Planars and electrostatics are going to be much more coherent in that price range. A pair of Magnepan 3.6's are a bargain used. I am a dealer for VMPS and we've garnered numerous rave reviews with our hybrids. Also won "Best of High End" at CES and runner up the next year. You can learn more at the VMPS forum on audiocircle.com. There are alot of different speakers out there but the ones I've recommended are outstanding for the money. I only recently became a dealer and you can search my recommendations from years ago and they're the same. Planars and electrostatics sound much more real imo. The speed of the drivers and their transient response just can't be done with cones until you spend more money and even then it's rare. Good Luck
