Meadowlark Shearwater Hot Rods. In your budget, sound terrific, they are basically 2-way monitors with integral stands. Small footprint, easy to drive even with lower powered tube amps. I actually picked the Shearwater HRs over several MUCH more expensive speakers, including Merlin VSM-SEs, they will NOT be embarassed even with very expensive partnering gear.
As a rule, I prefer 2-way, dynamic driver speakers which is why I mentioned and owned those above, as well as several others you note. Silverlines have crummy build quality but sound OK; Dynaudios are too constipated for my taste (and demand high-current solid state amps, no question about that), Totems are too "hi-fi" sounding, Joseph Audio I thought those were boring. I do like pretty much any ProAc Response series speaker. And while in general I dislike Sonus Faber, their Electa Amator II is pretty nice, I could live with that one.
All my opinions only of course...
As a rule, I prefer 2-way, dynamic driver speakers which is why I mentioned and owned those above, as well as several others you note. Silverlines have crummy build quality but sound OK; Dynaudios are too constipated for my taste (and demand high-current solid state amps, no question about that), Totems are too "hi-fi" sounding, Joseph Audio I thought those were boring. I do like pretty much any ProAc Response series speaker. And while in general I dislike Sonus Faber, their Electa Amator II is pretty nice, I could live with that one.
All my opinions only of course...