Have you given Dynaudio a listen? The Focus 110 are excellent bookshelf or you could get a floorstander in the Excite series. I'm not sure any more on Dyn's exact pricing per model. Generally, the Dynaudio speakers are very detailed with excellent bass response. You can certainly buy a great Dyn in your budget.

One of our members here have Spendor and is very pleased with them, it may be worth going back at some point to see if they have improved after breaking in some. I don't think he'd go for anything "muddy".

Actually, if your old B&W's sound good in that room why are you going to buy new speakers? It would seem you have what you are looking for, just use them.