design criteria, W.A.F. etc

Please forgive the naive questions. I'm getting my Sansui AU-11000 refurbished and would like to upgrade my speakers. Showed the Misses and was exposed to a serious case of mad wife disease. Towers of any kind are out. Don't have a listening room per se, just a 350sq.ft. living room in which I mostly listen to CDs - lots of acoustic guitar, bluegrass and of course all the rock I grew up with. At the risk of sounding like a complete Philistine, my current speakers are Bose 901 series VI. Best monitor sized 2-channel speakers in you opinion? Could spend 1-2K.