big sound at a down to earth price?

The Vandersteen 3A's should be on your audition list. You can get them for around $1500-1800 on the used market, and they project a large, very coherent sound stage.

The older Snell D's and C's were great loudspeakers. Beautifully made with nice wood finishes.

I have a pair of VMPS super tower-R speakers I bought about five years ago. Very big sound and very nice all around speakers. They will keep up with the snell type A's which you will find used every now and then. They are very big and kind of ugly. They have 0 wife factor but man do they sound BIG. I used to lust over the big Snell years ago so these made me a happy camper and they sound very good.

Acoustat ESL panels. They throw a well big soundstage. You can pickup various models for $500-1000 used. If you're willing to drive a state or two, your can probably find one for sale. Most owners won't ship them, hench the need for a pickup truck. You'll also need a tube amp to drive them, IMO. Tubes deal better with the wacky impedance curves and the reactive load they present.

Also the Mirage M1 and M3 models come up for sale sometimes. Sound is very big and very good. Sound best in big room.