Speakers induce the greatest amount of distortion of all kinds than any other component in a system. The greatest improvement can be made with carefully chosen speakers. The Magnepan 1.6 suggestion is a very good onethey are a great valuenothing I've heard in their price range comes close. There are two drawbacks to the Maggies. Like other panel speakers, they are for one person listening. Very narrow dispersion limits the listening area to a very focused sweet spot. The other is their imposing size. I'd own them if it weren't for those two shortcomings. (They also could use some bass extension, but that's easily remedied with a sub.)
Classical music is very demanding on speakers. Most can't handle the dynamics or the mass of sound from a full orchestra without sounding strained and muddled.
I sympathize with the position you find yourself in. After listening to dozens of speakers and not being satisfied with any of them, for one reason or another (price sometimes the issue), my solution was to do a lot more research and build my own.
Classical music is very demanding on speakers. Most can't handle the dynamics or the mass of sound from a full orchestra without sounding strained and muddled.
I sympathize with the position you find yourself in. After listening to dozens of speakers and not being satisfied with any of them, for one reason or another (price sometimes the issue), my solution was to do a lot more research and build my own.