do voices better than any speaker to which I've listened. Matched up with great electronics, they are, IMHO, the best at $10k. As for discounted pricing, it's to the buyer's advantage.

Metaphysics - thanks for sharing your experience. I find it hard to believe that the 5's are some sort of lemon, especially coming from Dynaudio, but I guess it wouldn't be un-precedented. In any case, they'd be my first inclination for upgrading my 3.0's based solely on price and manufacturer. And, I agree wholeheartedly that the discounted pricing is to the buyer's advantage - I always like a great deal!

Rayhall, Be careful if you demo a set of Vandersteen 5's. You cannot use a Pass Aleph amp with their balanced crossover. You could damage the speaker if you do. Apparently the Van 5 balanced crossover needs matching values for pos and neg legs. Most amps are this way, but the alephs are not. I talked to a pass labs tech, and he said he could modify the vand hipass filters for around $50. They just have to change capacitors to compensate. I'm using my vt100 to drive them now.

I am looking for speaker cables to use with mine. My red dawns bananas won't fit and I need to biwire. What speaker cables have you or others seen the Vandersteen 5 demoed with ?

Make that their (vandersteens) 'balanced hi pass filter'. They do make a single ended version too.