good speaker with Sound stage behind????

Shadrone, Man I wouldn't own those speakers if you paid me! A FR for a maggot's lunch! :-)

Seriously, and probably the subject for a different thread, but since its about a recessed stage - I have two amps which allow triode v pentode switching on the fly and all of the conversation about soundstageing and speakers reminds me of what I percieve as the biggest difference between the two modes. My Silverlines, for example, driven by a good push/pull ultralinear/pentode stage do not sound recessed at all. In triode the 'power' which brings the stage forward (sounds to me like its in the mids mostly) is MIA, and the sound is smooth but cool and recessed - in fact the entire sound stage is smaller. Don't know what they would sound like with SET's though.

Just goes to illustrate the importance of speaker/amp matching to get results, or not.

All the Vandersteens I have heard seem to be what your looking for.

Further break in of the RS8's may help some, but I think not dramatically for these speakers at this point in their life. Clear your head and give them another careful listen in a few weeks. They are very nice speakers, but I still think the soundstage will be on the forward side and the metal tweeter is going to be more up front than a soft dome or the alternative designs recommended by others above.

As for the bi's, di's and omnis, not my cup of tea really unless you have gobs of power to drive them. Even the 150W B&K may struggle a bit to drive Maggies to their full potential. Your receiver should be more comfortable working with the dynamic loudspeakers I suggested above, and while they wont do the same thing that electrostatics or omnis can do to send sound traveling in all directions, they are quite balanced and lovely sounding just the same.

Anyway, clear your head and let your current speakers loosen up a bit more and see what you think before heading off to the store or nearest Internet vendor.