Best speakers in the 3000 -5000 range

ATC SCM40's.....amazing resolution in the midrange. People are mixing records on the pro equivalent of these (SCM25A).

For box speakers, I vote for the Hyperion 936 or 968. For planar, a used Maggie 3.6R (or 3.7 if you stretch a little more), but Maggies require more care in setup and high current and high power amp to wake up.

Check out Snell B7's. They are superb and built like a tank.

Maggie 3.6's

Look for a deal. I got a dealer demo pair with full warranty. Cost me $1,000 cash plus full value trade in on Maggie 1.7's ($2,200) = $3,300.

My opinion is that you you should check out the 3.7's carefully before nixing the 3.6's.

Based on listening to 1.7's, the 3.6's are a whole lot warmer with just as much detail. Cannot hear the much ballyhooed discontinuity that supposedly exists with the different drivers in the 1.6's and 3.6's.

I have B&W 804s and have found their apparent problems to be highly correlated to what they are being fed. You have the Nautilus version which is a model earlier than mine. I am using Parasound JC-1/2 electronics with a HSU subwoofer and the sound I am getting is amazing. I use a Bryston D/A converter off a CA 840c, which eliminated a lot of the upper mid-range harshness in female vocals that often get blamed on the B&W. These do well with Class A amplification, the cleaner the better.

You may not care much for B&W for whatever reasons, but I caution you that perhaps some of the issues may not be just the drivers. That being said, in your price range perhaps you could consider a pair of 803Ds. These more modern versions have a lot of driver and crossover improvements over the Nautilus versions and can be had used for just above your price range.