The ELAC's are a good buy for the $$$. Andrew Jones is an excellent designer.
I am a fan of the older BBC monitors. You'll pay an arm and a leg for a decent pair of LS3/5a's no matter who made them, and they are light on bass. A better bet is a pair of Spendor 3-way's with that magical 8" woofer. The Spendor BC1's or SP1's are great - I love my pair. The BC1's are prone to bextrene woofer issues at their age, but they can be re-coned. The SP-1's use polypropylene in their woofers and will last forever if not abused. Spend some time on Audio Mart (US or Canada), or Audiogon and they pop up every month of so.