Monitors that compete with quality floorstanders??

If you can live without the room-shaking bass, look for a used pair of Sonus Faber Electa Amators. With a 6" woofer, and the famous Dynaudio Esotar tweeter, you would be hard pressed to find a better sounding speaker, IMO. At around $2.5-$3K used (with the original walnut/marble stands), I believe you would find what you are looking for. Just my two cents!

Reference 3A de Capo's. They go from 42H-40K. beautiful, open, punchy monitors.

I second the Ref 3A DeCapo. Best Largish monitor I have heard & owned.

In general monitors give a more touchable and free image of instruments and voices.

But when you have brands which make exeptional good croosovers, even 3 way spakers can give the same level of a touchable and full free image of instruments and voices.

When the freq. response is bigger you hear more information and yess the overwhole sound is more fun.

I did a comparison with the Dynaudio C1 and the Monitor Audio Pl-100.

Monitor audio makes even better crossovers than Dynaudio makes. The stage is wider and deeper. But also the rinnontweeter of the Pl-100 gives a better touchable image than the Esoar tweeter does. There is also more authority over the high freq. There is even more decay. With live recordings you can easily hear the differences.

Thank to all who have responded so far.. All are interesting suggestions, especially the Sjorn speakers called "The Clue" The press and show reports rave about the performance of this smallish monitor. In particular, the bass is supposed to be amazing. At $999 a pair, it is steal, if they really sound as claimed. However, they are placement dependent, and set-up has to be by the book and accurate to bring the speaker to its full sound potential

The Reference 3A De Capo speakers have been around for at least 12 years have been upgraded several times, but they are somewhat overpriced whether new or used