OK well this thread has been very well received, thanks again to everyone for the feedback. Some further comments and answers to questions below:
@mbmi Yes, I intend to check out Next Level and the X3 sometime soon!
@hysteve I hope you are loving the Magico's.....did really like them this time around and am intrigued. I would very much like to stay with my current integrated, and the word is they are very hungry speakers.
@arthur1260 there is an older Kef Reference for me for sale for a fraction of new, very tempting. Also a decent pair of the current version. One of my best ever hifi experiences in college was with a set of Kef's.
@audioman58 my system is in my profile, would hope to not have to upgrade my amp in an ideal world.
@kymanor1 10-30K high side. I don't have a ton of room which is why while I really enjoyed the Wilson Sasha DAW for example, it's low on the list for size reasons. Assume ML has similar constraints.
@moose89 @tjjunk I did just bring home a clean pair of quartets on Friday night to play around with. I'm targeting them upstairs but plan to do a rotation into my main rig to see how they sound. So far the word that comes to mind is "fun". They are a hoot with tubes and classic rock.
@sudnh My system is viewable in my profile and budget is 10 to as high as 30k if i'm really compelled by something.
@helomech not me, i'm the original owner of my MA's. They are so cheap used I'd likely keep them as spares. My wife not to happy with my speaker collecting of late, LOL.
@desktopguy good advice. Take a look at my system but I have roughly 2' to back wall and 2' to side, so reasonable space with a smaller tower. A giant Wilson (for example) would eat up a good bit of that.
@jpwarren58 so true on WAF. I do run them all by her, and have been pleasantly surprised on some of them. She's down for most everything reasonable. Loved the KEF I showed her. SF should be the clear winner here!
@giantsalami Yeah I'm getting there on the extra speakers (see above). I think you are spot on in that the room is sorted, and as long as I don't make a drastic change I should be fine. Problem is dealer demo rooms are not always sorted, leaving me underwhelmed at times.
@firberger KEF coming up again. I really do need to find my way to the local dealer with the Reference models.
@bassdude another vote for Legacy. Right after I bought the Klipsch noted above a really interesting pair of bookshelf/monitors from them came online. Tempting still if for no other reason than to try them out.
Thanks all, will keep you posted as search progresses.