OK, well a I spent a few days in BKK listening to speakers.
First up JBLS's 580's. Sounded good in the small, yet non-corrected room. They had no center and mis-matched surrounds, but TIT (this is Thailand). Guess they were just moving into the new part of the showroom and not completely set up yet.
Off to shop #2 which deals mainly in KEF's w/ Sherwood only AVR's. The Q-900's sounded good and they put a proposal together for me consisting of the Q900 mains, Q600 center, Q800DS (bi-pole) surrounds and a Q400b sub.
#3. Dealt in PSB's, Velodyne subs and Denon AVR's. They proposed Imagine T2 mains, Imagine C center, Imagine S (bi-pole) surrounds and 10" sub. I really liked the sound and look of these speakers, but I wanted to have a look at the final shop that carried just about everything.
#4. This was the only place that had treated rooms and what a difference. The past shops had been concrete floors and walls (like mine). They had a set of Focal Aria 948 set up with the Denon and they blew me away. They swapped out the 948's for the 936's and I couldn't tell the difference. They had a Martin Logan Dynamo 1500 in the mix but no surrounds set up, even though it was a larger room then the others.
They put a package together, including a 6 mo. old ML sub, 2 936 mains, SR 900 (again bi-pole) surrounds the CC900 center and the Denon AVR.
Then they started pushing the wiring.....OMG. Audioquest HDMI Carbon $190.00, and Chocolate at $120.00 with a sub cable at $85.00 and mains cables at $372.00. Almost $800.00 in cables. What a joke..
I saved this shop until last due to the amount of gear carried and they do have the best prices in town. I'd already listened to the JBL's, KEF's and PSB's so no need to hear them again. But the Focal's rocked.
I'll buy something from them in the future, but no decision yet.
Odd how ALL shops recommended bi-pole surrounds where all I've read is monopole's work better.
I mentioned the ML sub on another site and they said a enclosed would struggle with 6000 ft./3.
Hell, I've got 12000 ft./3.