Best Floorstander Under 10K?

Good thought Tom, the mystique however misplaced, is perpetuated by the marketing.
"Is it better than Bose.?" I could have vomited, but he was completely serious.
How can anyone look at their particle board cabinets and pseudo zoomy looks and not see through that "Captain Midnight" technology.
This, is the premise, and I am not exaggerating, of the Bose 901.
Since 89% of all sound we hear (presumably musical) is reflected, their design pointed 9 of the 10 drivers in the 901, away from the listener. Now, I don't think that one has to be an MIT Grad to figure out that we have just INCREASED the amount of reflected sound, by making what should be direct sound, reflected, by doing this.
This is meathead physics, and Amar Bose has made this into a Billion dollar company. Oh well, as Adolph Hitler said, (paraphrasing as my memory, as well as other body issues has become shorter these days) "The bigger the lie, the easier it is to pass off."
If only someone with Bose's resources would actually pursue audio perfection. It actually staggers my mind that I can, in my very first attempt, build a speaker better than almost everyone out there. Not a commercial, just disgusted.

go for the proac d38, it is great and sounds much more expensive than 8000.

Thanks, Classicaudio. I am interested in the D38. I heard the 3.8 once and liked it very much. How does the new series D38 compare? There hasen't really been much out there about the new series.

I hope you have the opportunity to audition the Ruark Solstice before making a decision. All I have to say about them is that they they sound like music. Unfortunately they're out of production because the components became too expensive for the price point they were selling at. I'm very happy with my Ruark Equinox, ($4K retail) which was the model below the Solstice. I would take them over a shrill, beamy sound of a B&W or the hi-fi sound of a Wilson Watt (at 20X the cost) any day.