Dynaudio makes a great small speaker that has a really nice, punchy bass presentation and a beautiful midrange that would be at the top of your price. They are the Audience 52 model. The treble is quite nice and Dynaudio doesn't make a bad speaker to begin with.

That speaker has won a ton of shootout competitions with comparably priced models from a lot of other well respected companies. I've used the 52SE quite a bit and love them, but they are half again more than what you are looking to spend. The standard 52 is a great speaker for the money.

I'm also a big fan of the PSB B-25 speakers at about half your ceiling price. The Dynaudios are better in most every area, but the B-25 shares a similar tonal balance and are very easy to listen to. If you liked one, you would probably like the other and it would come down to money.

Triangle Heliade Es for $995/pair.

HUMAN 81+ for $745/pair.

Paradigm Monitor 9 for $949/pair.

Infinity BETA 50 for $700/pair.

Usher V-601 $700/pair

Epos M5 $650/pair
Epos M12.2 $895/pair (I have a set of these and they're terrific.)

Swans 6.1 $999/pr

Music Direct has the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab OML-2 for $799. I've got'em and love'em! I think you can order them and try them out for 30 or 60 days and if you don't keep them all you're out is return shipping.

Polk Audio LSi9 - $900

there is a company in conneticut which hand builds all their speakers, the wc drivers they use are just awesome.
for your pricerange i would recommend 6.3 dxwc, i could arrange for you to get them for around $1000.00, these speakers are an excellent buy even at retail. their quality is unsurpassed, and the sound awesome.
go to www.sourcespeaker.com.. check it out, you will not be sorry. takes about 10 days to build..
walter herrmann