LOL! whoever said that purchasing a loudspeaker was going to be an easy task?? No, it simply isn't for all the reasons you mentioned. The lower your budget, the more compromises in the design which will impact the sonics. Thus, your budget is meaningless when you have decided what criteria the speakers must have namely:
Rlwainwright's advice is correct IMHO.
And, above all, hardly anyone has paid attention to Rcprince's advice - that is the key. You've only heard the speakers at the dealer's. you have yet to get them setup in your own room. They probably will sound different (often worse) in your room & you'll be back to square-1.
The best that you can do is to find a speaker that is mostly agnostic to the electronics it hooks up to. No way around the room - every speaker interacts with the room & some are meant to interact very heavily (such as AudioNote speakers which are put against the wall deliberately to reinforce bass OR linearray speakers which use the floor & ceiling to make the baffle practically infinite).
A flat impedance & flat frequency response speaker will be mostly electronics agnostic. This will remove 1 variable & the interaction with your room is what it is. You'll need to acoustically treat it to get the response you want. Plenty of material on the web for that (a whole diff subject worthy of another PhD for you. Selecting a speaker will be your 1st PhD. ;-) )
Nobody can help you here as your speaker selection is for your room, your music, your budget & your enjoyment. We can steer you but you have to do the leg-work. Keep hunting! All the best!
I realized, in the end, that I can live with some bass misfortune (as it can be corrected by cables, electronics, placement, room treatment, etc.)...but I really MUST have that type of midrange/treble that can be so well rendered and discernable, while also being able to ROCK.It probably will be possible to find a speaker in your budget but it most probably will be used & you might have to buy it unheard.
Rlwainwright's advice is correct IMHO.
And, above all, hardly anyone has paid attention to Rcprince's advice - that is the key. You've only heard the speakers at the dealer's. you have yet to get them setup in your own room. They probably will sound different (often worse) in your room & you'll be back to square-1.
The best that you can do is to find a speaker that is mostly agnostic to the electronics it hooks up to. No way around the room - every speaker interacts with the room & some are meant to interact very heavily (such as AudioNote speakers which are put against the wall deliberately to reinforce bass OR linearray speakers which use the floor & ceiling to make the baffle practically infinite).
A flat impedance & flat frequency response speaker will be mostly electronics agnostic. This will remove 1 variable & the interaction with your room is what it is. You'll need to acoustically treat it to get the response you want. Plenty of material on the web for that (a whole diff subject worthy of another PhD for you. Selecting a speaker will be your 1st PhD. ;-) )
Nobody can help you here as your speaker selection is for your room, your music, your budget & your enjoyment. We can steer you but you have to do the leg-work. Keep hunting! All the best!