Good Speakers for an ampless system?

About 6 years ago I had the good fortune of getting to borrow a pair of KEF 104/2 speakers from a friend of mine. I own a Denon AVR-4802 receiver and this combination made my heart soar when I listened to music. I also own a B&W CDN CNT center channel speaker, an M&K V76 subwoofer, and a pair of decent rear speakers for my video surround system which to me sounded great. The problem is, when I moved to Hawaii 3 years ago I had to return the KEFs to my friend and am now trying to find a suitable replacement for them at a reasonable cost(under $2000). The nice thing about those KEFs is that they sounded absolutely fantastic with just the Denon receiver and no amp. I wouldn't be able to convince my wife that spending another couple grand for an amplifier to drive more "power hungry" speakers. I think that I should be able to get a better speaker for the money if I am able to find a well cared for used pair. It has been very difficult finding a good pair of speakers for sale here in Hawaii, which would be ideal since shipping alone for a pair of 75 lb. speakers runs in the $500 to $600 range. The speakers that I have found thus far here are some Nelson Reed 8-04/Bs with recent replacement of all 4 drivers with factory OEM parts, a pair of JM Lab Cobalt 826s, a pair of Klipsch Epics, a pair of Thiel 1.5s. I have also seen a pair of Aerial Acoustics 7Bs but they may no longer be available.

I'm definitely a neophyte when it comes to stereo equipment, but from the research I've done it sounds like the Thiel's would not be a good choice even though they have a rep for being a great speaker because they need a good amplifier to sound good. The thing is, if I purchase a pair of KEF 104/2s from the mainland which I know I like, I will end up paying at least $1200 for them including shipping. Can anybody give me an idea if any of the above speakers would be a good choice with my system? What speaker brands out there would be comparable to KEF when it comes to sounding good with an "ampless" system like mine.

Thanks.