Is good customer service about dead?

I have had excellent customer service, responsiveness, and guidance from many
companies in the high-end and I won't list them all, but since you do mention
speakers at that price point, I would say Merlin provides a great product and a
lot of guidance of how to get the speaker to perform it best with other
equipment and room issues. The speakers are not shipped from the shelves, so
don't expect delivery the next day, they are handmade and take some time to
make, but that is the nature of handcrafted products from small companies,
and well worth the wait, what you get for the wait is a very well sorted and
refined speaker, and the furthest thing from flavor of the month.

Truemaineiac is right. Sometimes the best thing is to pick up the phone. . . even in this era of email, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc

I've had customer support that is extraordinarily supurb from Ayre, and VPI

Dat1, I know about your less than satisfactory experience with your last speaker purchase. IME, these kind of problems come from one man operations. They usually are not businessmen and have problems getting products out on time. It's funny when you visit their website or listen to their VM greeting, they always state "we" this and "we" that, when you know there's only one person running the show.

In your price range, I would stick with the tried and true speaker manufacturers with a dealer network. I've had good experience with Magnepan (3.7s comes to mind, almost considering a pair for myself), Martin Logan (hybrids are usually not my cup of tea but very good customer service), Thiel, Dynaudio, and B&W (usually not my kind of sound but recent audition of 805Diamond got me impressed). Sanders Sound hybrid electrostats is the only example of a hybrid I like. They have a smaller version under 10K you might consider. He is a small operation (but not one man) but has been around a long time and has been known to give great service. Duke of Audiokenesis makes speakers also...I think one man operation...but one of the most generous person I know of in high end. He has gone out of his way even though he knew I wasn't interested in buying one of his products.

i have dealt with virtue audio numerous times. they are first rate: helpful, accurate and timely responses. lest i forget: incredibly friendly.