Suggestions short 3' tall floorstander?

You have other choices.
1) Get an acoustically transparent screen—less costly than new speakers.
2) Reposition the speakers for 2-channel listening—costs nothing.

If impact and dynamics are high on your list of priorities, imo high quality prosound drivers are a viable way to get there. Tyler Acoustics and Pi Speakers both have models that fall within your height and price range. Yours truly has done some semi-custom work in that area as well.

You didn't mention footprint size, so I presume you're okay with a larger footprint than what you've been using. As we go up in efficiency (and dynamics), we have to increase the box size if we want to still have decent low end.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Thiel 1.7's would work.

Zu has 5 speakers that range in height from 32" to 38" tall.

Spendor A5 or A6.