Standmount speakers 4k-8k

The funny part is that even if you CAN hear them, you often won't be hearing them in your own space.  I've written previously about when I bought my WB Arcs...I got them pre-owned from someone in my area, and in his space they sounded awful.  If that was my only reference point I never would have bought them, but I'd heard them before at a dealer so I knew what they could do.  Moral of the story - it's best to not only hear them, but hear them in your own space.  If that's not possible, then yes there's a bit of faith involved, no way around it. 

But as has been said so many times, you often do get what you pay for.  In my case with the awful-sounding Arcs, I had to stop during that session and remind myself that I was listening to $6500 speakers that had been on the market for more than a decade with happy listeners all over the world, and that what I was hearing was not what I should hang my hat on.  And I was right - got them home, and they're superb.  But there was some faith involved...not just wishful thinking, but faith that the many who'd gone before me and spent $6500 weren't all crazy.   It was like in "Lost Boys" when Kiefer Sutherland said about the rice "how could a billion Chinese people be wrong"!

So yes, many of us have purchased based on reviews, knowledge, word-of-mouth, etc. and had it work out just great though we all know that in a perfect world we would prefer to test everything in our own room with our own equipment.

Bcgator,
Good points you make, yes sometimes you have to rely on faith. I bought my power amplifier, DAC and speakers without hearing them and I’d say that they exceeded my lofty expectations. Information gained from certain reviewers and definitely owners word of mouth proved very candId, generous and valuable.
Charles

I agree with bcgator and also with what auxinput said. If you plan on spending upwards of 8k on a pair of speakers and do not have the means to go out and listen then you should at the very least spend some time researching speakers. Also what are your goals? How big is your room? How far from the walls will they placed? Where is your listening position? Do you plan on using tubes or solid state? What is your source? And on and on.....

If you do a search just on this site alone for standmount recs under 10k there are many threads that cover this topic. You will also see many of the same brands recommended over and over. I would venture to guess that is due to the fact that either they were favorably reviewed in the audio press and so many went out and bought them and then reported their experiences in the forums or word of mouth spread about them through the various forums by members who's opinions are deemed trustworthy.

Also keep in mind brand regocnition comes in to play quite often and many will make recommendations based on the general consensus that brand x is known for having certain characteristics.

For example I could probably tell you about the attributes and shortcomings of many speaker brands just through the amount of research and discussions I have had with fellow audio nuts through the years. However, that doesn't mean I could make a solid recomendation just based on that in information alone.

One last thing I would tell you is that beyond the usual suspects that are commonly recommended on here keep in mind that there are many small owner operator speaker designers that sell internet direct or have a very small dealer network and these guys can more than compete with designs costing thousands more. Selah, Fritz, Salk, Sonist, Ryan Speaker Art and Spatial Audio are just a few that come to mind of the many that are out there.

Maybe take your budget, spread it out and buy a few pairs to audition instead of spending it all on one pair. If you do some homework and buy and sell properly you could do this with several pairs and learn quite a bit, That's what I did and you never know, you might find that you don't actually need to spend 8k to get good speakers.  

Best of luck with your search.

OP, have you talked to Goodwin's in Waltham? 

Bcgator is right about the Wilson Benesch. The newer model, the Vector retails for $8500. Carbon fiber cabinets with stand. 
More details here:

http://wilson-benesch.com/products/vertex-stand-mounted-loudspeaker.html