Everything I've read says that the HT2-TL is worth the extra money. I had a chance to listen to an HT2 (non TL) and a regular dome ST at Dennis' house. For me, as a first time salk purchaser, I wanted to go with a veracity series purchase, to get the higher end drivers and the fantastic ribbon. I felt overall, the HT2 has a bit more clarity and accuracy of timbre. I can only imagine how sweet the TL version of the HT2 is with its bass extension and ease of placement, I was very impressed with just the vanilla ST. To me, the great strength of the ST is the price performance ratio, adding 700 for me makes it out of that low priced range. So I felt the need that if I wanted ribbon, go all the way with HT2-TL. But I'm biased I guess, I'm going to buy the HT2-TL for the 2 channel area and use ST (dome) in a home theater because it is a very value oriented speaker that sounds fantastic.