Since I started this thread, I guess I'll try moderate the discussion a bit at this point. Tubegroover, I understand your frustration, but cut Dkuipers a little slack. Not everyone's an audio journalist. It's easier to tell the world which speaker you like but much harder to describe exactly why, and to put adjectives to paper (er.. screen). That's why some lucky guys get paid to listen to audio gear. I think Dkuipers is trying to say that he feels the Kharmas are more musically satisfying than the Merlins. Maybe he auditioned them after he bought the Merlins. My point is that everyone is entitled to an opinion, although not everyone may necessarily agree with it, and the opinion could in fact, be a very poor one. However, I do think that anyone who would simultaneously upgrade two systems with new speakers have got have some addiction to gear. Thanks for your opinion, Tml2, but unless you've actually auditioned the $65k Kharmas (or any Kharma speaker) and found it to be inferior to the Coincident, please try to refrain from any unsubstantiated attacks on Kharma. Heck, if I owned a $65k speaker (that weighs 600lbs!!!), I think $5.5k (less than 10% of the speaker) for beefy enough stands to put it on is not that outrageous. Geez, did I just say that $70k for a pair of speakers and stands is reasonable??? Well my name is not William Gates III, so I guess it's not! :-) Thank you all for keeping this discussion constructive.