Sound Stage and Imaging

Harbeth P3: did they get a bulk deal on screws? Or are they just try hard to make the front as ugly as possible?

I do like the idea of small (2 way or even single) speaker since I am "sold" on subwoofer (even my Nautilus 804, surely not considered being 'weak down there' benefitted from the 18" sub helping under 50 Hz).

if your budget is 2K, you may get used up to 4K or more

I love speakers who 'paint a big picture' (I am literally closing my eyes and trying to SEE a picture). Therefore I THINK I like to see IMAGING and BIG SOUND STAGE. And also like DYNAMICS.

Being frugal (just not willing to spent audiophile level money on it), I love to persuit 'bang for buck' solutions in general.

With above goals in mind for a speaker: what hits the marks in the low fi (audiphile scale) $2k (used or new) budget range. (I have 2 setups: one HUGE room, one 20x20).

I am a huge fan of imaging and soundstage. That is what sucks me into the music, and provides me with a deeper connection with the music.

That being said, the best way to spend your $2000.00, is a DIY kit, of which, there are plenty that are quite high end. Building a kit, will yield a speaker that will easily rival a commercially available speaker at 3-5X the price. Big bang for the buck can't get any greater than DIY!

Since you are not spending money on paying for marketing, advertising, shipping an entire speaker, so much more of your money is going into the actual parts.

For example, GR Research NX-Studio kit is (with all the crossover upgrades) $1345.00. Don't feel like doing your own woodwork? Buy the flatpacks for another $379.00. and your a bit under your budget, but the end results will sound like a commercially available speaker for substantially more. 

The planar magnetic tweeter is semi open baffler, so they create a huge open soundstage, and very specific imaging. 

Other suppliers of DIY kits:

Troels Graveson

Madisound

CSS

Rhythm audio Design

@kraftwerkturbo 

You might take a second to look at the way the woofer is mounted, from behind.

In order to get it in or out you have to have a removable panel, Since the speakers are typically mounted on stands and you can see around them what better place to put the panel, under the grill cloth. The people who like to keep a grill off do not appear to mind the look of screws. Exactly why they decided to use a woofer that had to mounted this way you would have to ask Harbeth. They are British and have a reason for everything.......be it nonsensical or not. They did invent the LP12 a device that could rip the heart out of any audiophile. On the other hand Adrian Newey is British and the greatest race car designer that ever lived.