What speakers should I consider around $5000?

Matt,
You might want to check out the Vapor Sound speakers. A whole lot of speaker for any price. They have several models and they're pretty much built to your liking. I have the Aurora's coming. I choose those because they were the closest thing in the midband to the Apogee Stages and they have a 3 person sweetscape. Most of their models are direct radiating. Actually they all are except the Aurora has waveguides on both the tweeter and the bass driver.

My choice at your (our) price point was the Revel F208. The F308 was shelved as far as I know. The look of Revel's new Performa3 line has done a lot to fix the WAF problem of some previous Revel models. If you like Revel's sound generally, the F208 or even 206 should get a listen.

As an owner of F30's, perhaps I can add something. Cables matter. I have settled on Analysis Plus Solo Crystal IC's - my reference for years and available pretty reasonably on the used market. My speaker cables are Nordost.

Originally I also used the same Bryston amp but found it less than ideal for the F30's. Then I went to Proceed HPA2. Lots of power but I always thought it better a home theater amp. I was hoping for a cheap ML, but it wasn't.

Your electronics -proceed and the bryston, are both dry. That makes me think the bloat is all about placement of the speakers.

My speakers finally blossomed with tubes. First CJ then Rogue, which I thought was better than the CJ. No problem at all with discontinuity between drivers. I think speaker placement plays a huge role here. try using the placement guide on the Cardas web site. I found it highly useful.

These days I use Pass electronics which is really great with the F30's. Bass is solid and palpable and there is zero discontinuity between the drivers. The woofer does hat its meant to do and low bass properly done is very hard to localize so thats why I get no discontinuity.

Good luck. Personally, though, if I didn't have Revel, I think I would go Vandersteen.

Usher Dancer Mini 2

Wow, so much great and helpful info. Again, I will try to comment to as much as I can in one post.

Interestingly, I have listened to the Ayre K-5 with the Revel F-30's and the Ayre QB-9. It sounded terrific with relatively inexpensive cabling. VERY emotionally engaging. But, again, I really wish to simplify my life with a good integrated.

I can, and will, listen to the Revel F208's. And yes, I did hear that the 308's were cancelled. Interestingly, they are a bit taller than the F-30's, but the shape is much more.....umm, sculpted and may have much great WAF.

I had a Resolution Audio CD player prior to switching over to an exclusively digital front end. I did alot of side by side comparisons before I let go of my CD player. While it wasn't a clear cut victory, the digital front end was at least on par with most recordings......and that was before I got the Ayre DAC. I don't see myself going back to CD's.

I really have thought of tube'd gear to get some warmth out of the system, but am still reluctant to go down that road.

I have also looked at, and wondered about the Pass integrated. But, I'm also wondering about the Karan Acoustic integrated which I can get for less $$ than the Pass.

I appreciate everybody's feedback. This is VERY interesting to me.

Matt