I will recommend the Audio Note AN E - I don't know what they are rated at at Stereophile (nor do I care) but I think what is more telling is that two of their writers bought a pair and a third, Wes Philips, hailed the system that they were fronting as the best sound that he has ever heard - three writers at that magazine - 3 at enjoythemusic, 4 at dagogo(including me) with a 5th who wants a pair, the reference speakers at Hi-fi Choice magazine, hailed as one of the top five speakers ever made by the Hi-Fi Critic off the top of my head.

In your price range you could afford the AN E kit - whch apparently takes an hour to build. New and no need to build yourself I would recommend the Audio Note AN K/Spe, Reference 3a De Capo, speakers from Harbeth, Tannoy, possibly Spendor, Sonus Faber, possibly JM Reynaud, and PMC.

The AN E I like the best - of the above as it offers an upgrade path (although pricey) - still a used AN E/LX HE hemp is as good a speaker as I have heard from the competition regardless of price. Art Dudley of Stereophile bought them, so has Peter Van Wellinswaard of Stereophile and Wes Philips recently said this - "Forget best sound of show, for sheer emotional delivery, timbral clarity, dynamic agility, and, yes, the highest fidelity, the Audio Note system may have been the best hi-fi I have ever heard. It was one of those magical moments that we audiophiles put up with all of the hassles for. After the Audio Note demo, the rest was noise, so I quit on a winner. Not many people who come to Vegas can say that." http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/...means_ecstasy/

Kit is obviously much lower in price http://www.audionotekits.com/

Find a place to try them out and decide for yourself. That may be a problem since there are few dealers and even if you do like them - the wait list is getting obscene - but I like to recommend my favorites first before I recommend option 2, 3 and 4.