The wonderful thing about music is even though I have a pretty nice system, I can still get great joy from listening to good music over something like my JBL Pebbles or a generic boom-box and still enjoy it immensely! Better speakers are better, but the where to land on the scale of diminishing returns is a very personal decision based on your allowance that you can devote to audio.
Because I play in a jazz band with trumpets and trombones, the difference between soft domes and well implemented Al tweeters like the Ultras have is quickly apparent to me. Without another speaker to compare it to, the Ultras cover it for me. I would not know I was missing anything had I not compared them directly against higher quality speakers.
Those higher quality speakers add a very, very subtle improvement to a cymbal crash or even the tap of a triangle and really don't distinguish themselves strongly unless you are listening to something like symphonic chimes (tubular bells) where the harmonic balance of the RAAL or Beryllium tweeter is better. I think this difference also comes across as providing a subtle degree of extra detail.
I guess what I am saying is aside from Symphonic Chimes, I almost have to work at it to find the improvements over the Ultras. On the scale of diminishing returns, the Ultras are in a good place!
The Philharmonitors are noteworthy because they are a lot more speaker than you can get anywhere else for $1150. Dennis Murphy/Philharmonic Audio has little if any advertising cost, he doesn't have a payroll to manage, he is pretty much a one man show (and the right man, regarding skill/talent) and not trying to earn a living or grow a corporation. If you want a speaker to compete directly with the Philharmonitor, you are looking at the Ascend Acoustics Sierra-2 RAAL at $1450. Aside from the difference in cost, I think the decision between these two is a matter of personal taste w.r.t. subtle tuning decisions made by their respective designers. The Ascends are a great value and the Philharmonitor is an incredible value. I think you are looking at 2 grand to find the next competitor (Salk probably has something competitive with the Ascends if you consider that you are paying additional money for a custom high quality furniture grade finish - they are beautiful finishes!).
I guess what I am getting at is that at $800 for B-stock, the Ultras are really a great option. If you can later upgrade to the Philharmonitor, that is a speaker it is very hard to upgrade from because they are very, very good and it is going to really cost a big wad of cash to go better (aside from other Philharmonic speakers)!
PS - all comments above assume you have a proper sub set-up. The cost of speakers that add top level bass is a totally different issue.
