soft dome speakers

I'm another who generally prefers soft dome tweeters. They seem to be less irritating over the long haul. In your price range look at the Quad L series and the Polk Audio LSi speakers. My preference is the Polks, especially the LSi7; a great little speaker that disappears and has detail without offending the ears.

Dynaudio Excite X12's list for $1200.

Lots of bookshelf speakers use soft domes. Vienna Acoustics, Dynaudio, Reference 3a, Usher, Quad, PMC, Spendor, Fritz, Morel, Sonus Faber, Silverline Audio, RBH, LSA, and others, I'm sure. FWIW, I tend to agree with you. Some people are more sensitive to the ringing metal domes typically produce. Also, I think a lot of this has to do with the voicing and crossover design. The KEF Referrence line, which uses metail tweeters, sounds as smooth as silk to my ears. Also, you might want to audition speakers that use ribbon tweeters. Although they don't sound like soft domes, they sure don't sound like metal domes, either, IMHO.

I am in the soft dome boat;I have usher rw729's and I really enjoy them driven with tubes or solid state amplification.

I replaced some speakers with metal drivers that were fatiguing for me with soft-domed Northcreeks. I've enjoyed them for four years. They should have something at your pricepoint, though a bit of diy may be required. John