Should I try to improve speakers at $2000.00 range

Nostalgia is good for emotions but horrid for building the best audio system one can.

If I had $2K for speakers and the desire to upgrade those old Celestions would be dumped so fast you'd hear them screaming on the way out the door. :)

At POLK, the price of poker just went up!!! You get nothing for 2000. (floorstanding that IS)

Disagree with Doug.
Most speakers made today cost twice as much as 10...20 years ago so @2k doesn't seem to be argumentative enough to replace current speakers at all.
It's only $3400 after Celestion speakers are sold so the question still remains weather it's possible to find an upgrade(used might make much more sense) spending $3400 to the current Celestion?

...Had been long time in desire to listen to Nola Contender with powerful tube amp such as QuickSilver M90.
The new price is exactly $3400 I've mentioned in the previous post.
Another way is to wait to double your upgrade budget and shoot for Nola Viper II.

Nice system.

I guess if I were you, I would buy some used Merlin TSMs, and see what I thought. I'd then sell either the TSMs or 700s. If you liked the TSMs better, you could probably upgrade them later as well.