Replacement for Maggie's?

Harri, When I was auditioning speakers another dynamic speaker I thought had a lot going for it was the Dali Helicion 400 II. There is a Dali MS4 for sale now in your price range. Its a step up from the Helicon. You won't get the big sound of planars, but they are gorgeous looking, and I thought they were good with respect to timbre. Very nice reproduction of vocals. If you have a dealer close by, they may be worth a listen. If your wife objects to the looks of those I don't know what to tell you.

My favourite cone driver speakers are from Green Mountain Audio. Sonically very close cousins to the planar sound based on my personal experience. Take a look at their website & see if you like what you see.
Another reco would be Vandersteen & Von Schweikert speakers.

I've heard the GT Audio speakers twice now at different shows. Yes, they definitely do something special, and at a great price too. They are a wee bit smaller than a Maggie, but not by much.

Harri009, if one could get a speaker for close to $5000(used) that fit your requirements I think we'd all be looking to own them!

Seriously, what Josh358 suggets is probably the best choice for your needs.

To me the decision to stick with Maggies or not revolves largely around the types of music listened to and how important associated macrodynamics are to you.

Macrodynamics, punch, meat on the bones, or whatever you want to call it matter most with pop/rock music, and larger scale classical and jazz works.

This is where planars in general are challenged to pressurize the air in the room to the level that good dynamic speakers can.

The other issue with Maggies is that they are very sensitive to placement within the room, usually needing to be placed well out into the room away from the rear wall, and doing that optimally may not be practical in some cases.

Those are the big decision points that I have experienced with Maggies in the past. I owned a pair for almost 20 years but eventually had to switch for the reasons related.