What speakers for $5K Used?

You may want to try a new pair of Magnepan 3.6s. The large, immediate and dynamic soundstage very well may give you a new lease on life. The Maggies have their drawbacks but, the large and immediate soundstage, and truth of timbre are not among them.

One of the greatest things about this hobby is that we can change around and try many perspectives in pursuit of audio nirvana. If you have not had dipoles in the past then I would highly recommend them. There are a lot of good ones out there.

Dynaudio Confidence 5, bar none. Standard setting details and speed, midrange to die for. Survey the C5 owners, they will all agree.

Check out Merlin VSM-M's

Merlin VSM-Ms, as mentioned above. Very good recommendation and a good fit for the Plinius gear you have. Would be "overkill" for home theater but won't need to upgrade for a long long time.

I auditioned a few yesterday at a local store, none of which were mentioned here, but I will share some of the experiences. I went to listen to the Aerial 10T's, and of course, they are discontinued. There is a new 10T coming out in 6-12 mos, though, supposedly with the 20T's ribbon tweeter. I listed to the 20T's. Awesome. Amazing detail, soundstage, presence, does everything a speaker should do well, and for $20K retail, it should! Wilson Wattpuppy 6: Nice speaker, but other than a more "present" midrange, was not as good in any category as the 20T. B&W 801 and 802. Surprisingly not that great compared to the 20T's. I think some of it had to do with the electronics difference (Mark Levinson v. Krell) and the setup of the speakers (801's were in a huge showroom), but the 801's just did not resolve the soundstage in a clear way, i.e., the instruments did not assume a coherent position on a hypothetical stage, the way the 20T's did. Same with the 802's (which are less than 50% of the 20T's of course). 10K+ is way out of my price range, of course, but fun listening. I wonder what the old 10T's sound like compared to the 20T's? Anyone know? I also listened to the Joseph Audio rm33si, which sounded very nice (for $7500), better than the 802's, I think, but again,the setup was significantly less than ideal. So that's the take so far!