Should I try to improve speakers at $2000.00 range

Make that $3k instead of $2k and you will have probably one hundred good speakers to choose from that will better what you have now. Used, of course. I would never save much on speakers upgrades; $2k or $3k should not really be a point. Save on something else like lunch and drinks.

Doug
You are right on. I can hear the shrill of those aluminum tweeters while I am typing this.....Ouch!

And... I mention the Quad ESL 57's and no one even gives them a thumbs up....
If I wasn't a dealer I would surely have a pair.

Johnny Audioconnection, Wow!, don't you think a disclaimer is in order?

Nostalgia kills great audio aspirations. Sometimes I get stupid and go for a nostalgia purchase; bad move in terms of sound. About two years ago I saw some Mission speakers nearby - had to get them. I ended up selling them about three months later since they didn't sound good. I've had a lot of vintage/nostalgia gear and without fail it all goes away since it never measures up. Working with older gear intentionally to develop one's best system makes it virtually impossible to accomplish the task.

Budgetary constraints are an absolutely valid consideration, but aside from that variable I don't believe I would ever seek older gear (i.e. past 3-4 years) to build my best rigs. You let yourself get off the pace of innovation and things fall apart sonically fairly quickly.

I'll take a different approach - and largely steer clear of the value debate (new products vs old products/technology advances vs. high end price inflation) - and point out that you can probably add an octave of bass extension to your system (even in a smallish room like yours) for $2k. I think I remember the SL 700s pretty well - they were very good speakers and, though they had better extension than the 600s, they still came up short in the bottom end.

Johnny's Vandy recommendation would definitely get you better low end extension, but so would carefully chosen subwoofers (with a controller).

Personally, I suspect that $2k, carefully spent either way, would pay off for you. I know it would for me.

Marty