I couldn't agree more with Byteme about knowing your musical goals. Helping someone pick a speaker over the web is like helping someone pick a car over the web. On paper and based on other's experience, it should be great... but when you drive it... it leaves you a little underwhelmed. I know this because I've done it.
Also, your room plays a large role in the sound quality. I demo'd a pair of speakers at a dealer, brought them home, and when I brought them home, I couldn't get the imaging right. Plus they had some irritating sounds that weren't in the demo.. what happened? Room interaction.
I owned a pair of Revel F30's in my previous home. They sounded absolutely fantastic. 8th Nerve came to my house and did an analysis on my room and found it to have no major peaks or valleys. I had great room response. Between their treatments, and the already good qualities of the room, those speakers were excellent. In fact, a few other speakers I tried sounded quite good in that room.
When I moved into a new house, the Revel's were not good. All hardwoods, lots of open space, etc. reacted very negatively. I had to change it all to get back what I had. Now I have a pair of Green Mountain Europa's, I bought used for under $700. They blow me away.
I know Green Mountain is developing a new midline speaker which might be in your range or a little out of it.. maybe 2500 or so? It shouldn't need a sub and if it's as good as the Europa, may be
my next speaker. We'll see...
You do need to go listen to get a basis of what you like or dislike. Music choice, gear and room are very important factors. The most important is what you interpret as 'good'. Defining that should provide your goal.
-C
