The previous posts are both excellent.
If your room is large enough, a full-range floor stander may be best. Your overall sound will probably be more balanced and better integrated. I don't think you'll have any trouble finding a quality used pair of floor standing speakers for $2500.
If you have a small room like me, monitors and a subwoofer is a viable alternative. At 12 x 16 feet my room isn't that tiny, but I got a ton of other stuff in there too. And that reduces the size of it considerably. In my room, a near field setup doesn't work. I'm too close to the sub, the standing bass waves are just too long, and I get no bottom end. When I can sit at least 10 feet from the sub, it sounds more natural and has much more presence. Also, dialing in a sub can be very tedious and time consuming. Finding the right spot to put it may take time. For some people it doesn't work at all. Fortunately, for me it has.
If your room is large enough, a full-range floor stander may be best. Your overall sound will probably be more balanced and better integrated. I don't think you'll have any trouble finding a quality used pair of floor standing speakers for $2500.
If you have a small room like me, monitors and a subwoofer is a viable alternative. At 12 x 16 feet my room isn't that tiny, but I got a ton of other stuff in there too. And that reduces the size of it considerably. In my room, a near field setup doesn't work. I'm too close to the sub, the standing bass waves are just too long, and I get no bottom end. When I can sit at least 10 feet from the sub, it sounds more natural and has much more presence. Also, dialing in a sub can be very tedious and time consuming. Finding the right spot to put it may take time. For some people it doesn't work at all. Fortunately, for me it has.