Speakers - Your "Safest" Choice

I'd take a trip to FLA to shop $40k speakers selling for $15k, in fact I'd make it an annual event.

Harbeth

Just because you have $20k to spend on speakers doesn't mean you should or that any speaker represents value.  Yamaha NS-5000 speakers were introduced in 2016 for $15k.  They took a while to get to the USA, but are still $15k.  That's $19,200 in today's dollars.  They are state-of-the-art in so many ways and really an incredible value. Check them out and give them a listen.

Safe model? Odd premise in a world of subjectivity.

Pre-owned Rockport Atria IIs are an easy recommendation. Hard to go wrong with those as they only have sins of omission, notably the bass extension, which is understandably limited given the design. 

The other I’d consider are the Dutch and Dutch 8Cs. These could save you money as they negate the need for separate amplification. 
 

Note that both of these products perform as well objectively as they do subjectively. And contrary to a common belief around these parts, good measurements do matter. I for one have yet to encounter a poor measuring speaker that actually sounds good and correct. I can always hear the warts that show up in a response plot. A/B the aforementioned models to less accurate competitors in the same setting and you’ll hear the difference. The reason some prefer the wonky response of inferior counterparts is they are not comparing them back to back in the same room, and are instead relying on their unreliable auditory memory.