Better than Usher Dancer Mini-X DMD?

I love Focal Utopia.  I’ve had Sopra 3, Sopra 2, and most recently Sopra 1.  I have Diablo EVO now.  
I recommend listening to Sopra.  To me there is an unnatural excitement to the upper-mid/lower treble, that, although not fatiguing, is distracting in a look-at-me kind of way.  Ultra-clean, clear, but contrived, pushed.  It seems to be part of that speaker at least to me when used with Audio Research Ref/Transparent Ultra and Primaluna Evo400 separates/ with Nordost cabling. 
  I will admit, I did not let any of them break in for 300-600 hours.  More like 100 hours.  They all
imrpbed drastically in the few days.  But the Diablos (EVO) do not have the same “look at me” upper mid/low treble challenges of the Sopra - right out of the box.  Sopra sounds great with electric music, and electric instruments (guitar), but I couldn’t get past the crossover mid-tweeter.  Seems to be a house sound of the Sopra line.  To me it lacks refinement. 
On the other end of the spectrum, and in your budget, You might want to look at used Sonus Faber Cremona M Auditor.  Great for the money and I would take them over the Sopra 1. 

I’d definitely put the speakers on the 9’ wall and pull them out at least a couple feet — that alone will do wonders opening up and improving your sound. You still haven’t mentioned what type of improvements you’re looking for over your Ushers. Tough to make a recommendation without that critical info.

A very reasonable question that I’m not sure I have a defined answer. Over the years as I’ve bought better and better equipment and I listen to the songs I’ve been listening to for decades and I hear more detail and more things that I didn’t know were even there. After each significant upgrade I think "I’m there, I don’t think there is much more to get out of that music" then I find out I was wrong. This goes for both my stereo room and headphone listening. My big breakthrough this year is how I can pinpoint the location of each instrument or vocalist since I added the ATC amplifier. Had no idea an amp could make that much difference. I would say as of now I find acoustical instruments and vocals near perfection. I think when there’s a lot going on with a lot of instruments and vocals at the same time, at high volume, I lose a little clarity compared to a live performance. I’ve done a little research trying to find out if that’s unavoidable no matter how good the equipment is. It seems there’s different opinions on that subject. There are some high-end audio shops within driving distance I think in metro Detroit. I think I should visit a couple and say let me listen to the best you’ve got. Once I know how good it can get I can then figure out how close I can get within a semi-reasonable budget. To sum it up I guess it’s a case of I don’t know what I don’t know. Thanks for the advice on running my set up 90° from my current configuration

Well, given what you’ve said, the music you listen to, and your amp, without question I’d be taking a very hard look at the ATC SCM40 v2 speakers.  I say this despite being a huge Usher and Joseph Audio fan, I think the SCM40s could be your ticket to nirvana.  FWIW and best of luck. 

Appreciate the advice. I guess I thought a floor stander in that range would be overkill for my small room but it sounds like it wouldn't. I did almost buy a pair of pre-owned SCM19's a few years ago. Do you think they would have been better than the Ushers I ended up buying? Maybe kind of their equals? Unfortunately ATC just had a big price increase across the range. The 19's went up $800 and the 40's went up a thousand. I likely would be looking pre-owned anyway but I imagine those prices will be up also a bit. Just curious do you agree I would want to run them lengthwise in my room, in other words put the speakers along the 9-ft wall with the sound traveling down the 12 ft length of the room? Thanks