Battle of the affordables

What will you be driving them with?  That would at least give you an idea if you would be locked into certain specs.

I am driving them with a 150W amp - Simaudio W7.  I don't think my amplification is the bottleneck.

Simaudio W7 - that's awesome

I've heard most of those. The Kef R11 Meta are very good. The Polk R700 is surprisingly good for their price. 

If you can find the discontinued Revel F208 on sale for around $2k, grab those. 

Eminent Technology LFT-8…

Absolutely NONE of the above...
  Speakers I personally consider worth owning that I have actually heard extensively:
ProAc ( Response D2D/DB 1/DB3 & Tablette Anniversaries )
Harbeth (M30.1/30.2Xd)
Spendor Classic (any current production from 3/1 up)
Sonus Faber ( too many to list )
Dynaudio (too many to list )
 and those I have not had a chance to demo but would buy unheard if the right chance came up:
Reference3A De Capo but with the available silk tweeters & Spendor D7.2........
IF you need to buy unheard,the Harbeth M30.1 or M30.2Xd is an A 99.9% SURE THING WINNER ( about $2750.00-$3500.00 )!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!