@yoby , just this weekend I heard a pair of Dynaudio Heritage Special loudspeakers do a surprisingly excellent job of casting an image while sounding totally neutral. They reminded me of the LS3 5A but with more bass. They are within your price range. IMHE only Harbeth makes bookshelf speakers of that quality. Since you are using a subwoofer the Harbeth P3ESR XD is another option and less expensive. Do not let the small size of these speakers fool you. The Dynaudio has a ferro fluid cooled tweeter. With a subwoofer and a proper two way crossover they will play as loud as any large point source speaker.
