sb100,

Here is a completely different thought. I see way too many people that always want to go out and buy new speakers. Speakers are like cars, as soon as you get them off the show room floor they depreciate considerably. However, unlike cars speakers (assuming they are properly taken care of) do not degrade in performance (sound quality) over time. I have a set of Sonus Faber that are well over 25 years old and they sound great! The easiest way to get the most bang for your buck is to buy used speakers. I really like Audiogon.com for finding great deals. In fact there are two sets of Sonus Faber speakers up there right now that might be in your price range based on what I could deduce from your post. The first is a pair of Sonus Faber Electa speakers. I have a set of these and for bookshelf speakers they sound amazing! Very deep bass, smooth mids and precise clean uppers. For music you wouldn't even need a sub, however if you want to rattle the windows during a movie you might. They're listed at $1500 and they were about $3K new. The second pair is a set of Grand Piano Home speakers. These are 2.5 way tower speakers. I owned a set of these awhile ago and they were marvelous. If you room is larger than what a pair of bookshelf speakers can fill than these are the way to go. They are also about $1500 and were probably about $3.5K new. Now granted both of these speakers are older, probably about 20 years, which means they probably only have another 20 or 30 years of service left in them! BTW, there are some newer generation speakers listed as well, but they generally run more.

In case you haven't figured it out yet I'm a Sonus Faber fan. Over the years I have owned many different manufacturer's speakers, Boston Acoustic,B&W, Martin Logan, Magnepan, and several others, but I always preferred my SF so the others were all short lived in my environment. I can promise you for the same money none of the other manufacturers listed in this thread have anything that even comes close to the two I recommended.

And even if you don't go with the SF check out audiogon.com you may find something you like. I guess what I'm saying is don't be afraid to buy higher quality used speakers.

Good Luck!