What bookshelf speakers to go with McIntosh MC240 in a shitty room (temporary)?

Basically came up on an MC240 from a friend that wasn't working; I re-tubed it and replaced the inside fuse and now it sings. Room placement an open 12x12 space roughly, with the speakers needing to sit on bookshelves each side, no real ideal space to sit in the room either. Can't do room treatments, much less place the speakers anywhere close to representing a proper listening space. But this is temporary, we are renting and will buy a house in the next year or so where I'll be able to do all the real fun stuff, get towers, etc.

Currently, I have a pair of Kef KHT3001SE "Eggs" that I had collecting dust in the garage hooked up to it. Preamp is a WiiM Ultra with Roon/Qobuz, and acting as a phono preamp for an Audio Technica AT-LP120 with a red VMN95ML needle. Sounds great even with the cheapy speakers and shit room.

Looking for bookshelves max 12" tall, not very directional, and good lower-end response considering I won't be able to use a sub in this space either for "reasons". Later, these will be repourposed in a future house not on this setup.

Would like to keep it around $1500/pair or less (max budget would be $2500 if there's a compelling argument for it) and will be worthwhile improvement over the Kef eggs. Love old R&B/Soul/ Funk, jazz, classic rock, and jam bandy kind of stuff. Fine with suggestions for older used gear too.