I also found the Rockport Avior with top end BAT gear very enjoyable (I spent time there on two seperate days and was very impressed). I also thought the new (smaller) TAD floorstand speakers (called Evolution Ones?) that were set up on Friday to be excellent (they were about $27k). The big TAD speakers I thought were "Best of Show" but a lot of that may have been due to the quality of the music the designer brought with him. I was impressed with everything he played last year and he may have even topped himself this year - extremely well done and he was very approachable and amenable to playing music attendees brought with them. The new small Sony AR-2s I thought also sounded good even in the cavernous room they were set up in. I also spent time listening to the Wilson Sasha, the KEF Blade and the new Magico speaker (Q3?) which was paired with ultra high end Solution electronics and top of the line Synergistic Research cabling. All in all, it was an excellent show.
I don't know if $29k is the new $10k, but there are an awful lot of speakers in that price range (besides some of the above, there are also the Audio Physics Aventera, the Tidal Piano, Aearial 20T V2, Sony AR1, Marten Byrd, and Focal (Scala Utopia?) among others. If you have that type of budget, you could go crazy trying to figure out which is best for you.
I don't know if $29k is the new $10k, but there are an awful lot of speakers in that price range (besides some of the above, there are also the Audio Physics Aventera, the Tidal Piano, Aearial 20T V2, Sony AR1, Marten Byrd, and Focal (Scala Utopia?) among others. If you have that type of budget, you could go crazy trying to figure out which is best for you.