Upgrading my system

I'm not familiar with the equipment you've mentioned, but I have owned a number of bookshelf speakers - Canton, Monitor Audio, and Vienna Acoustics to name a few.

I have the Harbeth P3ESR SE speakers in a room a little smaller than yours, in a nearfield setup (about 4 1/2 feet from my listening position).  They are detailed and have that luscious Harbeth midrange and dynamic, but easy to listen to even at that close distance if I decide to push the volume up.  They need some power and a subwoofer or 4, but they are hard to beat in that category.  I change out gear fairly often, but I don't see these going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

A friend had some in a well treated room closer to the size of yours where he was able to set them well out into the room with two subwoofers and they sounded amazing.  They have their limits in terms of bass and volume, so if you like to listen loud, go bigger.

Speakers are typically the thing that will change the sound of your system the most (for better or worse).  Good ones will reveal other shortcomings you may have in your system (amplification, sources).  If you want to stand pat with your system and make a meaningful change, I would start with room treatment before cables. 

I think of cables more as "do no harm" than a system "upgrade".  Not that they can't change the way things sound, they can and do, but my goal with cables is not to change the sound of my system, rather to make sure they aren't getting in the way of the music.  Room treatment on the other hand can have a significant positive impact on your listening experience.

You have to hear the new Belles Aria Signature even better and on speakers a friend of mine had Harbeth and switch to Vandersteen Treos

Enjoy the Music

Tom

Thanks Tom, it's interesting John at Audioconnection has the Belles Sig paired with Vandy Treo in his front listening room and the pairing sounds fantastic. Just not up to dropping over $9K for speakers -- some day.....

@zpuckhead I just scanned a review of your Magnum integrated and it’s described as being voiced darkly which jibes with what you’re hearing, A new integrated is not a bad idea the Magnum is a nice budget integrated but it can certainly be bettered. One note you’re doing it no favor using Cardas cables, excellent cables but voiced fairly warmly that combo is as you’ve described too much warmth.

Those are two excellent speaker choices to think about.

I never suggest less $ but am still deadly curious to hear the Golden Ear BRX stand-mounted speakers. Much cheaper but supposed to be rather nice; I've like some of their floor-standers.