What does one purchase after owning horns?


I have owned Avantgarde Uno's and sold them because of the lack of bass to horn integration. I loved the dynamics, the midrange and highs. Now faced with a new speaker purchase, I demo speakers and they sound lifeless and contrived. The drama and beauty of live music and even the sound of percussion insturments like a piano are not at all convincing. I have an $8k budget for speakers give or take a thousand. My room is 13'X26' firing down the length. Any good ideas will be appreciated. My music prefrences are jazz/jazz vocalist.
renmeister
I would forget planars. You will never get that freedom you had from a horn like the AG. I like soundlabs. I love and owned many of the planar breed. I have yet to hear a planar that can do what a Trio or even Duo can do. No matter how much power/current you use you always have a flatness dynamically. Everything else is similar but that weight and freedom is just not there with electrostatic or ribbons.

I suspect you will feel robbed if you go the planar route after AG horns.
I totally agree with chadeffect. once you get used to the effortless dynamics of a good horn system it will be very difficult to enjoy ANY planar speaker. you have already sold your unos, otherwise I'd have made some suggestions how to overcome the bass integration problem.
Duke of Audiokinesis introduced a new speaker at RMAF called the Strato-Prism. This speaker was easy to drive (16 ohms) and has good efficiency and plays deep bass rather well! (in addition to being very musical, cohesive and revealing) Its not as efficient as the Uno, but 30 watts is plenty of power on it. Plus the price is great- $4800 for the pair if I recall right.
Goodness my Soundlabs sound anything but flat. I have owned some very dynamic box speakers and one horn speaker and my Soundlabs have more live music impact.

I guess my room and gear makes the difference and perhaps many have never really heard Soundlabs in a properly set up room and system.

I have heard the King Sound and Magie ESL's and understand what you folks mean by flat, but my SL's certainly don't remotely sound that way.

Duke is a great guy and I came very close to buying one of his speakers. I bet they are great based on all the positive remarks. I did talk to him at lenght on the strenghts of his speakers vs Soundlab M1's and decided on the Soundlabs.

Many great choices indeed and it can be fun to listen to several and decide. I suggest listening to some M1's as part of your decision.
I heard that those who don't want or don't like tubes, and have some money, use big older Rowlands with Soundlabs with great result. Rowland 8T and 9T. I would certainly try this combination if I could.