Narrowing down floorstander selection.

I cannot comment on all of your contenders but I can say with confidence that the VA Beethovens have a big sound that can fill a large room. In fact a review I have by Michael Gindi of the now defunct Ultra Audio mag said that he felt that their sound could fill a multiplex. I own these speakers and I would agree with his observation, I have a friend who use to have the Beethovens in a exteremly large room and they sounded great. Ironically my friend swithced out the VA's for Martin Logan Prodigy's which are much larger and and cost twice as much.To his suprice the ML's could not compete with the VA's in this large room so he sold them and bought the VA Mahlers, and he was able to recover and of course improve upon the big sound that the VA's are known for.

You owe it to yourself to include both the Legacy Focus 20/20 and the VMPS 40 Sig. in your above list to audition.

If you can squeeze another $2K out of your wallet, there is a pair of used Hales T-8's for sale on this site. They will blow away anything mentioned so far and are a steal at $6K. I have the T-5's and they are superior IMO across the entire listening spectrum to the Revel M20's.

FOr your tastes...Vandersteen...they sound HUGE...and with orchesral pieces...fughettaboutit!...they also plenty of low end....I wish I had your problem!

ANother sleeper...Spendor makes some awesome floorstanders too...