Gone are the days of the great audition.

For a $2K range floorstander friendly with a tube amp, you have GOT to audition the GoldenEar Triton 2 and Triton 3. Triton 3's come in right at $2K/pair. There are two authorized dealers in the DC area:

IQ Home Entertainment
7101 Democracy Blvd
Westfield Montgomery Mall (Upstairs - Macy's Home Wing)
Bethesda, MD 20817
703-218-9855

IQ Home Entertainment
10890 Fairfax Blvd
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-218-9855

Sandy Gross, founder of GoldenEar and previously co-founder of Polk Audio adn Definitive Audio, powers his personal pair of Triton 2's with a low-powered SET tube amp. These speakers come with a Heil-style motion transformer folded ribbon tweeter, midrange drivers with response of to 20K for a good blend with the tweeters, and internally powered, passive radiator augmented woofers. I heard the Triton 2's in a factory demo a couple years ago. Very impressive.

One caution: the GoldenEars are low enough in cost that many dealers pair them with mass market receivers for demos, in which case you will be underwhelmed as the Tritons will amply reveal the receiver's shortcomings. The GoldenEars deserve excellent amplification. You might want to call ahead to see what IQ's setup is, and if they can't provide a quality amp, see if you can bring in your PrimaLuna.

"One caution: the GoldenEars are low enough in cost that many dealers pair them with mass market receivers for demos, in which case you will be underwhelmed as the Tritons will amply reveal the receiver's shortcomings."

That's a good point. I think it is not uncommon for less expensive speakers to sound underwhelming due to more common use with other less expensive gear, particularly amps, rather than because they themselves are in fact "underwhelming".

A lot of speakers from even 30 years ago run off "underbuilt" Japanese receivers of the day sounded a lot better with top notch amplification behind them.

^^^
Mapman, it's definitely true in general, but even more true with the Tritons because their ribbon tweeter and 20Khz response midrange are particularly revealing of upstream electronics while their low price invites the use of sub-par electronics. One lower-cost amp that *would* be a good match is the Marantz PM8004 integrated amp. That's a $999 unit that sounds more like something in the $2.5 to 4K range.

Your point is well taken. For a long time I powered my ADS L1090s with a Vector Research receiver (built by NEC). Then one day I auditioned a VSP Labs TransMOS Gold Edition 200wpc high current power amp in my house, powering the L1090s. The difference was stunning and at that point I said to myself, "no way is this amp leaving the house."

So what type speakers would be "unfriendly" with a 40-60 watt tube amp then? Sensitivity below x???

There is a new model developing. HiFi seems to be becoming more of a cottage industry, with one man operations selling direct. They often offer home demo's with owners of the speakers. I have Daedalus speakers and Lou Hinkley offers that to potential buyers.

I would find this more useful anyway, you feel less under pressure than in a shop, where time is money, you can listen in a home setting and speak to an owner who has long term experience with a product