I have a live event music company and am no way tied to the consumer electronics industry. With that said, there are a wide variety of "smooth" speakers in this price range that might sound right to you. It is really picking the right electronics that pair well.
There are a number of great dealers here in California, where I reside, that specialize in these systems. I can reference Gene Rubin in Ventura and Sound Asylum in Venice who offer insightful information on their websites about English products.
The DALI Ikon 6 is viewed as one of their signature products, so much so that they have based their preferred HT offering around this. A real bargain at $1,500--excellent recent reviews can be found (check out the new The Absolute Sound year-end guide) and in the European audio press (What Hi Fi? Sound and Vision). They usually reference mating these with NAIM and Roksan gear. Like most Danish products,including Dynaudio, their distribution is very limited here.
Harbeth has the classic BBC sound with incredible mid range.
Smooth and easy listening. Pair well with LFD and NAIM ss gear, as well as Japanese tube companies like Leben and Almarro. Like their sound: very close to the original KEFs used by the BBC in the 1970s.
You might also want to audition these English products: Neat Motives, Spendor 1As, and B & W 685s (this is the Chinese made version of the more expensive 805). These get universal acclaim in the English press.
