Salk bookshelf or Dynaudio bookshelf? Or something else?

Good to hear about the Adcom. Perhaps I just need to consider lesser speakers for now (for my office) and then if I get more demanding speakers I can up the game on the power. (Totem speakers are small...hmmm.)

Sources. Sigh. I used to have a Thorens D166 turntable, but it’s now not working (bent tonearm, missing stylus, off-speed). So I have a MacBook Pro and an Audioengine DAC. 

What in particular are you looking for in terms of sound? 

How old is your 535?  Have you had it recapped/refurbished?  I did this with an older Carver preamp and amp (~25 years old) and have been pleasantly surprised.    I use it as one of the three amps that I voice my speakers with.  I have a range of stand mount / bookshelf speakers.  We also use a Rogue Hydra and Art Audio Quartet mono-blocks.  

You ought to be able to get a new tonearm and cartridge for your Thorens and if the speed is off, could be time for a new motor and/or power supply.  A Rega RB220 is like $400 and you can get a good cartridge like an Ortofon 2M Blue for $236.  

Audio-engine makes a decent DAC.  You probably want to focus on improving your file quality.  That is a lot of effort though and can be pricey if you have sold your CDs the way I did.  I subscribed to Tidal or you could look at Amazon.  Ultimately, the price of like 10 to 20 CDs per year.  

Thanks, Verdant, for your reply. What I'm looking for in terms of sound is clarity and precision in midrange with adequate and accurate punch in bass. It's ok for it not to rattle the furniture, I just want to be convinced that a jazz upright bass sounds like itself. I'm a middle-aged guy, so I have no illusions about what I can hear, but I want good staging.

My Adcom is from roughly 1993 or so. It has not had any work done. I'm not sure what I'd be asking someone to do. Advice appreciated and some sense of what it might cost.

Thanks for the amp details and turntable suggestions!

I have not sold my CDs, luckily, but it would mean a lot of re-ripping. Oh, and I need a disc ripper, now that my Macs don't have them anymore. (Oh, technology, I love you and yet you make so much trouble.) Perhaps I just go the subscription route. I listen to Spotify all the time, anyway.

What you should decide first is which room/system you want to upgrade, or where the speakers will ultimately end up. Will they be in the larger room? The smaller room? Placed close to the wall, or well into the room?

A small bookshelf like the Evoke10 will be too small for your larger room, especially without subs. The larger Special 40s could overload your smaller room, depending on your taste, but the Special 40s will certainly require room to breathe for best bass response, based on what I see in the Stereophile measurements. So if you can’t pull them away from the wall in your small room, the 40s are probably a no-go.

If you can’t audition anything locally, stick with products you can return or purchase under a trial period. Ascend Acoustics, Spatial Audio, Zu Audio, and Omega are all comsumer-direct brands that offer generous trial periods. Of these, I only have experience with Spatial and I feel they offer one of the best values out there. They may be beyond your budget but they do compete with many speakers of twice their retail cost. Since you mentioned wanting accurate sound of upright bass, you’d be hard pressed to beat an open-baffle design at any price.