speaker upgrade fever

If I had to blind upgrade from my KEF Reference 1's tomorrow, I would go with something from QLN, either the new One's or the Signature stand mount. I heard their top model at AXPONA last year, it was the best room at the show. As @gryphongryph said, there is little chance of fatigue and they sound great.

Fischer and Fischer has a model around $11,000

I got rid of my KEF Reference 5’s because I thought they were bright and quite analytical and replaced them with Sonus Farber Amati G5’s.  While the price is above your price range, I would still say to check out the Sonus Farber Olympica Nova ll (new $11k, used $5-9k) If you can find used the Olympia Nova lll used.  Or maybe the Sonetto Vlll ($8k new)

All the best.

my TAD on factory stands take up a larger footprint than the svelte floor standers they replaced…. some thinking and measuring might be in order before w wholesale rule out…. ymmv

enjoy the search

note i’m not recommending what i own…. but then… 

also ruling out a speaker without a discussion of system and room context is IMO close to worthless….

for example my comments about the KEF R1 were in a reasonable sized room w a lot of bric a brac diffusion… a very well sorted high quality SWARM and a chain : SOTA > Jelco > Dyna XV-1S > Cary top of line tube phono > Herron line stage and monoblocks… the Digital side 100 % Rockna….

a major dude music lover…. he did trade the for a Gershman..

maybe he will weigh in here…