Classical speakers that do violins well??

In that price range, try one of the new Focal Chorus speakers if you don't want planars. The new tweeter is great. Strings sound smoother than either Vandy 2 or 3.

For classical music, ranging from solo, to chamber, vocal, and orchestra, I am extremely partial to the entire Austrian line of Vienna Acoustics, which like the Italian Sonus Faber, is imported by Sumiko Audio. I listen mostly to classical, and I have recently acquired a pair of Vienna Mahlers, which I absolutely adore: deep and tuneful bass, authority, subtlety, rich harmonic content, extended silky highs. The characteristics are shared by the entire family of Vienna products, and I just noticed there are a couple of Vienna Strausses on Audiogon--the Mahlers barely smaller brothers: e.g.
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1206981936
This pair is being offered at $2900 (an absolute steal!). Note that Vienna speakers are rather sensitive to placement for optimizing bass control. The relatively generous size of your room would be perfect for the Strausses. My friend and fellow Agoner PSCIALLI fell in love with the Vienna sound at the last RMAF. He rapidly caved in, and replaced his B&W 803s with a pair of Strausses for his 13 x 15 music room. The only caveat is that Vienna speakers like to be driven rather sternly by amps having high damping factors, or they may sound loose in the bass. What is the damping factor of your Aragon 2004?
If you are seeking a set of speakers that make violins sound like emotional instruments with a soul, rather than fizzy/tizzy/stealy creatures, Vienna speakers are definitely worth considering.

My goodness, those Strausses are my zip. Must resist... OMG, what a deal. Thank goodness they don't match my maple armoire.

Dave

My SF Guarneri Hommages reproduce violin and in fact all stringed instruments about as well as any speaker i have heard.

in order to do a definitive test of a speaker's ability to reproduce timbre accurately, it is necessary to record an instrument in one's living room and compare the recording to a musician's presentation of the same music.

of course one will need a musician who is willing to particpate in this experiment as well as a way to method for recording, such as an open reel tape deck, a dat, or a cd recorder. hopefully, the quality of the recording is sufficient to make a meaningful comparison.