Exceptional value in speakers today?

I'm looking for "sleeper" speaker companies - brands that aren't well known and offer exceptional value.

For years I have been a fan of ACI speakers - the company only sold direct, didn't advertise, but their speakers were consistently compared favorably with speakers costing many times more - in both "professional" reviews and end user reviews.

I am fortunate to have some of their speakers, as the company is no more. Which leads me to my question - there must be a similar company (or several) doing something similar today. Since these tend to be small companies that don't advertise, I thought I'd ask here for some pointers. The big guys are easy to find...

Thanks in advance.

(BTW - my current shopping list is for a pair of monitor speakers for a recording studio. I'm looking for un-powered speakers of exceptional quality (and at a price point <$1k). I need speakers that are good at revealing any flaws in the mix. I already have some high end professional near field monitors (Genelec) and am looking to augment those).