cal91 - I did strongly consider the SHL5Plus. Went to listen to them at a friends house and thought they were great speakers. A very different setup from mine though. He has very high power tube amps powering them and I have Pass INT-25 powering mine. He has a big house and I have a smallish apartment. Room setup was completely different. But given these variables the 30.2XD's were my choice for my music in any case. He likes symphonies. I like jazz. He likes opera. I don't (not that i don't, but I don't feed on opera often). Again, for my musical taste and setting the 30.2xd's just work better for me. I loved the SHL5Pluses though. They sounded like great "speakers" and the 30.2XD's sound like monitors (instruments).
That said, I added an SVS 3000 Micro sub to the system a couple of months ago and it was a distinct improvement under let's say 55 hz or so for the down deep ambient space. Had I gone with the SHL's I would not have needed this sub.