Speaker position

The sadly discontinued Snell Type A was designed to be placed with its back up against the wall. This was one of the most intelligently designed speakers ever made. You might find a used pair; the woofers sag after a while and the surrounds may have deteriorated (I don't know if they were foam or not), but given your budget you'd easily have enough spare change left over to have the woofers reconditioned.

I'm a dealer for Gradient, and the Revolution can go very close to one wall, but it doesn't like to be too close to a corner (bass is decreased as the dipole woofer's out-of-phase backwave is reinforced by room boundaries).

Allison Acoustics has gone back into production with updated versions of some of Roy Allison's room-boundary-optimized designs, and would be well worth looking at.

If corner placement is an option, once again Allison is worth looking into. If you have access to a good woodworker, Pi Speakers offers an excellent design called the 7 Pi. Your wife could pick out the wood to match the rest of the room, which would bring her into the process and might be fun for both of you.

Best of luck to you!

Duke

The long discontinued NHT 3.3 was designed to place near the wall. It was a step or more below the price points you're looking at but is/was an excellent value and can now be found for even less. Careful amp and cable matching can yield quite a rewarding system. Originally avail in a piano black... I think that may be the only choice but nevertheless worth looking into. Good luck and happy listening.

would suggest a dipole. they can be very close to the side walls. so all you have to really adjust is the front/back..

alon for dynamic and maggie/martin logan for planer.

good luck,

mike