05-29-13: Philjolet
GoldenEar have gotten rave reviews in the mags
I have heard both the GoldenEar Triton Twos and the stand-mounted Aon 3's.
While the Triton 3's are too much money at $3K, the
Aon 3's come right in at the OP's budget at $999/pair. I heard them just this past February and they are fantastic at that price point--linear, clean, bass extension and clarity you wouldn't expect from that size enclosure, yet they would have no trouble filling an 18x22 room. Their specs rate them as 8-ohm compatible. They also put out 89 dB at 1w input, so your receiver should be OK with them.
Frankly, however, the Aon 3's are so good you'd do well to move your electronics slightly up to the Marantz PM8004 integrated amp. *That* would be a great match.
The Aon 3's are excellent in several ways, but the one that really distinguishes them at this price is their excellent motion transformer ribbon tweeter. It is so smooth and clean without the usual overshoot and ringing we have become so accustomed to in dome tweeters. Normally, you just don't get a ribbon tweeter with treble extension out to 35 Khz and no inertia artifacts in a $1K pair of speakers, but the GoldenEar Aon 3 *really* delivers.
GoldenEar has many authorized dealers across the country, so auditioning them shouldn't be difficult and is highly recommended before you buy anything.