@labguy sorry, no shortcuts. Bottom line - we can’t tell you what you’ll like. Best we can do is tell you what we like or retell what others like, only you can determine your preferences.
1) Ideally it’s best to test the component in your own system. Buying and selling used helps mitigate the costs and let’s you try it out.
2) Next best is to demo the speakers yourself. Speakers are not perfect, so there are subjective preferences. We can’t tell what you’ll like and am willing to pay. I went far to many audio stores and audio shows to demo speakers
3) if you can’t demo the speakers then you’re out of luck - you’ll have to take a chance to try out for yourself, but you can always sell/replace later - it’s not in stone. We can suggest popular brand/models that seem to get universally positive reviews like Monitor Audio or GoldenEar speakers which may be the safer bet.