I have heard the Excite 12s and thought them to be great. They do require clean power to perform at there best however. They come up for sale on AG for ~$800. They were replaced by the 14s which I hear are easier to drive.
Dynaudio's best sounding bookshelf between $500-1000
Dynaudio has always offered multiple "lines" of speakers, especially bookshelf monitors. The speakers I can recall are the Focus 2/6 and 2/7; The recent Excite line with models 12 and later 14; and a model called the 110 issued in 2005-2007. I need to find a small to medium size bookshelf monitor for a second system, that has very good sound quality with tight bass and a wide deep sound stage. Please no sizzling highs. I may occasionally hook them up to my main system to see if they can come close in sound quality to a floorstander speaker, and driven by more power in a larger room.
I have listened to a few of the above, but that was a few years ago. My recollection was that most sounded good, but also a little dull That is probably not totally accurate Feedback from members who have owned a few of the above models would be helpful. Thank you