If you had to narrow your choices to 4 - 5 speakers

Perlisten for sure. The top of the line s7t is in your price range

I would also be curious on the new PS Audio speakers

Bache (for the plasma tweeter)

Borresen

Joseph Audio

Legacy Audio

Salk Sound

Revel (curious if the "BE series" is worth twice the price of the Performa line)

@bobag - Where are you located? If near L.A., seek out Upscale Audio and demo some Tannoy speakers. These are favorites of Nelson Pass and Kevin Deal. Been around since the Twenties. 

Aerial Acoustics

first choice, always: Epi 100, probably updated w Human Speakers parts... but those are older speakers and won't be in any shows at this point, although the handcrafted new builds by Human deserve to be.

then, something from the latest iterations of the Klipsch Heritage line; I have the Heresy IV, but I’d probably bump it to the Forte IV

finally, what will be my last speaker: Q Acoustics Concept 50. (so @cleebeauregard +1 for that one.)

I don't need to spend any more money than that, like about $4500 for the Forte as the most expensive speaker on my list... and the Concept 50 at $3000 is a bargain as well.  There's just nothing "more up there" that I care to chase.