Looking for new monitors - $300-$600 budget


Hello, all.

New here (first post), and I'm sure this topic has been done to death, so if there are are any "greatest hits" threads on this topic, please feel free to direct me there.

I'm currently using a pair of KEF Q10s I picked up at an estate sale with my setup (Rega Brio 3 and P1, unremarkable Sony single disc player). This is the living room setup so we listen to the occasional movie, podcast, etc... over the system too.

The KEFs were a definite improvement over our old speakers, but not quite my taste. They seem to have a bit of a bump in the low end that I'm not wild about. I'm looking for something a little more honest.

In terms of listening habits, I'd say:

65% rock
15% acoustic/folk
15% jazz
5% classical

Listening levels tend to be pretty moderate. Below a list of what I've listened to so far, as well as a list of others I'm curious about. I'm just curious to get some input. Maybe there's a pattern to what I like that might suggest some others to listen to?

liked:

Morel MLP-202 MKII (current front runner) Balanced-sounding, nice imaging qualites, extended but not fatiguing high end. Extreme low end stayed musical and under control.

Rega R1 - (new version) Fairly neutral-sounding to my ears, but not boring with rock. I just can't seem to get that excited about them though.

B&W 685 - a little sizzly I guess, but I actually liked them better than the larger model in the line.

Vandersteen VLR-1 I liked these quite a bit but at $600 EACH they are way out of the budget.

did not like:

Usher S-520 Too lean/clinical sounding.

Quad 12L2(?) Low mids seemed a bit wild n'wooly. A little too hyped-sounding overall.

Rega R1 - (old version) Too "cardboard-y" if that makes sense.

Snell Acoustics Type KII - Fatiguing treble, bass seemed overly reigned in.

curious about:

Tekton 4.5 and 6.5 I definitely find the idea of a single, high quality full range driver appealing, but I've never actually heard this type of speaker design.

Linn Kan These seems to be in my budget when they pop up used. There seems to be some debate about the relative merits of the different versions. Somehow I think these are probably all wrong for me.

Dynaudio Audience 52 - There's currently a pair up on my local craigslist.
marqueemoon
Thanks for the new suggestions. I've listened to some PSBs and Paradigms a step or two down in the line pretty recently and wasn't wild about them. I do have a soft spot for Paradigm though. The first system I heard that really made me say "wow" was driving Paradigm monitors.
Maybe those mobile fidelity monitors oml-1 for sale would work for you;also Bondmanp suggestion is worth looking in to.
My wife and I listened to a few more today. Unfortunately the Morels were gone.

Totem Rainmaker (new) - Pretty nice imaging, fairly open and natural sounding in the upper end. The bass seemed a little disjointed. Tony Williams' ride cymbal on "Maiden Voyage" sounded very brassy and flat. The salesman seemed to think these qualities would lessen with break-in. These were out of the budget anyway, so it was on to the next.

Soliloquy SM-2A3 (used) - A little more detailed in the midrange than the Totems, bordering on harsh. We preferred these over the Totems but they still had difficulty sorting out complex low frequency material like the deep gong bass drum and bass guitar interplay on Luna's "Whispers".

Epos ES-14 (used) - We listened to these on the recommendation of the salesman. They were immediately more musical and sounded very open and balanced from top to bottom. The imaging was also impressive, particularly with the classical and jazz recordings we brought. The only flaw I could find is they came up a bit short in delivering a proper bass kick in the gut from Fugazi's "Bed for the Scraping". The rawness of the vocals and guitars still came through though. They are also a little brighter than I'm used to, but not in a fatiguing way as far as I could tell. My wife liked them a lot with the recording she picked (Calexico, Kristen Hersh, The Be Good Tanyas). She heard many details in these recordings that were new to her.

These might be it.