16K to Spend. Help me make the end all Upgrade.

Vienna Acoustics Mahler have my WAF approval. They are beautiful especially rosewood finish and their sound is top notch, and you have money left for music. I suggest you to look also to the Sonus Faber line.

If you are getting rid of such highly regarded speakers over "WAF issues," we need to know what the WAF issues are--size? Aesthetics? Wood finish? Too much cloth-coverered-frame hiding odd-shaped components underneath?

Is she OK with large speakers as long as they look nice, such as something from Sonus Faber or Vienna Acoustics?

How about the Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento? $15K w/granite-based columns. Small, stunning to look at, and able to play louder and go lower than its size would suggest.

Could she go with something as large as the Legacy Whisper or Focus?

Or does she want something less obtrusive (and in this case less expensive) like the Totem Hawk or Wind? And I'm sure there are several attractive column speakers with petite footprints in your target price range.

Boy the Vandersteen 5A with Pass would be great plus you can tune them to your room with the onboard 11 band woofer EQ, while the top sock may be a turnoff the bottoms look stunning in both stock and many premium wood options and the have a reasonable footprint. I and a quite a few other view the 5A as the best speaker out there and a reasonable price that is right in your budget but there are some that take issue with looks....I dont think they draw alot of attention to themselves and maybe that is a bonus for you.

The Studios are pretty narrow in the front and the finish on them is nice. I need something that doesn't have a huge footprint. The Sonus Faber Cremona M's look very nice but they look like hulking behemoths from the pictures I've seen. The Aerials are big, bulky, boxy they look like R2D2 in the room. I have them in black finish so they're even more noticeable. I've gotten pretty good sound from them. I do remember auditioning the Wilson W/P years ago though and they were much more detailed and could go lower in the bass than my aerials. They sounded really good. I'm also going to use the speakers for a 2ch HT setup. They'll probably used 50/50 music and HT.

a 10k itch may get scratched, and you'll only get 'different' and maybe a baby step 'better'. keep the aerials, unless you just want some cool cabinets like avalon.