Number one question I thought about when I read this post is: 'what did the room look like'? From my own experience components seem to be a noticeable but minor actor in the equation. When changing the components, you will be ’tweaking’ the quality of the sound. The main protagonists are the room structure and speaker relationship. I would spend that 50k tearing out drywall and lifting ceiling heights and buying nice Persian/Turkish rugs.
Puting a rug in the right place does more to sound than going from one high end component to another.