I recommend looking for a used Cullen-modded DL-III (specifically, the Stage IV mod by Cullen). You should be able to pick one up at a good price - a grand or (less) I should think. The Stage IV Cullen mod improves upon the stock DL-III by tightening up the bass and smoothing out some of the edginess in the upper frequencies - not a perfect fix, but a definite improvement over the stock version.
