I personally do not like panel speakers. They are incredibly agile but I have not heard one that truly develops instrumental tone. The last pair I heard were the current ML $10k speaker (Ascent?) running off giant McIntosh monos. They were extremely impressive in a hi-fi sense, but I couldn't feel the wooden body of instruments. Overall, it was about a $35k system in a respectable hi-fi shop, with a dedicated room. Me, my buddy, and a fist full of my CD's shared about 45 minutes, alone (gasp) in that room, so I feel pretty confident about what I heard.
Planars, to me, have world-class acceleration to 30 mph but never get to 60.
When you demo them, try to pay some attention to this parameter, as for me, it's a dealbreaker. The other bugaboo can be positioning - you'll need a fair amount of room behind them. The room I demo'd in had the speakers 5-6 feet off the front wall.
I don't have any experience with the others you list. Good luck though, it's a lot of fun!
Mike