Budget tower speakers that rock!

Salon1 Audio had a pair of Mirage OM10 speakers for sale for around $700. 
I still listen to the ones I own in a secondary system.  Great speaker IMHO.

Tekton Double Impacts if you want to hear what drums are supposed to sound like

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.

May as well get those Zu's coming

Music Direct has sale price on Klipsch RP-8000F.  Right at $1000, they’re efficient (i.e., will play loud), and go down to about 30hz.