Well it's just about Dec and if all is going as planned, you are moving SC very soon. It's a shame you never stopped by the store again.
As for me, a couple weeks ago I decided to try out a pair of Polk Audio RTi 12's in my system. I really wasn't sure how they were going to stack up against my trusty NHT 2.9s. To my amazement, they're shockingly good! I'm actually tempted to say that they sound better than the NHTs! Bass is great, mids are great, treble is great, imaging and sound staging is considerably better.
Six 7" drivers in a large ported enclosure vs two 10" drivers in a large sealed enclosure. The 10's are tight and punchy, but the 7's are more so. They provide an even more tactile punch through the room, a bit more dynamic. Bass extension is just a tad better than the NHTs as well. Midrange and treble are almost identical, natural, open and crisp with a lot of air and space. But what puts them over the top is the stage width and depth and better imaging. That's probably more due to the room than the speakers though as the NHT's sound just fine in my brother's house in his system.
Since I don't plan on ever selling the NHTs and my brother doesn't plan on selling these Polks, we may just switch for good and I might even contact Danny Richie of GR-Research about tweaking the crossovers or designing new ones. Just like with the NHTs, these Polks sound stand to have the treble tamed just the slightest bit. And we all know that crossovers are what really make speakers. We'll see...
