The sadly discontinued Snell Type A was designed to be placed with its back up against the wall. This was one of the most intelligently designed speakers ever made. You might find a used pair; the woofers sag after a while and the surrounds may have deteriorated (I don't know if they were foam or not), but given your budget you'd easily have enough spare change left over to have the woofers reconditioned.
I'm a dealer for Gradient, and the Revolution can go very close to one wall, but it doesn't like to be too close to a corner (bass is decreased as the dipole woofer's out-of-phase backwave is reinforced by room boundaries).
Allison Acoustics has gone back into production with updated versions of some of Roy Allison's room-boundary-optimized designs, and would be well worth looking at.
If corner placement is an option, once again Allison is worth looking into. If you have access to a good woodworker, Pi Speakers offers an excellent design called the 7 Pi. Your wife could pick out the wood to match the rest of the room, which would bring her into the process and might be fun for both of you.
Best of luck to you!
Duke
I'm a dealer for Gradient, and the Revolution can go very close to one wall, but it doesn't like to be too close to a corner (bass is decreased as the dipole woofer's out-of-phase backwave is reinforced by room boundaries).
Allison Acoustics has gone back into production with updated versions of some of Roy Allison's room-boundary-optimized designs, and would be well worth looking at.
If corner placement is an option, once again Allison is worth looking into. If you have access to a good woodworker, Pi Speakers offers an excellent design called the 7 Pi. Your wife could pick out the wood to match the rest of the room, which would bring her into the process and might be fun for both of you.
Best of luck to you!
Duke