Best speaker between 15K-35K

..i would also include the piega c-40s' and their little brother c-10 ltds.i have heard the majority of the speakers mentioned so far and think the piegas' are superior....but that's just to my ears. if you are indeed going to listen to all the speakers you are interested in you owe it to yourself to find a dealer and listen to these great speakers.

Adding a sub to ANY great speaker is more about ironing out room-rez bumps, right? I remember hearing the W/P 6 just before getting my Parsifal Encores. The dealer (who sold both) was puzzled that the W/Ps were coming back from a customer who preferred the Encores. But we also noticed that the Wilsons prodigious bass was overpowering the room, requiring more careful placement than the friendlier Encores.
Certainly a fine sub, well-positioned, can allow for speaker-positioning with staging in mind rather than best bass smoothness. The W/Ps clearly need a bigger room than the Encores....
Smoothjazz, your near-cubical room is REALLY challenging!
You may have to set up a non-symmetrical placement, probably a nearfield triangle, to eliminate those huge primary bumps. Good luck.

If you like the transparency and realism of electrostatic speakers, but you are interested in dynamics it's now possible to have your cake and it it too. From everything I've heard from Green Mountain Audio C-3's owners they have Quad/Sound Lab/Maggie type transparency and realism through the mid range and ultra fast/tight bass that adroitly presents all types of music.

I tell you what. After going to CES, and hearing a lot, the Talon Firebirds really are extraordinary.

The W/P 7s were terrible, but i suspect the room there.

The Dynaudio C2s sounded great as well.

Kharmas sounded good, but i thought there was better sound at the show.