I feel like most of the speakers I've heard are a terrible value. They might fit the price range but they always sound way worse than those great value gem speakers that sound much much better for the same price. I imagine there are only a few speakers in each price range that are like this. Most of which are probably not talked about. What speakers have you heard that are so cheap that you think they could be 3-5 times the value and still be worth it? I ask this mainly because I've been searching for speakers in the under $3000 range but my Revel M16's are such a good value speaker that nothing I've heard so far impressed me. The only speakers I've heard that were really a big jump from the M16's were $5000+. Way out of the price range but I feel like there is something in the $2k-$3k comparable to those expensive speakers it's just no one talks about it or I haven't heard them.
As others have implied, almost everything else is going to be a sidegrade. Do you use room correction/subwoofers? Are the speakers you've mentioned listening speakers you've heard in your own home?
Bass tuning alone can have a dramatic impact on sound, and if you haven't done this it will almost surely have a bigger impact than almost any speaker update. If you listened to the $5000 speakers in a better room, there's a good chance that you simply liked them more because of the room. I personally don't much trust listening impressions that aren't in my own room or space I'm very familiar with and/or have listened to many speakers in.
Imo most of the speakers mentioned in this threads are not going to get all that much better from unless you're opting for something much bigger for better dynamics or with drastically different directivity (directivity in the lower mids in particular). In terms of frequency and response and directivity, you're hitting diminishing returns hard at this price point.
Some speakers that IMO offer something significantly different from what you've heard:
* The Buchardt A500 are above your budget, but may be worth considering given their return policy. They do have some neat directivity tricks and Imo are one of the few speakers that are going to be substantially different from what you've mentioned because of their significantly tunable sound and sorta-kinda-not-really cardiod bass.
* I'll echo
@stevenswall with a recommendation for the Devialet Phantoms. Super bass, fairly unique directivity -- wide and approaching omnidirectional for much of the frequency range.
* The JBL L82 Classic are mostly neutral with a bit of a bite to them and dispersion that's fairly similar to the revels in overall width, but I think it approaches constant directivity a little better. They have an 8-inch woofer which should help give them more dynamics than most of the other bookshelf models.
Alternatively, it could be worth opting for a relatively cheap floorstanding model instead, even if it's not 'high-end'. Maybewhat you're missing is more dynamics and less compression (although this could also be mitigated to a significant degree with a sub).
I'd also echo the recommendation to look for a better Revel speaker if you already like what they do.
Mind you, there's still some degree of taste involved too of course. I personally think there are very few bookshelf speakers I think are a significan't upgrade over the less than <$1000 Focal Chora 806 and Polk R200 (both with a sub), short of the D&D 8C.
The Bmrs have super wide dispersion. In the right room they should sound really atmospheric but in most rooms I think the revels would be preferable. Both excellent designs though.
Note BingaMoon said vertical dispersion. I don't remember which is better but the BMRs do have relatively narrow vertical dispersion. I don't mind this but some might.