Best speakers in the 3000 -5000 range

Emerald Physic CS-3's once fully broken in with an upgraded Boehringer cross-over. Doug Jessie @ Asi_Teknology rebuilt mine. Holy smokes these speakers are now absolutely phenomenal. One caveat is that I run them with a subwoofer.

The upgrade and the cost of the CS-3 speakers should fit into your price range. I also have Magnepan 1.7 speakers running with a subwoofer. Excellent, excellent sound. Defininetly these are in your price range.

ATC SCM40's.....amazing resolution in the midrange. People are mixing records on the pro equivalent of these (SCM25A).

For box speakers, I vote for the Hyperion 936 or 968. For planar, a used Maggie 3.6R (or 3.7 if you stretch a little more), but Maggies require more care in setup and high current and high power amp to wake up.

Check out Snell B7's. They are superb and built like a tank.

Maggie 3.6's

Look for a deal. I got a dealer demo pair with full warranty. Cost me $1,000 cash plus full value trade in on Maggie 1.7's ($2,200) = $3,300.

My opinion is that you you should check out the 3.7's carefully before nixing the 3.6's.

Based on listening to 1.7's, the 3.6's are a whole lot warmer with just as much detail. Cannot hear the much ballyhooed discontinuity that supposedly exists with the different drivers in the 1.6's and 3.6's.