$1000 bookshelf speakers with "recessed", "laid back" or "flat" mid-range?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I rather have something with a different sound. I think what you propose will only work if I am sitting only at the sweet spot. The thing is, these are in my living room, so I listen to music in different situations, and I am not always sitting down at the sweet spot. Funny thing is, I can hear the forward sounding nature of the speaker in many different listening positions. I also experimented with speaker position, different gear, room treatment, etc. Nothing made a significant change to the forward presentation of the Elac UB5. I know I can hook up an equalizer and tame the midrange, but that's not the route I'd like to go.

I use older Sonus Faber Concerto that I bought used.  I see them often on Ebay in your price range.  They are very warm/laid back.  I have a sub, but don't use it always as their bass is adequate. 

@luciano33 You may want to look at the Q Acoustics line of speakers. They are known for their laid back character but yet very expressive and dynamic. My previous speakers were Klipsch RP600M and I had the same issues as you. For example, I couldn’t crank the volume up on Tool - Parabola on my favorite part because It was always a headache to listen on a loud level, although my room is medium to large (38square meters). I replaced the Klipsches for Q Acoustics 3050i and now I can listen to any song at any level of loudness. There are many reviews on the internet speaking of Q Acoustics 3000i series, but I’ll highlight you few things. They have a very good low extension, have very warm full-bodied midrange and very sweet silk dome tweeter. If you can stretch your budget for the concept series you’ll be even more pleased. They compete with a speakers 10 times more expensive. This is a quote from John Atkison from Stereophile about the Q Acoustics Concept 300 (3999$) .

https://www.stereophile.com/content/q-acoustics-concept-300-loudspeaker-page-2

This is not surprising, as these speakers stepped out of the way of the music in a manner I have only experienced from more expensive models, such as Wilson’s Alexia 2, Magico’s S5 Mk.II, and KEF’s Blade Two, to name three speakers that I have reviewed in the past few years

celestial__sound Thanks!! Tool is my favorite band of all time! I will definitely consider Q Acoustics! Cheers

My amp is a Yamaha A-S801. Do you think it would be a good match for the 3030i or 3050i?

Absolutely, they are not hard to drive speakers. They rate very honestly their nominal impedance at 6 ohm (unlike many other manufacturers) but they never drop below 4.  The sensitivity is also above average, 88db for the bookshelfs and 91db for the floorstanders. I drive them on my hybrid Pathos Classic One MKIII which is rated at 70wpc without any problems.  Your Yamaha if I remember correctly is even more powerful rated at 100wpc .