Budget tower speakers that rock!

Thank you all. I will be looking into all of these ideas.

So many great ideas here. I appreciate all of the responses. Good people, you hi-fi folks! Time for the full story... I've had Zu Dirty Weekends on order since October. Finally, I have the invoice. I can pay the balance owed and they will be sent to me on Monday. Thing is during this long wait I've had second thoughts and wondered about some other options. (That's what some of us do, I guess. Never really satisfied! And I don't even have the speakers yet!) I also have an amp w/ A/B speaker capability and have enjoyed flipping between two pairs for a slightly different experience. I had a pair of the Pioneer Andrew Jones towers and sold them. I had an old pair of Klipsch KG2s and sold those as well. If I spend the full boat on the Zu speakers it'll be awhile before I add a second pair again. As a result, I'm laboring over this decision. I'm going to make the decision today and move forward. Thank you all again for the excellent input. Given my affliction, I'm sure I'll get around to some of these ideas one way or another. Cheers.

Happy New Year! I thought I would come back in and perhaps put a cap on this thread...at least from my perspective. The Zu Audio Dirty Weekend pair was delivered to my door yesterday. I've got them hooked up and I think the simplest compliment I can make is that my music collection has never sounded so good. I'm enjoying everything I play right now--it all sounds involving, energetic and strong from these speakers. I've turned the volume knob to about 40% and found myself grinning ear to ear. Rush-Moving Pictures (recent vinyl reissue) made me feel 16 again. Lou Reed-Transformer (also a recent vinyl reissue) felt real in my room. The vocals seemed to image right over my shoulders. And now The National-Sleep Well Beast is pulsing in the room. Again, the vocals seem to be a strength here. I will say I think there is room to dial these in some more w/ positioning etc. Anyway, I'll stop now. I'm feeling very good about my purchase. Admittedly, the bar was low. Thank you for your input. I hope we all find some hi-fi nirvana this year. For me, 2021 is off to a great start!