Which is Best loudspeaker in the $1000-1200 range?

James, another pissed off BMW owner who does not tolerate criticism? Proving my point a bit more that it is a religion more than a mass audio brand? as far as my knowledge of audio gear pricing and markups, PM me for a free tutorial, this could save you some cash on your next purchase of the BMW Lunar Stone Dust coated tweeter that extends over 100kHz for the exclusive pleasure of dolphins and belugas(coming as soon as someone else mass produces diamond tweeters see below:
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/diamond-tweeter/index.php

Beheme, we tolerate criticism. We get it, you don't like B&W. Good for you. Where the BMW analogy came from is beyond me.

I noticed you don't have a system posted. Most likely because the critic himself would never stand to be criticized.

Try the classic speaker pages, for 5-600 $ you can buy and fix up, or if someone else does the reconing, for about 1000 to 1200 end up with something that sounds a lot better than the (my opinion) junk made now....I saw a pair of AR-91 speakers on e-bay. Keep in mind that many speakers costing 2-3k, are not as good as many vintage models costing as little as a few hundred dollars. I believe hi-fi has gone downhill since the early to mid 90's, get something that sounds like music and not a spec sheet.....

sorry James, the message above was for Brian, not you!

If you have a large enough room, magnepan 1.6 speakers placed and driven properly should satisfy your quest. Try them with a classe CAP151 or vintage luxman R117 receiver.