"Best" mini-monitor?


I have a relatively small listening room (12x10) and have always owned mini-monitors.  Currently I have proac tablette anniversaries, but have had the original 15 ohm rogers ls3/5a, proac response 1, KEF, and reference 3a through out the years.  As you can see, these are all moderate priced speakers, having never spent more than 3k on any pair.  I am now in a position to spend a bit more money, certainly 5k, and maybe up to 10k.  So what out there should I be listening to?  I am in the Chicago area, so I would love something that I can listen to at a local (Midwest) dealer, but I do travel a lot and have auditioned/purchased things across the country from time to time.  New or used, does not matter to me.

as you can probably guess, I really don't care much about deep base, but live for soundstage and warm midrange, listening to a lot of female vocalists, acoustic rock/jazz/blues, and light (non full orchestra) classical.  

With my musical tastes, I have always loved el34 tube amps.  I currently have the prima Luna hp premium, which has 4 el34 per channel, giving me in the 70 wpc range, more than enough for a small room.  I am running naim digital source material (no bad remarks from the analog folks... I know I have have traded off).

so, what should I spend time auditioning?  I have used "best" in quotes because of the 10k price limit, but I suspect there are many more candidates below 10k than above it.

thanks.

Bill


meiatflask
Listen to the Aerial 5T’s if possible and plan on spending at least an  hour to audition. 
I have a similarly small listening room (9 by 11) and tried a lot of speakers there before I felt like I got it right.  The best for me is the Trenner and Friedl Sun (little sibling of the Arts) with the Brinkmann integrated.  Heaven!

I would also take a look at the Watkins Stereo Generation 4 speaker just reviewed in Absolute Sound.  Sounds quite amazing.  

Depending on amplification, some prefer the Falcon Ls3/5a to the Harbeth P3esr.  I own the latter, though, and it is quite stunning especially on the kind of music you favor.

Margot
The Aerials are very nice.  At twice the price the KEF Reference One is a reference among small speakers.
+1 on the Joseph Audio Pulsar.  This speaker deserves excellent electronics.