what speaker new or used for 5k?

Interconnects can also have a major effect in teh areas of concern. Not familiar with yours so cannot comment. I use DNM reson RCA ICs for overall clarity, detail and balance top to bottom. Not expensive and can be a real difference maker depending on what you are starting with otherwise.

...as can power conditioning to pre-amp and source gear if your house line power is not clean to start with. Most peoples could use some improvement and an insurance policy at worst.

Also look into if all components have sufficient physical isolation from each other and other nearby possible sources of noise.

Some power cords help isolate preamps and source devices espeically noisy digital ones from each other. I find Pangea ac 14 se to be an effective and inexpensive solutio for that.

The common theme here is to do what you can with the setup you have to lower noise and distortion before going on teh speaker merry go round, unless you are already certain the ones you have are not capable of delivering the goods once noise and distortion feeding them from upstream is under control.

Once those bases are covered with confidence, then one can confidently say its likely the speakers.

You ahve good ones though so I just tend to doubt they are not capable of sounding great.

Those investments upstream if needed will benefit you in any case later no matter what speakers. Keeping noise and distortion to a minimum is always the key to good sound.

Maybe listen to noise levels on a portable radio at various locations close and further away from your gear and see if anything detectable there. Older digital sources in particular and any multipurpose computer gear not designed for good sound specifically can be common nearby sources of noise and distortion. Also any power consuming household applicances with power transformers, microwaves, flourescent lights, etc.

There can be a lot of noise pollution in ones home both in teh air and on electrical lines that one never detects until it si gone and their hifi sounds so much better.

speakers are setup 4ft from front wall and 50 1/2 inches from side wall, this is the correct setup for the room dimensions except from the front wall, but I cannot have them any farther out in the room because this serves as a family room as well. HT, gaming. the Mosaic cables are very neutral sounding and expensive, this is not where the problem is. the cables improved the sound tremendously, but the VA's still sound congested. I have also tried ZENTARA reference cables and power cords with the same effect.

Stereo equipment is wired to its own circuit and I have a monster power surge and line enhancer, not sure what model off hand but it ran about 500 bucks.