In your budget range the Reference 3A DeCapo BE would be at the top of my list.
I have owned Audience 42 & 52SE’s,Focus 140’s, just bought new Excite X14’s & a few years ago demo’d the C1.4’s.To me the bigger speakers,even in medium sized rooms that bordered on large seemed boomy in the bass no matter where I placed them & with the ports plugged seemed to loose something in the upper mids.
I have owned Audience 42 & 52SE’s,Focus 140’s, just bought new Excite X14’s & a few years ago demo’d the C1.4’s.To me the bigger speakers,even in medium sized rooms that bordered on large seemed boomy in the bass no matter where I placed them & with the ports plugged seemed to loose something in the upper mids.