Best speakers under $500? Fire away!

Monitor Audio Bronze 1 the best bookshelf speakers I heard under $ 500 .
Amazing bass and resolution for its price.

Used B&W 685 is a great option too,one of the best B&W ever made ; spacious soundstage ,extremely detailed and great dynamics. 

Most of the standmount speakers have relatively low sensitivity but are more easy to drive than floor standing speakers with higher sensitivity .

B&W 685 and Monitor Audio Bronze 2 are safe bet very easy speakers to drive with excellent sound, The Infinity are very medicore speakers I wouldn’t touch them at all .

The Bass in the 2’s is more deap and tight, better soundstage as well .However the 1’s are very good  too if you can’t afford the 2’s.

The Monitor Audio Bronze 2 I recommended before is much better than the worfedale 10.1 (9.1 the predecessor was better if you can find one) the Elac is better but less than MA Bronze it can’t matck the strong dynamics of the Bronze I was really overwhelm once I first heard it ,you are buying speaker worth 1K in terms of capability  for $ 400 it’s really a bargain. It’s almost as good as the B&W 685.

+1
I agree the Elac is a huge mistake.

Correct the specifications of the speakers doesn’t give the full picture there are speakers with high sensitivity but less efficiency and more demanding than ones with low sensitivity, there are low watts power out put amps but extremely efficient  and in contrarary terrible aledgley high power output amps atc....

I can give a personal example the McIntosh integrated amp MA6700 has a power output of 200W ,my McIntosh MC152 power amp has only 150W theoretically my power amp should be less powerful than the MA6700 but it’s not !
I heard them both my amp is much powerful,transparent and detailed than the MA6700 ,That’s show you the published numbers are not always accurate or measured the same way...

 Under $ 500 MA Bronze 2 is one of the best of the best with sensitivity 90 db / impedance 8ohm making it very efficient and easy to drive, speaker of the year on What Hi Fi .

http://www.whathifi.com/monitor-audio/bronze-2/review

Your NAD 3020 can drive any reasonable bookshelf speakers easily , you don't have to be worry about the speaker's rated sensitivity .
Wharfedale and Q Aaoustics are fine for its cost but not great speakers .not bad sound at all but certainly  not overwhelming. 

@wim1983 I owned some Wharfedale speakers in the past and I know their speakers very well they are not bad for their price and if the budget is limited the Danton can be a good option ,However after hearing many speakers cost under $500 I can’t say that I heard really good bookshelf speakers in this price level if you want one it start at 1K and more except only one speaker that really thrill me the Monitor Audio Bronze 2 that I already recommend to the OP once I first heard it I couldn’t believe that this speaker cost less than $500 it throw away spacious soundstage, heavy and deep bass and excellent resolution also the build quality of this speakers is superb, I don’t think there is any speaker that can compete with the MA Bronze 2 under $500 only on the second hand market .