Best $1k pair of floor standing speakers?

Good points Dekay.
Room is small about 11x14x10
Listening styles, let's just say I'm a big Dream Theater fan.
Cornwalls are way, way to big for this room and I'm not a big horn fan anyway.
Amplifier will be the McCormack DNA-125
Preamp McCormack RLD-1

Gmood1, I will definately check into the Soliloquy's. I've heard some of these, not sure the model, a few years ago and was very impressed but not in the market at the time.

Audiolaw,
I've owned the Magnepan 1.6 in the past. Your right, very nice sounding speaker. But also way to big for this little room, proper placement would be impossible.

I'm going to have to vote for eminent technology LFT-VIIIa's. They need a fair amount of power to really get them going, but they're the best speaker i've heard in the ~$1000 speaker category.

DEFINATELY agree with the 5.3 Soliloquy's for your room size.
Be prepared to put WAY more than the recommended 500 hours on them before they really get sweet. Most sell them before they get magical,, definately worth serious consideration.

Probably one of the best values in speakers around right now imho.

A few decent speakers I've used "well" in such a small room have been:

Ls3/5a's (mine were a late 70's Rogers version with add on bass units/stands). I later used custom bass units, but the standard versions were still pretty good.

Reynaud Twins MkII. These bettered the Rogers all round, IMO, though it would probably be a toss up (for many) between the two.

Please note that the Rogers bass modules were not sub woofers (doubt if they were flat to even 40 Hz in any of the rooms I used them in).

Sorry, don't have a great deal of experience with rooms this size (only used them a few times).

My bedroom is approx. this size, but the speakers I'll be using will combine vintage drivers with custom DIY cabinets (not a fun/easy way to go unless you are broke and/or a masochist:-). I'm also shooting for "speech" reproduction as they will be used mainly for movie and TV audio.

Magnepan MG-1.6/QR.