"Best" speakers new/used under $3,000?

Consider Selah Audio Tempestas. RAAL ribbon tweeter, Accuton ceramic mid, Scanspeak Illuminator woofer in an excellent cabinet. I think you need to go above $10k retail to match them. Tempestas are $3000 in standard cabinets. I own Merlin TSM-MMEs, which I like, but the Tempestas are better in every way, and not by a small amount.

Usher Be-718 or Usher Mini Dancer 1

If you can find a good pair of B&W Matrix 800 (assuming you really do mean this speaker: http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/691bw800/index.html ) - JUMP on it!!! Nothing else mentioned will come even close to that experience.

If anyone disagrees and has a pair to sell at that price? Let me know and I will purchase them immediately.

Ditto Capt369. Merlin VSM's

Well...the responses are flooding in and I'm a fan of many of the speakers mentioned, including the Maggies and Selah Audio (still think the latest TSM and VSM's are better)....BUT.....

What type of listening do you plan to do? I only ask because I don't like my Merlins for casual listening. They demand my attention and that's not always a wonderful thing. Someone suggested the Ohm line and I like those speakers a lot. I don't really consider them reference quality, but they make beautiful music and fill a room in a special way. That might be more of what you're looking for. At the end of the day you should consider how you'll listen, what you'll listen to and where you'll be listening. The room is your main speaker of sorts. And some designs may fit one room well and sound terrible in the next. As you can probably tell, I'm no speaker snob. I still miss my Heybrook HB1's!
If you provide a few more details folks can probably home in on some good choices.

Rob