Best speaker that you dont need a sub under 1.5k

Which amp are you using, and what kind of music do you listen to? How large is your room? That would be useful information to recommend any speaker to you.

Generally, I'd echo the NHT3.3 recommendation, but they do need power in spades to make them sing, and will require quite a bit of space. I would not use them in a smaller room as they'd likely overload the room with bass. In turn, setup correctly in a large space, and with the right amount of current, they will put out some of the deepest, tightest, well-integrated bass I've heard come from a pair of speakers.

Marco

Totem model 1-sig monitors.

Dave, I wait to see Grand Pianos for $1500. They're all listed as "almost new" despite being in production quite a long time and every one of them sells in ~$2k range +-.

Forget it! I've never seen(heard) a speaker less than 10,000.00 that truly reproduced at a flat wide freq. response of say 30hz-25khz. Get a speaker that does from 38-40hz in the lows and up to 25Khz in the highs real well and keep your sub for that last little bit of bottom info.

I have a custom built hi-eff ribbon system with 12in fostex woofers 28hz-35khz $1500 shipping inc!!

Really starting to beat the dead horse here, but go with NHT. I only have the 2.5's, and even they have incredible bass. I can only imagine that something closer to $1,500 in the NHT line like the 3.3's would vibrate most of the hair off of your body.