Best loudspeaker on the 3k range???

The Totem Acoustic Forest.

The Nova's use the Revelator tweeter, so I'd get them, if you've got to pay retail. I have those tweeters for one of my projects. There's a reason they're in all the statement speakers from PBN, Nova, Sonus Faber...The Merlins use the Esotar, but it isn't really better than the Revelator, just more expensive. However, the Esotar dome midrange (I have them also) is entirely better at being a midrange than the tweeter is at being a tweeter, and that's saying a lot!

Check out the Celestion A3 or if you don't like metal domes tweeeters,the Dynaudio Contour (the one down from the 3.3) The JBL SVA-2100 is a good choice if you listen to a lot of heavy metal and rock and roll. They will dynamically outperform the other speakers mentioned easily. These speakers are the closest you can get to the $5,000-$10,000 range. Matter of fact, they probably outperform quite a few speakers in that price range.

The Paragon Radiants are every bit as dynamic as the Contour 1.8 mk2's, and ARE A MUCH BETTER VALUE AT $2850. www.paragonacoustics.com. The Esotec D260 tweeter is nowhere near as good as the D21/2 in the Radiant. There are only 2 dome tweeters better than the D21/2: the Esotar T330D, and the Scanspeak Revelator (as in the Nova line). I don't like metal dome tweeters, although the Accuton in the Avalon Acoustic's line is probably the best metal dome. It still rings...

Linn Kaledith if biwired