$40,000: What 2-channel system would you build?

@millercarbon   Wow!  Thanks for the thoughtful reply.  You may be swaying me on the balanced (which I already fully agree with) and TT source.  
Hmmm. 
Giving me some hope about the vinyl.  Plus, I think it may be fun trying to find old vinyl at garage sales and small shops... I also like the idea of being able to make partial and incremental upgrades to the TT.
Hmmm.  When I rebuild I might just start with the TT.  But, I do think i'll still anchor around the speakers :)   
Yeah. I like tubes myself.  
I'm sitting here listening to Simaudio Moon 700i integrated.  I just got it in yesterday.  It has been playing 22 hours straight.... still doesn't sound very good.  I'm guessing/hoping it needs another couple days of (re-) burn-in.  It certainly is not as good as my Ref 75 (KT150s) and Ref 3 (w Sain Reference PC).  Always surprised; that the SS amps don't really make up in the bass for what they give up in the mids/highs.  
...but then again, as you mention, it's about half the total price once you figure the cost of pre/amp and +1 PC and +1 IC.  
Thanks again. 

Honestly I don't remember. What I remember is that most of the rooms were awful, I heard $100K+ stacks of Esoteric and other gear and that the Vandersteen room was till way too expensive for me, but at least it didn't grate my ears.

What I heard at THE show was probably this same setup as in the RMAF:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/vandersteen-k%C4%93nto-carbon-loudspeaker-and-m5-hpa-amplifiers-...

i could go any number of ways, but, I would always start with high or reasonably high efficiency speakers because I tend to only like lower powered amps; even if I had an unlimited budget, it would be a low powered amp (pushpull or singled-ended tube, perhaps a First Watt solid state amp). To save a lot of money on amplification, I would build an Elekit 300B kit amp which would hardly dent the $40k budget (I think one with decent transformers costs around $3k).  

Among the decent sounding high efficiency commercial speakers, I would consider an Audio Note AN-E at whatever quality level I could get while spending up to $20k or so.  My other choice is the Charney Audio backloaded horn speaker with the AER driver ($17k); I would seriously consider this speaker even if my budget were $150k.

The rest would be spent on sources (music server/DAC, primarily, not enough budget to also get a worthy vinyl setup), cabling and power line conditioner (something from Isotek).

@OP,
I don't think you listed your current speakers. At least, I haven't seen them on a quick read.
Bob