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

I think the Merlin VSM-MXe have a very high WAF, are smallish so they don't dominate a room, and are perfectly suited to a room your size. While it is down 2db at 33Hz, that seems to be a good amount of bass for a room your size, with the a great high end with the Dynaudio Esotar D330A tweeter. It is an elegant two-way that is pretty hard to beat in my book - and a lot less than 16K. It is also easy to drive and will sound fantastic with a high quality 30-50 watt tube amp, but they work great (and plenty loud) with the Pass XA-30.5 if you want to stick with SS - it is Class A, but runs a lot cooler than the Aleph did. It can be hard to think of a small two-driver speaker as an end-all speaker, but the Merlins is a very well sorted out speaker; worth a listen.

Incidentally, in the Bound for Sound review of the Merlin by Martin DeWulf where he said "'My review of the original VSM was published in 1995; it was a good speaker. But, there was no way of knowing that over the next 12 years, Bobby would refine, build upon and essentially perfect that speaker until it reached a prominence where with some confidence I can call it "the best loudspeaker ever made."' the amp he was using for the review was the Pass X350.5. I get nervous about any claims that anything is "the best", but it is a speaker that has kept me happy a long time and I'm unlikely to change (you'll hear that from a lot of Merlin owners).

What about the used pair of Joseph Audio Pearl's currently being listed? He has them WAY overpriced, but one day he might come down. I think they are a good-looking pair of speakers and you can change out the side walls for different colors or looks?

Speakers are being made thinner, visually at the expense of depth. Be careful, a 24" deep cabinet really needs a lot of room.

Why not stick with Aerial and get the Model 9? It's more a lateral move but much nicer in appearance. Or, I second a Verity Audio Parcifal.

The Verity Parsifal are mightly fine and highly resolving, but not to the same extent as the Merlins; they do provide a bit more impactful bass, though the gap in that area has narrowed with the latest version of the VSMs. To my ears, Verity and Merlin are world class speakers.

Does WAF include placement in the room of the speaker? Most speakers sound their very best well away from back walls and sides. Some are designed to be a bit more flexible in placement.

I thought that one of the better sounding speakers that was not excessively large in size, and more importantly, worked very well close to a back wall or corner, is the Gradient Revolution. I heard these in a small room backed up against the back wall and they sounded pretty good in such difficult setups. Audionote speakers are good in that respect too, but, they are pretty ugly looking.

Some of the Sonus Faber speakers are reasonably compact, very nicely finished and can (though not optimally) be placed fairly close to walls.

The Magico minis would also fit the bill, except for the price. These sounded very good to me and surprisingly "BIG" for such a compact speaker.

Another compact, nice sounding speaker, is the Gryphon Cantata. I believe it is no longer a current model, but, perhaps there is a suitable replacement model or you can find a used or demo pair.

...I recommend you to listen to these speakers:

1. Thiel 3.7.
2. Revel studio 2.
3. Wilson Sophia2.
4. Avalon indra.