If you have modest space, that will be a big factor in determining the scale of speaker you put into it. What are your room dimensions?
I suggest you buy the best bookshelf/small tower speaker you can afford for the space. An added bonus is that you can move smaller speakers in many more places to exploit the best position for them...there will be fewer positions for larger speakers.
That said, I have Salk Songtowers. Pretty much about $2k new and built to your liking. They were at one time the most expensive part of my system but, as I have upgraded of the last few years, they are now the least expensive. I could have better speakers but these things have kept up and I have no need to upgrade at this time.
They are medium sized towers but It’s tough to find a bad position for these speakers. I’ve had them in 3 different homes in the last 6 years and they’ve been great in all of them. They sound good right up against wall but soundstage is much better about 1/5 into the room. In the right position they have very natural and deep bass and sound smooth all the way to the top. In a bad position the bass is simply good enough.
