What speakers for 10k?

If you are looking at Vapor, my personal faves in the line are the Aurora and Nimbus.

I have heard these speakers at a couple of oweners' homes, including Ryan at Vapor. They are made to order, so your best best is to maybe find someone near you who has one (if there is one) who will let you take a listen. Or hit an audio show. Hittinng something like AXPONA or RMAF may be a good use of your money too, so you can actually hear many of these suggestions. Conditions aren't always ideal, but you can get an idea of the flavor.

As much as I like Vapor, I'd not judge any speaker by a YouTube video. And I think that putting so little of a 10k budget into speakers is a mistake. I'd put in the vicinity of $7-8,000 into speakers, or the whole $10k, with an eye towards upgrading other components gradually over time.

And in the Vapor line, I'd at least go up to the Aurora. Breeze is nice, but Aurora is where you start getting much more of the magic. Breeze sounds like a monitor. Aurora does not.

Yeah, Toddnkaya is right. What Vapor offers are built-to-order speakers for the most part (occasionally you may find pairs that were built to be used at shows). And that gives you the opportunity to customize them in some way if you so choose (exotic, expensive capacitors, different finishes etc). But if waiting is a no-go for you, your Vapor options will likely be quite limited.

For me, I'm willing to wait for an end game speaker, whether that means enduring a long build time, or waiting for a used pair of speakers I am interesed in to come up for sale used at a price I can afford.

I'd recommend getting to a show if possible. This is Vapor's main business model: shows, forums and word of mouth. Which seems to have worked very well. They are consistently mentioned in best of show reports. But no type of speaker is for everyone. While not in ideal settings, shows give you a great idea of what flavor best suits you.

Based on what I have heard in person (in homes and audio shows), I'd put those Exotica 3s on a short list as well. They and Vapor offer extremely good sound for the money.

Bam214, I heard them at both AXPONA and RMAF. Floored me in a way that previous Salk designs did not. Some real magic there.