Warm romantic & detailed

djones and three _easy_payments. You can tame any speaker if you can measure it in the room and see where the problem is. Then it is only a mater of creating a filter to correct the problem. My computer does this automatically. Unfortunately, most do not have this capability so they either gain this capability such as the DEQX or Anthem units or they get speakers that fit their environment better. These units are not all that expensive ( like the Trinnov Amethyst) and may be less expensive than buying new speakers. They also give you the capability of adding subs with great bass management. 

Duke, I think 545's are over his price range which is why I mentioned the Maggies. The OP can certainly add one of your Swarm systems to the Maggies.

I am not either a Sound Labs, Magnepan or Audio Kinesis dealer. I have no relationship to any of these people. Not that I have not tried but they generally run in the opposite direction. Must have bad breath. 

@djones, the BBC curve drops 2.5 to 3 dB from 2,500 to 5000 Hz. 

@jeffinh76, this is a job for Magnepan 3.7i's which we were just discussing in another thread. Add subwoofers down the line and you will have a very close to SOTA system. The 3.7i's will give you a sense of space and the third dimension that you can not get from typical box speakers. They are not the loudest speaker so if you like Nine Inch Nails at concert level they are not the speaker for you. They will plenty loud. Loud enough for most people. The subwoofers add dramatically to the sense of volume. 

Talking about NIN, The Downward Spiral is playing at this moment. 

Jeffinh76, these are all 6 of one and a half dozen of the other. You really have to listen. Speakers are the most important and variable part of any system. You got stuck with a set of speakers you don't like. don't do it again. Excepting speakers like the Sound Labs and Magneplanars. All these other speakers have similar modes of dispersion using dynamic drivers in a point source situation. They are essentially omnidirectional and the most prone to room interaction. Differences between them are due to different drivers, crossovers and tuning method. These are all going to affect the frequency response of the speaker more than anything else. Planar dipoles are significantly different as are horn loaded speakers like the Klipsch heritage series. Only you know what you like. Listen to the three types, planar, horn and dynamic to decide which type you want then nail it down to one speaker. 
Find out where the nearest high end stores are to you and travel if you have to. I live in New Hampshire and I will travel to NYC to hear stuff on a Saturday have a nice dinner, hotel sex with the wife and travel back the next day. Don't listen to salespeople or us for that matter. Our opinions as to what speaker sounds best are based on what we like, not what you like and salespeople can be helpful just let them sell you anything. You sell yourself.

just don't let them sell you anything!

It should. That is why you have to be careful and listen. People will tell you that you can not listen in dealers. Sure you can. It is never optimal but I have always been able to get enough out of it to tell if I'll like the speaker or not, when I do it. I will only listen to line source dipoles which limits the market severely. But you are looking at point source dynamic loudspeakers of which there are a million. It only takes +- 1-2 dB here and there to make a speaker sound totally obnoxious. There is also a tendency for manufacturers to make "audiophile speakers" instead of neutral ones. These impress initially but get tiring. 
I can tell you what I like but I can't tell you what you like. With what you have to spend it would be a no brainer for me. I would go with Magnepan 3.7i's but maybe you don't like the look or don't have the room. I currently do not have Magnepans and have no intention of buying them in the future. But, as far as the realistic reproduction of music is concerned, in the price range you are looking in they are a cut above any box speaker I have ever heard. 
If you want absolute assurance you can get the sound you want out of a dynamix box speaker get a digital preamp like the DEQX, the Anthem STR or the Trinnov Amethyst. Then you can adjust the frequency response of the speakers any way you want without any distortion, none.
It will also help you deal with room interactions to a degree and adding a subwoofer down the line is a since because all three have digital bass management. Actually, you might even be able to adjust your Focals so you like them! All three units use impulse measurement and will show you a graph of the your systems frequency response. They will automatically generate correction filters which will get you to perfectly flat.
If that does not do the trick you can generate target curves to make the system do what you like. If you want to see how this works look at my system page. I give screenshots of all of this.