Speakers Distance from Wall

Those are very generous dimensions for floorstanders. Some speakers may only need to be about 7 ft. apart.
Have you looked at the Totem line? Staaf, Hawk, Forest are in the $3K neighborhood. They need power and perform well when away from walls; good soundstaging and detail.

When I think about it, Vandersteens benefit more from a ton of space more than any other speaker I have heard.

Wow, fantastic responses so quickly - I'm stunned! Thanks, and keep it going. To answer the questions raised in these posts: The room is 17 feet wide and about 24 feet deep. The speakers will be located along one of the short walls. It has a cathedral ceiling which starts at 8 feet and goes up to an apex of...12?14? feet. The speakers are in front of one of the 8 foot high walls, so the ceiling angles up evenly in front of both speakers. At the moment, my couch is more or less below the apex, about half way into the room. Its a new house (new to me that is) so have some floor and wall treatment in front of me...quite a bit of echo at the momen. I have heard Totems, a friend has Totem Hawks which sound superb in his space which smallish - 10 by 12 I think. I wondered how they might sound in a wide open room, but haven't convinced him to bring them over. I'll look into the Gallo and Vandersteen suggestions - I don't mind shameless plugs at all. I'm shamelessly asking for free advice!

You might want to consider not using the same distance from the wall behind the speakers and the walls to the side of the speakers.

Sounds like a Maggie 1.7 or 3.6 room to me.