Umn -
If I understand you correctly, you have a location for 14" wide speakers 6 feet in front of the wall. Hmmm. Any chance you could streeeetch that 14" out to 17", and shoehorn in a couple of MG-12's?
If not, then as you probably suspect it's hard to find a $1K box speaker that sounds anywhere near as boxless as the Maggies. Offhand I'd suggest Meadowlark - I'm not sure which models you might find in that price range.
If you had to go back to the corner location, the new Meadowlark Swift might work well. This is just speculation - I haven't heard the Swift yet.
Best of luck!
Duke