It would help to know where the speakers will, or can be placed, other speakers you have heard and liked, or not liked, whether looks are important (and if so, what examples have you seen and liked--in other words, any more specific details.
If you are not that well versed on speaker types and models, it would be quite useful to attend any convenient regional audio show. These days, this is the only way to hear a wide range of types and choices. If you have not heard much more than conventional, dynamic driver floorstanding speakers, you should hear alternatives, such as dipole panel speakers (e.g., Magnepan planar magnetic speakers), open baffle dipole speakers (e.g., PureAudioProject speakers, horn-based systems (e.g., Volti Audio), single fullrange single driver systems (e.g., Charney Audio), coaxial driver systems ((e.g., Tannoy and Fyne), etc. Some of my favorite commercial speakers are from these less conventional designs (these include PureAudioProject Quintet), Charney Audio Companion speakers).
If you can make it to the Washington D.C. suburbs, you should check out Deja Vu Audio for their custom-made horn-based systems. Most of them use vintage midrange horns and compression drivers and are outside of your price range, but, they have recently begun to build models using entirely modern drivers that are within your budget and sound shockingly alive, vivid, and rich sounding in ways most conventional speakers do not sound (similar to Volti speakers, but in my opinion, better sounding).