My favorite speaker in the higher end stuff right now is Dynaudio.
I think you can find something in the Contour line for the prices you're looking at.
I'd also check out the Martin Logans.
If Meadowlark was still around (I'm pretty sure they went under), I'd say take look at those as well. A friend of mine has a pair and they sound great (to me at least).
Finally, someone supremely brilliant
wrote an
article with suggestions for buying speakers. If you haven't, you might wanna take a look.
I'm actually pretty jealous. Auditioning speakers was a lot of fun the last time I went out on the market.
Please keep us updated. I don't think I'd ever get bored of these kinds of posts.
JCD