I have atcsm40 want possible alternative

The Audiovector R3 is amazing.  Spot on your budget.  Ultra natural sounding and revealing even at lower SPLs.  That would be what I would look at.  Check out Andrew Quint's review in TAS from May I think.  

Nice pair of Acoustic Zen Crescendo ll available here now for $8400 that are more efficient and may do very nicely.  Best of luck. 

Try something that is more sensitive and can therefore “wake up” at lower sound levels. It would be useful to at least listen to examples such as (in the price range) Devore O/93. But... such speakers often sound at their best with tube amps (less damped), and I suspect they wouldn’t hit it off with your amp. ‘Haven’t heard the combo myself, but people seem to like the combination of Hegel and the bigger Harbeths. 

went with spendor d9.2   works well     thanks for all the input

Has anyone with older ATCs gotten the tweeter upgraded and found that the new tweeters improve low volume performance?  I've got a fairly recent pair, around 2012, but they still have the old tweeter.  They sound great when you crank them up a little but at low volumes do sound fairly dull.