Hm. Well, it may be a little late, I decided to stay out of it once the conversation headed the Def Tech direction since I do not have any experience with them (their setup in store by me was not good, they acted as if they would not budge from MSRP, and they didn't fit the one criteria I was given to meet- no black). But just in case the OP is still around and since he did mention some interest in internet direct brands I figure I might throw my 2 cents in anyway, because it's either that, or I keep working.
I would suggest if there are some local dealers with brands you liked when you heard them in store, see if they have anything they'll let you take home and audition for a couple of weeks or if they have a good return policy. If you find something that works out, and you're interested in a couple of internet direct brands, feel free to order them at the same time to compare. Keep in mind Aperion will pay shipping both ways, as will AV123. Axiom you may have to pay return shipping. I knew this up front, and ordered M80's with the expectation I'd pay up to $80 to send them back (I was ok with this since I could audition them in home for convenience).
I decided to return the M80's and called Axiom up. It was very easy, no questions asked (well they did, but I was not obligated to give them an answer, but I did). They offered to send me shipping labels for $20 each for the towers, so I took that offer to save some money. They also offered to call the courier to schedule a pickup. So basically all I had to do was box them up and be home when the courier came back. A lot easier than I expected (I thought I'd have to take them in somewhere). As a bonus, I was never actually charged for return shipping and received a full refund. I don't know if this is common, or if it is because I did order a couple of other sets of speakers from them, but it was a nice surprise. Since I saved that money, I kind of wish now I would have ordered another set of speakers or two to audition. Not that I have any regrets with what I have, it just would have been cool to be able to listen to some other brands that are not prominent around me.
As a couple of others have mentioned, if you keep the speakers closer to $1000 than $2000, you would have some money left over to put towards a nice sub. I'm not sure how you feel about a sub right now, but it's something to keep in mind especially for movies.
Someone mentioned NHT Classic 4's earlier. I did like those when I heard them in store, so if you can find those they might be worth a listen and also include a built in sub if that's your preference. There are a couple of places online where you can sometimes find open box or demos of them for well below the $2000 MSRP.
Another brand that has not been mentioned yet I think are Energy RC-70's. I really wanted to get those, MSRP is $2000 and was out of my price range and I just missed a sale on them, otherwise I would have ordered them. If you can find them near you they're probably worth checking out as I've heard a lot of good things about them too. Not that that means anything since I hardly hear anything bad about too many brands, other than 1 or so...
