Speakers under $50k that rival $200k+ speakers?

If you can spare the time (you obviously have the funds) I suggest attending an audio show to calibrate your expectations. I went to the 2018 AXPONA and the Tampa show this spring. My favorite speakers at both shows were the MBL 101 E's Yes, they are $70K but they sounded better than all of the more expensive speakers except for the $300K Von Schweikerts. But there were two other speakers that really stood out. The Rockport Atria II's ($27K) and the Dynaudio Contour 60's ($10K). On the other hand I did not like the sound of the big Wilsons ($200K+) even though I listened several times. I thought I must be crazy until I met a guy who, unprompted, told me how bad the Wilson speakers sounded.  He described exactly the same problems that I heard. We couldn't blame it on the room because next door there was a system featuring the big Sonus Fabers ($100K) and they sounded gorgeous.There were two major takeaways for me from these shows, 1) I could not see much of a correlation between price and sound quality - at least for my tastes, and 2) my mid 90's vintage system consisting of Krell amplification and Mirage M3si speakers could challenge all but the best systems that I heard. Granted, I've had years to optimize my room and the rest of my system but I realized that I will have to spend a lot of money to achieve a serious upgrade.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Right now I have a list below. What do you think?

  Most interested =====
Nola concert grand reference
Rockport Cygnus
Focal stella utopia 2 EM

Somewhat interested =====
Von Schweikert VR10
TAD Reference 1
Magico S5 MK2
Magico M3
Revel Salon 2
Lumenwhite Kyara
Canton 1k
Paradigm Persona 9H
Dynaudio evdience platinum
MBL 101e
Peak consult Kepheus
Surrountec monolog

You may want to have somwhat interest in the KEF BLADE. I have heard 5 of your somewhat interest speakers and I would take the BLADE over those.

Josh358 thanks for your contributions. I see you've been posting knowledgeably about Magnepan speakers for at least a decade now! I agree that they are magnificent at what they do best.

And to Nick: Room treatments can be of critical importance, but they don’t confer such bragging rights online. So we tend to hear less about them. People would much rather argue about brand names.