@audioman58 borreson I won’t play nice with vintage McIntosh. That’s like putting diesel fuel in a Ferrari.

@audioman58 even if you buy eight to $10,000 speakers that were originally 15 to 20, you have to understand that they are still going to need cables that cost about 15 to 20 grand to make them work right in your entire cable loom.

The biggest problem you have is your amplifier at the moment you need everything basically so you really need a budget that’s about triple to accomplish the sonic goals you’re looking for 1/3 on cables one on speakers and one on electronics.

Here’s an of a room in Munich High end with a $38,000 speaker from Rockport. They are similar in the 20-40k speakers you were looking at.

Room Components A4.2, F202 – HIGH END Munich2024

Loudspeakers:
Rockport Technologies ATRIA II $38,000

DAC:
Nagra HD Dac X $70,875

Amplifier:
Absolare Integrated 2 Signature amplifier $40,000

Echole Infinity Cables:
XLR Digital Interconnect (3 feet) $13,700
XLR Analog Interconnect pair (3 feet) $28,500
Powercord (6 feet) $24,500
Speaker Cable (10 feet) $47,500

Everything at that level matters and the speakers are the cheapest thing on the menu. At this level resolution you need to spend more on the cables and the electronics than the speakers. 

Pennfootball71  have you or anyone tried the Borresen X speakers ,for several have used the 275 with Borresen with excellent results ,their tweeter for example 

is 1/100 of a gram in weight ,and drivers are ultra light and fast ,very low mass in weight ,the x3 are 90db efficient.even the smaller x2, are very detailed .

you May hear tube hiss if up real close but not with music playing.we used Wireworld Eclipse cables, as well as Cardas clear ,

as well as their Ansuz cable line and worked well the speaker played to the character of the cable ,which is good . As with any  speaker  you use a cable that you prefer. Audio group Denmark would like you to use all their products 

but not necessary ,it can get very $$ expensive.

I would not recommend running a pair of Wilson Watt/Puppies with a vintage tube amp. The Wilsons have a very demanding impedance curve (they drop to a low impedance over part of the audio band with a difficult phase angle), Depending on the version, they have an impedance of around 2 ohms over a significant part of the low frequencies.

Wilsons were designed and voiced using amps like Krell, Levinson, Pass, and D'Agostino that double their power with each halving of the impedance. If you use an amplifier that can't do that you will get weak, flabby bass and a distorted frequency response.

I don't know about the Focal's impedance cuve but it is likely to be much more benign than the Wilson's. The point here is that the speaker and amplifier have to be compatible to get the best sound. If you are planning to stay with your McIntosh your speaker choice should be limited to models that have a fairly flat impedance curve. A good example of a modern speaker that is designed to be run with tube amps is DeVore Fidelity.