Do my ears deceive me??

I'd hold and see if you could demo what you like where you could tweak the eq. on those B&Ws'....  Nothing worse than buyers' remorse. ;)

There's been improvements, but generally in the $s' required for the desire.

A 'v' tweak preferred?   Won't ask your age, but have your ears checked, just because....  Sometimes, the eq is due to the final link in the 'system'... i.e.,

You.  Just saying...(..and not to be rude...)

J

Often.

@OP - Keep your Focals when repaired because they have the kind of frequency response you say you like. As you have found from auditioning, current B&W's are similar. It is highly unlikely that you would respond positively to Harbeths or any other "BBC" type speaker.

There are lots of other ways you could spend 6K to improve your system - for example, that puts you in the ballpark to replace your preamp with something like a Pass XP-12.

Why is the lead question about whether there is something "better"?

But how about just going for just as pleasing but also "different"?

Over the course of life, virtually no one vacations at the same place, goes to the same kind of restaurant, drives the same car, etc.

Get a second pair of speakers you like and either rotate them with the first or just replace the first for a while.

Variety is the spice of life, and the notion that one can only seek out "better" is myopic.

I love a V equalizer curve, and bump up the bass and treble a bit on my home/car systems.

I either blew the tweeters or crossover on my 836’s, so they are in for repair.

I do need an equalizer. I tip the treble and bass up on most music. And even sometimes from song to song.

      What you’re doing by boosting the Bass, is clipping* your amplifier.

                *That’s what took out your tweeters and/or crossover.

      If your speakers and amp can’t keep up with your tastes in reproduction: just buy a powered subwoofer for your home listening room, reduce the curve/boost on the system's low freqs and remove that load from your main amp(s).