???YOUR Personal Favorite???Why???

Graham, LS5/9 on their open stands do everything right for me. Brutally honest monitors paired with the right electronics might be all I’d ever need/want - and although I dont own them, I also find the KEF Referece 1 outrageoisly great for all the opposite reasons I love the Grahams. Two totally different speakers but musically, equally appealing. BTW, both just under $10K. Only my opinion...

My Dad has a pair of Sonus Faber Electa Amator III and they are excellent. They have great bass for a small speaker.  They sound huge and scale like no small speaker has a right to.    Excellent speaker. 

Focal Sopra No.1.  Better than B&W 805 D4, and to me even than Focal Utopia Diablo.  New Dali Epikore looks interesting.

I have not heard a 2-way stand mount under 15K US that I would recommend over a similarly priced 3-way or floor standing speaker. 

Joseph Audio pulsar 2 graphene are some of the most musical speakers I’ve ever heard and probably my favorite, but never owned them. Slightly higher than your budget of $15k would be the QLN signatures. I own the Prestige 5s and just love the tonal balance of QLN…never fatiguing, midrange reproduction of instrument and vocal timber is near perfect, excellent on all musical genres. They make a standmount 2-way called the Prestige1, but haven’t heard it.