Speakers for metal, hard rock ... also SS amp

After recent audioning I'd add Vandy Quatro to your list. For a normal sized room, I wonder if you can beat the room equalized bass performance at any price. Also the Quatro and 5A are much less polite on top than other Vandy designs I've heard. Definitely worth a listen.

May be tough to find used, but a new pair falls into the high end of your stated range.

Marty

JBL is the right speaker for you. Go for models with 12 inch woofer to get the right oomph at mid bass and the feeling of concert.

I would opt for the vandersteen speakers-anywhere from 2ce series and upward---maybe quatros or 5 series as well

Match Legacy Focus 20/20's with a great amp (Edge G8) and make sure you shotgun biwire them (I have Shotgun AQ Volcano) to give the Focus 20/20 the pipe to take in all it can handle.

I have a widge range of musical tastes however on the rock side, I do alot of Queensryche, Rush, Dream Theater, Rob Zombie, guitar work from Joe Satriani, etc....

The benefit of the Focus 20/20s is that properly connected and powered, they handle all of that as well as switching effortlessly when it's time to play great Jazz, Symphony, Organ, New Age, Techno,Trance, etc...effortlessly.

Good luck!

Without at doubt. A used pair of Aerial 10t's paired with some quality ss amps will be exactly what you're looking for. You can usually find these for $2.5K to $3K used. Then pick up a pair of used amps, like the Classe mentioned above, that will give you at least 300 watts per channel. You should be able to do the speakers and amps within the $8K total. This combination will play any genre you want. The 10t's can sing like songbirds and still kick you in the chest with bass slam.