Best bookshelf w/ ribbon tweeter under $2000

My highly modified (by ModWright) Swans M1 Classic Speakers.

Goldenear AON (larger model) at ~ $1000 designed for good sound and value should compete well up to $2000 otherwise.

The stiff Breeze from vapor audio. I think it runs $1995, two custom paper in an MTM configuration with a time aligned stepped baffle sandwiching a RAAL tweeter. I own its big brother the Cirrus but I heard these when picking up my speakers at the owners house. Pretty phenomenal.

Look for a pair if Red Rose monitors

Second the recommendation of the Vapor Audio Stiff breeze.

04-12-13: Mapman
Goldenear AON (larger model) at ~ $1000 designed for good sound and value should compete well up to $2000 otherwise.

+1!

The Aon3 is a phenomenal speaker at $1K. It has all those great hallmarks of a good stand-mount--resonance-free, transparency, great imaging and soundstage, but much less of the downsides, as it's also 90dB sensitive, dynamic, and has bass extension down to the 30's.

Their folded ribbon is a revelation in how much overshoot and ringing harshness we've become accustomed to in conventional pistonic tweeters. This tweeter gives you all the treble speed and extension (out to 35 kHz) with much less of the artifice of sound reproduction. This tweeter type shows up in some pretty expensive speakers including the Helix, Whisper, and Focus (top line) models from Legacy Audio, Martin-Logan's Motion series, and the $7K/pair ADAM Audio Classic Mk3.

The Aon3 does not use a ribbon, but an Air Motion Transformer for the tweeter. They are both subsets of "planar" transducers. However, with AMTs, the drive current is carried via a conductor that is imprinted/glued to the diaphragm whereas with a true ribbon, the drive current flows directly in the ribbon itself.

Johnnyb53 points out that the AMT on the Aon3 has superior transient capabilities than most domes. Ribbons have even lower mass than AMTs, and when done well, are unmatched by anything other than plasma tweeters.

As for the 8 Ohm/90dB sensitivity rating coupled with a 38Hz cutoff in an enclosure of that size, take that with a grain of salt. A typical 7" woofer that can reach the upper 30s with 90dB sensitivity will require a cabinet over 1 cubic foot which is quite a bit larger than that of the Aon3. Either the sensitivity is lower than they specify, or the actual cutoff frequency is much higher.

From the measurements below, it's not a bad little monitor that offers decent linear response and fairly low distortion.

http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=762%3Anrc-measurements-goldenear-technology-aon-3-loudspeakers&catid=77%3Aloudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=18

If you can find them used, consider a pair of VMPS 626 JR's.

http://www.skiingninja.com/GR-N2X-Ready-to-Play-p/grn2xfull.htm

Technically, a planar tweeter. GR midwoofer has a few dB of BSC without losing efficiency. Sealed, so bass is tight but at the cost of extension. Although I'm not familiar with this particular speaker, I can recommend the components.