Imaging

Check out Totem. The Forest is a bit over your budget, but there are a couple of speakers in the line that are less, I just haven't heard them. The Forest images like crazy, has a wide and deep soundstage and can move a fair bit of air. The Aragon would be a good match, too. It is true, though, that imaging and soundstaging are very dependent on speaker placement and room acoustics, so keep fooling around with treatments and positioning. I improved my system a lot by moving it to a long wall setup, as described elsewhere on this site and on the Immedia and Audio Physic web sites. Noise on the power line also needs to be reduced as much as possible, as many spatial clues are very low level. Good luck.