Looking for a Speaker Recommnedation

Try the Tekton Pendragon's (I own a pair) for $2,000 or the new Tekton Double Impact for $3,000. I agree with mthowe comments.

"In my respectful opinion, the Tekton Pendragons and Double Impacts absolutely trounce anything in what most serious music listeners would consider a very modest price bracket."

+1

Don’t spend a ton of money on speakers until you get to hear Tekton. I have the Lores are they’re incredible. They’re very similar to Zu speakers (I’ve compared them side by side), only without the expense. They have a dynamic in-your-face live sound, which is great for loud alt/rock/punk.

I have a pair of Opera Secondas with a REL S2 sub, absolutely love the sound and with the combination you will get very accurate reproduction at any frequency and plenty of bass for your hard rock!!!

You have listed some pretty fair speakers, but IMHO you left out the very best speaker...Legacy Audio. The fit and finish are in a class by them self, and the darn things sound way better than they look. The Focus SE's are a speaker that is at home playing classical music and still come up and punch you in the "kisser" with hard rock. 

You have a wide range of finishes to pick from so they can fit right in with any decor to keep the little wife happy. 

The Legacy system is a system that I promise you, you will utterly have to force yourself to turn off at night so that you can go to bed. 

Check out the Legacy web site and look at what your choices might be.
www.legacyaudio.com  

There is always lots of good advice out there and if you can listen to them all you are likely to be better prepared, but unless the dealer will let you listen in your environment with you equipment it may or not be a good way to select. 
I will second that you look into the Spatial Hologram line, probably the M3 in your case.  Clayton will give you 60 days in your house to audition, tweak and play with them and it will cost you return shipping for that privilege.  My guess is you wouldn't send them back.  They are dynamic, room friendly (make sure you give them the proper 24-100 hr break in period), easily driven, open as are open baffle speakers and throw a beautiful image with great accuracy and most of all very melodic.  You will not suffer any fatigue after hours of listening and I find that I play them much louder than I used to as they immerse you so well.  GIve Clayton a call.
You may not hear much about these speakers as Clayton eliminates the middle man to keep costs down ... yet that may be a negative factor because the cost is so reasonable that many mid-high end listeners would consider them probably unsatisfactory.  With your budget you can't lose on giving them a try. 
I started long ago by building my own LS3/5a speakers and loved their near field sweetness and gave them to my son and built another British plan 3 way monitor.  I have tried many other speakers since those early days and never found anything I like better than these until after loving the sound of Maggies but not willing to put up with their negatives and reading about open baffle speakers, played a bit with that and then Clayton made Emerald Physics which had a complexity problem and then started Spatial Audio and I figured his return policy was too good to pass up.  I purchased the M4's because I tend to listen near field and never thought about returning them even before the break in.