Tired of boring, polite, laid-back sound.....

I agree with Aball's and Listener57's choices. Naim and Triangle may be the most dynamic you can get at the $1K used level.

If you can find a good high-efficiency speaker and a decent tube integrated amp for under $1K, that would certainly be an interesting possibility. The most dynamic setup I have ever heard was a horn speaker (about 103 dB efficient) and a hand-built tube amp rated at about 6 watts. I have never heard better reproduced piano... a key test for dynamics (sorry).

I think it would be hard to get this kind of setup for a grand but go for it if you can.