What now?

@twilightround: without mentioning my age, based upon your affinity for your Snell speakers and some of the other things you mentioned, I suspect our ears may be somewhat kindred audiophile spirits, so to speak. With that in mind, I offer this bit of nostalgia and two cents worth of feedback in the hopes it might be helpful to you.

In my audiophile coming of age, so to speak (i.e.  early 70s), my ears were quite fond of loudspeakers such as:  EPI, Ohm, Klipsch, Cerwin Vega, AR, ESS, Advent, JBL and others. My first pair of serious speakers were small Studiotech. All I could afford, back then, as an impoverished college student. As I recall, Studiotech was manufactured by Bose at the time. I quickly upgraded those to a pair of Ohm C and, many years later, to a pair of Paradigm Studio Monitor 9, which also served me quite well for many years. My ears have always gravitated toward a sound signature that is accurate but not too accurate. Acoustic guitar and piano need to sound as live, to me, as possible, and high frequencies need to be relatively smooth, accurate, detailed and not shrill or fatiguing after long listening periods.

Several years ago, I embarked on a quest to upgrade my entire two-channel system as sort of a retirement bucket list. This upgrade culminated, at least for now, in a pair of Revel F206 speakers. The amp (McIntosh MA5200) was first on my upgrade list, replacing a trusty stalwart friend of some 20+ years, a Sansui 2000x receiver, and an equally loyal and enjoyable TT, a Philips 212. I spent several years of serious research, reading and dedicated & orchestrated critical listening time. I tend to be compulsive, that way, as I think most serious audiophiles are. During this quest, there were, of course, speakers (and other components) I heard that impressed my ears more than what I bought. However, I don't have the deepest pockets and forced myself to stay within the realm of a relatively sane, self-imposed budget considering the dimensions and acoustic properties of my sound room and component matching issues. Staying within your specified budget range (i.e.  new and gently used) and not knowing, more specifically, the dimensions of your sound room, room placement constraints, acoustic properties, component-matching constraints, etc., I think your ears might like Monitor Audio, Revel, Martin Logan, Paradigm, Focal and others. If you're interested and if you have the stamina to deal with the method to my madness, check out "Time to Upgrade Speakers" and "Sequel to "Time to Upgrade Speakers; in the Stereophile Forum. I think I may even have posted a few things here in Audiogon, seeking guidance on this quest.

Good luck!

A word of caution regarding speakers with AMT tweeters. In my experience and as some professional reviewers have also pointed out, speakers with tweeters like this can sometimes cause listening fatigue, sometimes relatively quickly, if the listening position has a wall directly behind it. The emptier the space behind your listening position, the better. I would say, at very least, 6 feet of empty space but more is better.

Again, thanks for the comments.  I have a couple of prospects.  One is Ohm 1000 new at about $2900 with shipping, with a return option if they just don't work for me.  A second is Melin VSM-MXe with Bam in mint condition, asking $3400 and about 50 miles from me.  The seller says he researched speakers for many hours to find ones that worked well quite near a front wall, and the Merlins were his choice.  They were much more expensive than the Ohms ($13,000), Stereophile A rated, but are probably more than 10 years old, which is a concern because I don't really want to get into repairing very heavy speakers. They are supposed to be good in a small room.  Also have a chance to buy Ohm 3X0 about 50 miles away, with new drivers installed by Ohm, for $3500, but Ohm says they may be too much for my smallish space.  I'm thinking the new Ohm 1000s may be the safer choice.  Any thoughts?

i would cast a wider net. If you are comfortable with ordering from Amazon and Crutchfield, you can try out a lot of great options. But it sounds like you are set on the Ohm, and just want confirmation?