Thanks Mosfet, that should make for some interesting reading.

Lefty, they were more like £3,800 when I got them (with stands) but they seem to have come down a bit. I think you will find the £3,000 only gets you the speakers, the custom stands are another £200.

The rest og my kit is...

Cambridge Audio DiscMagic transport

Behringer DEQ2496 for digital room correction and built in DAC

Ming Da (same as Edenlake and Icon Audio) MC-7R pre-amp

AML1 speakers

and a ton of room conditioning.

Next upgrade is either a subwoofer or a DAC (hence my interest in the Benchmark). Kevin and I are planning to meet up and try his Audio Aero DAC in my system at some point but I don't know when it will happen! Despite the cheapish front end it sounds damn good