Speaker recommendation - 3K budget

Joel,
I am not sure if this is an option for you, but I have been building speakers for a few years, and in the $3000 price range I can heartily recommend a kit designed by the renowned Seigfried Linkwitz, codesigner of the 24db/oct LR crossover.
It is a dipole design using state of the art dynamic drivers, actively crossed and triamplified. It would easily cost $15-20,000 if produced commercially. http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion_challenge.htm
BTW He also designed stereophiles 1999 speaker of the year, the Beethoven. The Orion might be the best out there period, especially for what you listen to.
regards, Jason

I think I'd avoid the ML's for this application. Although they do meet your requirements, I doubt they'll be very good in your room: it's too small, especially if you have to put office furniture in it. MLs just about have to be 3-4 feet from the back wall, and in a 11x12 space that's a major disruption. (I am a big ML fan and my main system is fully ML, it's not that I don't like them.)

My first thought was a used set of Magnepan 3.6Rs, but they will have a lof of the same problems as MLs, and they are even bigger.

Go check out the gold series from Monitor Audio. Fantastic! Good luck

After home auditioning the ML Aeons, Thiel 1.6's and the Thiel 2.3's I went with the Thiel 2.3's

They are absolutly beautiful! They re-create music like no other speaker in this price range or even much higher. The build quality is perfect and the drivers are top notch.

I also auditioned speakers from Sonus Faber (Pianos), Vienna, B&W, Energy Veritas, Boston (NOT!!!), JM Labs, Monitor Audio Gold, and a few others.

Oh yeah.. Thiel also has the best customer service and a 10 year warranty. THE END RESULT IS QUALITY PRODUCT.

Why not Nautilus 804's. I wouldn't go bigger in your 11 x 12 room.
Aerial Acoustics are nice without quite the resolution of Nautilus series.
Harbeths are another choice but hard to find. Again, not quite as detailed as Nautilus from what I've read.