Looking to upgrade my 3-way towers

Anyone?

I mainly listen to rock, some jazz and pop vocal. The Ascends do perform well but I thought shelling out for a pair of speakers in the $10000 range would give me more refinement (more musicality, you are there presence) than the Ascends. At times, the Ascends (recording dependent) can sound shrill in the high end. It's more of a belief that more money will bring more satisfaction. Perhaps I'm mistaken. The size of the Ascends is what I'm looking for because I can't go too large because of the smaller size of my room (13 X 18 ft.).

In April I was in communication with Jim Salk and was ready to order a pair of speakers thru him but didn't want to wait for many months due to Covid-19 production slowdown so I purchased a pair of Harbeth Super SL5 plus speakers. I thought they would bring me what I was searching for. They didn't. While very musical, their sound lacks the sizzle and snap the upper mid and high end sizzle and snap I desire. I'm sure there are those listeners out there that would love what the CJ tube/Harbeth combo brings to the table but I tried to like them and the Ascends did it more for me. At times, I did like the presentation of the Harbeth's thru my CJ. Certainly, my amp did change things.

wolf_garcia,
Never was a fan of horn speakers and I think now the wide baffle but thank you for the suggestion. I believe I may be looking more for the narrower baffled speakers.

timlub1,

I live in the Allentown, Pa. area, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia along the east coast of Pa. near NJ.

pokey77,
Yes, the synergy between the CJ LP70s tube amp and the Harbeth Super HL5+ is different than what I'm used to. Some listeners might love it. Maybe I'll get used to it down the line but I'm not too sure. Also, I paired the Harbeth with my Conrad Johnson ET250s hybrid (tube in, ss out) power amp with much different results: More snap and sizzle but at the expense of some upper mid to high end glare & shrillness to the overall texture .Also, I get the same results with the CJ hybrid/Ascend tower pairing, only worse. Perhaps CJ works better with other speaker brands.

Any CJ owners out there? I need your input!

millercarbon,
The video is impressive but I believe they may be too large for my room. I've never had a speaker of that size in my room. Not sure they would satisfy. Something smaller is what I am looking for. Thanks for the suggestion.

timlub1,
I do agree about vocal sibilance and it having to do something with singing to closely to the microphone. The Ascends and Harbeths both show it. The AA's are nice and detailed but I was hoping spending a little more for a three-way that will give me more of that vocal and instrumentation that sounds more natural, real. Is your prototype a three way speaker?