Right now I have Bose 301's... I have read terrible things on here about them, but there were a huge upgrade from my Cerwin Vega Re25's. Obviously, I'm kind of new to the idea of spending $1000 on a pair of speakers.
I do not have experience with the speakers I listed. Honestly, the best setup I've ever listened to is a NAD 2500 pushing Klipsch KG4's. The owner of this setup was told by an audiophile that he needs to upgrade his speakers to something more in the $1000 ballpark and the difference would be very satisfying.
Klipsch was the first brand I started researching, until I found a thread on here that basically said Marantz and Klipsch don't pair well together.
I don't need something that sounds perfectly natural and flat, I'd like something that sucks you right into the music without any harshness.
As far as bass response, I would like it much upgraded from the 301's, but I don't want to put a lot of emphasis on that when deciding. It's not that important to me. I won't be running a subwoofer... At least not for a few years