Best bookshelf speakers

Full confession: a lot of my research is based on youtube listening samples.

The Legacy’s sound a little bright to me.

I love the transparency the mids with the BBC style monitors. The Spendor A1 sounds especially nice, and the small size and closed design is convenient for apartment dwelling. But I can’t live with only 55hz bass.

Do any of the smaller BBC variants go closer to 40?

The discussion of direct sales vs manufactuers selling via dealers has two sides.

Yes the direct sales model does sometimes mean that you may be paying less for  a pair of speakers and sometimes it does not mean you are getting a better engineered product. Most of the small direct sellers are not building their drivers, crossover and box is what they are offering.

Their are huge advantages of looking at products sold by the larger speaker manufacturers: Dynaudio, Focal, Kef, B&W etc. 

Take for example the new Kef R series and the new B&W 700 series, both of these loudspeakers use trickle down technology from their higher up models and use all propretry drivers that are designed from the ground up  

Kef has spent $4 million dollars developing first the Kef Blades then the Reference series, then the original R and then the Q and then a bunch more money refreshing these lines. 

We are not B&W dealers so we can't quote numbers their, but we can guarantee that they have also spent millions on the refereshing their speakers. 

The point is that small companies do not have the financial resources to develop, really radical new drivers nor the ability to test and hire some of the best acoustical designers in the industry.

We sell the Quad Z2 and again like the KEF and B&W these are fantastic speakers that use all proprietary drivers a fantastic damped ribbon tweeter and an advanced carbon fiber midrange/woofer they sound amazing and are starting to find their way into more dealers accross the country, they are very impressive so if you like the sound of the Raal ribbons in some ways  the damped Quad tweeters you may like even more. 

The other thing you have with some of the larger speaker manufacturers is the ability to hear them and compare their products in a store without having to order from each one of these small companies with then having to compare each one your are interested in without having to purchase them first and then having to ship them back and forth.

Then you also have the stability of a large manufacturer, and the servicablity of service stations throught the country as well as the ability to more easily sell the product because people at large have heard and know about the brand.

Last point the large companies have economies of scale which may mean that you are actually getting a more sophisticated loudspeaker for the price even if it costs a bit more.

So in your quest for great $2k loudspeakers you should also look at what mainstream offerings are in your area and go visit some stores and see what you may find.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Caveat that I can't say what is "best" and I haven't heard many of the suggestions given here, but I can heartily recommend the Silverline Minuet Grand. It is fantastic, particularly for acoustic music (I'm a primarily classical listener, some jazz and a smattering of pop.)
https://taww.co/post/170777975517/review-silverline-minuet-grand-loudspeakers

I think it fits your "Balanced and revealing with a hint of warmth" description quite well. They are exceedingly natural and musical. I wouldn't worry about the specified crossover point, it's likely just a nominal electrical rating. Alan Yun tunes his crossover carefully for the end result and he is a real master of the art. I have done some light measurements of the SR 17 Supreme in my room and both the individual driver and combined responses are stunningly accurate. 

Another option to consider is anything by Fritz Speakers, a lot of models around the $2k price point. I've only listened to them briefly but ears I trust say they are superb for the money. 

BTW I think it's good to go to stores and listen to a lot of offerings from a lot of mainstream manufacturers but I do not subscribe to the notion that big corporations = big R&D budgets = better speakers - quite the opposite in my experience. The vast majority of my favorite speakers of all time have been made by smaller outfits. While the big boys do have the manufacturing capability to design and produce their own drivers, most of them are doing the vast majority of it in China, IMO with the aim of making things that look and sound cool on paper (magnesium alloy! diamond coatings! unobtanium coils!) while keeping costs low. The truth is some of the best sounding drivers in the world are still made out of very traditional materials using decades-old technology. I mean, look at what Wilson is using in their latest models - that's right, treated paper. (I'm not even a Wilson fan but I think their newer stuff is sounding better for it.) The margins on mass market products are also much fatter in order to share enough of the pie with all the people involved - distributors, dealers, marketing and advertising agencies, etc. etc...

Just my $.02 but I'll take a finely crafted 2-way using off-the-shelf Dynaudio or Scanspeak drivers and a very simple but carefully-tuned crossover over some of the needlessly complicated mass-market designs any day.