Two responses to last post. I am not anyone else. I don't care how many amateur and "professional" reviews there are on a manufacturer. I am not going on reviews, I am going on how the Pioneers sound in person and the Fluances sound in the video.
Well, as you have already pointed out, YouTube videos are questionable for auditioning speakers. I personally would not factor them into speaker choice at all given that the room they were recorded in, the speaker placement, the recording equipment and its placement, and the speakers you listen to the recording with all color the sound. And then a YouTube recording can never give you any idea about the quality of the imaging and the soundstage, which could impact your preference if they are listened to in person. In fact, I ignore them completely because I know that it is such an extremely unreliable method of evaluating speakers, that I'm better off not even letting the video experience bias me at all. This is the only speaker video that I have ever seen that provides much useful insight into speaker performance:
[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlpqBoQ1hoQ[/VIDEO]
However, if you did not like the Pioneers for the money, that is certainly understandable in that speaker choice is an individual listening preference thing. If you listened to them in a BestBuy, I would warn you that's a horrible place to evaluate speakers.
As far as the analogy I made, that was just to make the point that speakers are an investment, that it is risky to make decisions based on one person's YouTube video, and it was in reply to zunehdrocks. People are often quick to recommend audio equipment A over equipment B based on almost no (or dubious information) without pointing out the risk to the person of doing so. In your case, if you can afford to audition speakers and return them if you don't like them, then by all means do so. That's the way to know if you'll like something. As far as auditioning the Pioneers, if you have a BestBuy nearby, no cost to audition other than driving to get them and driving to return them. If your credit card will handle it, buy both and compare them side by side and just for yourself since you can return either for free
For other suggestions, the Pioneers and Miccas are some of the best alternatives in your budget range. The Pioneers will often drop in price (do a search for them with slickdeals as a keyword), so you can certainly catch them for closer to $100 if you are patient. Polk's factory direct store on Ebay will also have some of the TSi/Monitor series for close to your price range (TSi and Monitors are about the same); Newegg also often has sales on Polks. Accessories4less.com may have some factory refurbished/factory warrantied speakers in your budget range--check them out.