Back to it - Practical speaker upgrade

What you are asking is actually a very personal question that only you can answer. If it were me, I would go for the second room. There is someone selling a pair of Magnepan tympany 1 speakers for $1200 on Audiogon right now. I'd buy them myself if I had any use for them. Its been a long time now, but one of the best systems I have ever heard was Tympany 1's powered by Mark Levinson electronics (ML-2s) I don't remember the turntable (this was pre-cd). I still remember it to this day. They do look like room divider screens.

There has been no real advancement in speaker design for 50 years. Don't think newer is better, but don't take that to mean all speaker designs are good. (I gave the Avantgarde horn speakers a tryout at a distributer demo--and hated them.) I use Sound Lab A-2s, purchased used in 1985. Still haven't found anything I like more. My second system (same room, I turn my chair around) uses the Altec 755a, made in 1957, and a 2 watt homebuilt single ended triode amp. Except for orchestral music and rock, I prefer the second system.

braudio7 - Let me get this straight. Either improve your existing system or add a second system? If so that's a question only you can answer but I at one time thought I would go with a small second system. The more I thought about it I decided to go for just one great system. The reason is, would I be disappointed with the second system compared to the first. Probably so I decided on one system.

That said, I'm in the speaker first camp when building a system. Because all speakers will have a 'house' sound. Find the one house sound you like the best. From there I think you'll find several amps that mate well with them. I started with a Denon integrated ($400) and mission/cyrus speakers ($800). Sounded great but when I got the itch to upgrade I got the Bryston B100sst ($5k). I was having some minor issues with the Denon. Well to my surprise I had to 'squint' to hear the improvements. But since the speakers were 20 yrs old a couple of years later I decided to start looking at new speakers mainly for more bass and clarity. After listening to quite a few I thought it would be best to bring my speakers with to demo against the ones I thought I liked. To my amazement I liked the mids of my original speakers more than most others. It wasn't until I heard the Sonus Faber Creamora auditors I said WOW. They did everything better and since they were outside my budget at the time I kept looking. Then I heard the Dynaudio C1's. Same price as the SF's and similar sound but the Dyn's were even better from top to bottom. So I bought them. Later I thought of trying tubes. So my local dealer brought over an Octave V70se for me to demo. In less than 5 min I was so impressed with the 'control' of the music I pulled the trigger. Also I didn't realize how dry sounding the Bryston was and thinking that if I were to want to change up the sound I could start swapping tubes. Never thought I would get rid of the Dyn's because they had the sound I really loved. Then one day I heard Raidho Diamond series. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It took me many months to try and get that sound out of my head. My system sounded just wrong after that. Yes I did get the Raidho's and replaced the Octave because it really fell apart at the highest listening levels.
YMMV
Good luck whichever you decide

I believe the option you choose would depend on wether owning a single ‘do all’ system avails you the opportunity to do what you want, when you want. If so then I would upgrade the speakers and amp in that system.  

Thanks for sharing, xti16. mesch, I'd say you summed it up here, and why I am leaning towards the second system. Being in the family room and having other A/V responsibilities, my primary system has too many constraints. With the breadth of affordable gear available right now I'm thinking I'm better off finding an amp/speakers with nice synergy -- and that's all I have to think about. I'm thinking small integrated with bookshelf possibly, and that is not a choice I would make in the primary system.

Make sure you listen to a lot of different combo's before purchasing anything. Take note how the speakers are positioned and see if that will work in your room. Example: Dynaudio needs little to no toe in and can be placed pretty close where Raidho and Scansonic really only sound great if farther apart and toed in pointing to your shoulders. Take all recommendations you get on the net with a grain of salt. After all it is YOUR ears and tastes and budget. 
Again best of luck