You've been very busy
. I have to agree with your thoughts about spending $9k for speakers & stands. For that amount they should be perfect both acoustically and visually. But I would say the same about spending $6k!
I caution you about room location and apparent bass response (below about 250 to 300 Hz). Small changes in speaker or listener location can easily make for large differences in this frequency region. Sound reflected from walls, ceiling, or floor can arrive at the listener out of phase with sound coming directly from the speaker, causing apparently poor bass response. Likewise, reflected sound can boost response if it arrives at the listener in phase. Small changes in speaker and listener location can make large changes for sound in this frequency range. You may be well aware of this, but it's always worth repeating.
Yes, I did experiment with positioning but got pretty conistent results, in the dealer's showroom at least.
You may have completely different beliefs about things like speaker stands than I have
, but I believe that no speaker stand costing $1200 is worth that price. The important thing is having stands that don't wobble or vibrate, and support the speakers at the right height (roughly listener's ear level) off the floor.
I completely agree with you.
Go here
Veracity ht1 - home, and click on the Pricing link on the left side of the web page,
Veracity ht1 - pricing. Price with standard veneers is $2700 plus shipping. Custom veneers include the extra cost of any veneer you choose. Click on the Galleries link on the top banner for a sample of some of the wide variety of custom finishes.
Note that the tweeter presently used in nearly all Salk speakers appears somewhat different than in the older HT1 photo. Look at the tweeter in this link
HT2-TL - home to see the tweeter that presently comes with the HT1.
Another high quality small stand mount speaker that might interest you is the Salk Silk
SILK - home. It costs $3500 plus shipping.
If nice looking stands are important in your choice, Jim Salk does custom woodwork and will make matching stands.
The reason why I offer a wide range recommendation to Salk speakers, is that I live nearby the speaker designer, Dennis Murphy. He has long been involved in DIY speaker design (that's how I first met him), is a semi-pro musician, and has what I have come to believe is the best sense of how a loudspeaker should sound. Yes, crossovers can and do affect a speaker's sound that much! His designs all share a common sound of an overall neutral tone balance, and have a level of detail and image-creation that I do not find elsewhere until the Joseph Audio price range.