New Speakers under consideration - but I’m afraid

I'll put Focal on the list. Thanks.

To answer your question directly, fear not, for I am confident you will find speaker technology dramatically improved with a proportionate improvement in sound quality over the past 20 years.  While there are many similarities in improvements across brands, the fact remains that each brand has its own signature that may provide you personally with vigor to listen for hours or fatigue within minutes.  It is a personal preference, but also an associated with system synergy.  I try to use a process  (based on my experience in quality engineering - everything is a process) as follows:

1:  While difficult, define you per personal preferences.  Not only musical genera but how you believe a system should sound.  It’s hard to articulate but I will give it an attempt.  Detailed/clarity or romantic warmth are two camps I have read in this forum before.

2: Define the specific improvements you wish to realize.  For example, you current speakers have prominent bass but you desire greater bass detail which I am confident modern designs will provide. Determine if you are willing to sacrifice some prominence for increased detail.  

3:  Do your homework.  Read all the pro reviews of “best” or “choice” speakers.  Match reviews with your preferences.  Look for similarities and differences in opinions between reviews on the same model.

4: Make a top 3-5 list.  Audition for an adequate amount of time to really explore if the sound is for you at a good dealer.  Question the dealer on system synergy.  Determine if they will allow home audition.  Not always feasible with large floor standers. Determine return policies.  

5:  Open your wallet after approval of your significant other. 

Others have made good recommendations.  I will add my personal preference for you to consider - Vivid.  Designed by Laurence Dickey, a name you should be familiar with.  He designed the B&W Nautilus.  Vivid designs are a more modern application of Nautilus technology.   I use the Vivid Giya G3.  Call GTT Audio in NJ.  See article below. Good luck. Sorry if I stated the obvious in the approach to use and if I was pontificating.  The latter is an issue I am working on. 
 

https://twitteringmachines.com/road-tour-gtt-audio-vivid-audio-speakers/

I'm running a pair of Thiel CS6 speakers with a Krell KSA 300S amp. They were about $9000 in the mid 90's. I've been to 3 audio shows and I've found that my system holds up to pretty much anything costing under 6 figures. I've heard speakers that do one thing or another better than my Thiels but I haven't heard anything that would blow them away until the price gets into the stratosphere. A good example of a speaker that is clearly above what I own is the MBL 101E MkII. They are around $90K but if you get a chance you should hear them to see what is possible.

If you can swing it I would recommend going to an audio show to get a broad overview of what is available. The Capital Audio Fest is coming up in November and it would be an excellent way to hear what's available and narrow down the choices.

The speakers that have impressed me the most are from Rockport, Rosso Fiorentino, Dynaudio, Joseph Audio, Sonus Faber, and Paradigm but that's just my taste. These were all speakers under $50k.

About the fear...... If you spend tens of thousands of dollars on new speakers I'm pretty sure you will like them just fine. At least you're not twitterpating about cables.

Jay's Iyagi Review of Arendal 1723 THX

These certainly look intriguing

The older b&w speakers were really nice and filled the room very comfortably. Older speakers have value if they’re in good condition and it sounds like you’ve done some things to yours thank you so much to make them really nice.

New speakers are different these days and require absolute perfection with all the components. I have older b&w speakers and they are comfortable to listen to.

I don’t like all these new creations that seem to say you’ve gotta do all this stuff to make sure they reach their full potential. Thats not how it should be.

The industry is changing and it’s quite impractical for anyone to listen to many speakers. It’s unfortunate they require dealers to buy the speakers before they sell them. The whole means of distributing nice speakers is problematic.