best monitor speaker under $2000

"12-18-09: Rleff
I would consider looking at some of the used Merlin monitors for sale that are in your price range;if you are interested then call Bobby at merlin for his opinion on how well they would perform with your rotel as I am not familiar with it;you may even find yourself moving to a different intergrated, amp, or even tubes in the future.
Rleff (Threads | Answers)"

If it weren't for the use of Rotel, this (TSM) would be the stand-mounted speaker I would recommend. Now if you had tubes, let's say a Manley Stingray, then your talking.

I suggest you buy amplifiers for speakers, not speakers for amplifiers.

Would it be because amplifiers is secondary to speakers? Or, any other specific reason?
I guess it makes sense to me, but I cannot put into right words why.

Amps for speakers instead of the other way around because the differences between the sounds of different speakers are less subtle than the sonic differences between amps.

That doesn't mean you can't fall in love with an amp and then start looking for speakers for it, if that's how it happens. It's just that finding a good match may be easier if you have the speaker you love first.

all those suggestions are USELESS.

why? because they are OTHER people's favorite speakers

you'd be a fool to buy a speaker w/o listening for yourself first.

Koven

I'm going to assume that the OP understands that any suggestions by folks posting on this thread come with the caveat that listening to any of the speakers they mention/recommend is a must for the OP. Buy before you try is an expensive gamble that doesn't always work out as we all know. With that in mind I'm going to put out another speaker option (note I did not say recommendation as I have not personally heard the speaker, but the designer is well known and highly respected). Over at Positive Feedback online the NOLA Boxer monitor comes highly praised by one of the writers on that site. Now will I go out and buy this speaker based on the write-up? Of course not. But it's an monitor speaker that I did not know about, and I think it's the type of info that the OP is looking for.

GLR