Better speaker value here?

Not sure sure where you can get the 2's for $10K. $12-13K seems more common. FWIW, I would go with the Salon 2 in any case. I just can't get around the looks of the 1. Also, resale would be better (until the Salon 3's start showing up)

Thank you for your response. I have a line on a pair of 2's that is close enough to 10K. I don't find the looks of the 1's to be so awful. Just my opinion.

I haven't heard the Salon2's, but I've read the Stereophile and Soundstage reviews. This speaker comes off as an overachiever at $22K, with the transparency and detail of a minimonitor combined with the power and bass extension of a true full range speaker. Getting a pair for something close to $10K strikes me as a stone cold bargain (relatively speaking).

I'll kick back in here as well, while I've never heard the Salon 1, I have had the pleasure of hearing the 2's in three separate systems/rooms/times and in each, I was extremely impressed. They seem to possess a freedom from frequency and time/phase errors that allow integration in a wide variety of rooms and systems. With the right amps (and this is not a trivial matter as they are beasts to drive)They are truly full range with subwoofer like reach into to lowest octave. Yet on smaller scale music, they do indeed sound like high end mini monitors as the top three drivers act as a cohesive unit with well matched dispersion characteristics. For $10k, this would be a difficult speaker to improve upon.