Mackie HR 824's. Better or worse

If your mixes are translating well, it's hard to want to change. If you want something a bit more detailed and three way, I'd suggest the Dynaudio LYD48. You should be able to find them used under 2k. They are not much above that new. They don't go super loud but I've never had a problem with them being too quiet.
I'm sure a lot of people will have their own opinions. I'm not crazy about the ribbon tweeter in Adams. But everyone likes something different.

Mark Kano here was selling some 2-3 year old lyd48’s, within your budget.

Atc scm 11/12 if you have a powerful amp.
Focal Shapes or ST6 if you don’t.

22 years ago they where my first "proper" studio monitors.

There wasn't much else around that price.

If you played Phil Collins "Easy Lover" with the them turned up LOUD .... the sonic experience was flippin' fantastic - a visceral air moving experience!
Of course looking back now I realise it's because the bass end had been somewhat "enhanced" but still I thought they were a whole heap of fun to make music on.

I sold them and a pair of mint condition Yamaha NS10's to buy my next pair of monitors.

I kinda wish I'd kept them for watching films - as they do sound very BIG!

If you know them well and your mixes translate - then just keep rocking on with them.

I work on non-hyped roots, vintage fusion, contemporary AOR, soul etc. Alot of hardware, tape, and vintage gear in my small room. As a low-level listener for decades avoiding fatigue, I find the contrast very nice though nearly unnoticeable in the high end unless cranked. The low end extension is better with the Focals. The crossover for the Trios is 4.5khz and 3.5Khz for the ATCs.

The 25s are clearly known for their mid-driver / tweeter relationship which provides that silky nearly transparent line between the two. But I think it is more about the mid-driver implementation. That said, I can hear a difference between MK1 and the ATC MKII tweeter. Pleasant, but it’s there. Might be because of the hours on the MKI as well. The Focal Shape Twins remind of a combination of the two. It may be the dual passive radiators, flax cone etc. They just worked in this small room.

I had the HR824's for a while and I loved them. When they first they came out they were quite the rage and Mackie was considered a very good bang for the buck and really did raise the bar for home and project studio recording. At some point, however, as the powered monitor scene started to evolve I decided to go for another alternative and can honestly say that as a result, my mixes did indeed translate better and I started to hear into mixes more... and enjoy listening that much more. So as technology evolves sometimes it can provide you with a quantitive and qualitative improvement - not always - sometimes we can get caught up in the hype... but it's worth exploring new alternatives if and when they become available.

That being said, I know great engineers who still rely on NS10's because they simply work and allow them to consonantly put out great mixes. Only you can really determine if making a change is worth it to you... even if your mixes sound pretty good now, maybe shaking things up a bit might be a good idea. I would suggest - if possible - renting or trying out other options and hear for yourself... is this an improvement? It will help you to make a more informed decision.

FWIW when I was checking out new monitors, I hated the Adam's although many had recommended them.  So it's really a personal thing.

I have a similar problem, but I don’t believe it’s the Be tweeter, quite simply Focal doesn’t use any drivers in the pro range that keep up with it. The Aluminum does a better job of meshing with the other drivers, but once you hear that Be it’s hard to go back.

It’s not a Be issue, one of my favorite but now it seams is unubtainable, the Transducer design labs Be meshes quite well with the Volt mids and probably the ATC, the TDL carbon has a little less zing but also less sparkle.

The beryllium tweeter has a few resonances but it’s higher detail than most soft domes. Focal’s woofers are warm. SCM20ASL is next level tightness but there’s just no bass and it costs double the Focals, weighs twice as much, and ATC’s distribution is not as good but their repair service is tops along with Genelec.

The non SL ATC speakers are great speakers but they just don’t have the crazy level of detail. The SCM 11 and SCM 12 are awesome for the price and should honestly replace most of the cheaper prosumer powered monitor crap but how do you sell accuracy and detail to someone listening to the Adam ax7 or some Neumann two way monitor that’s been dsped into being flat but has no headroom, crossover power response dips, and high distortion in normal use?

How do you sell them them the SCM20ASL or the ST6 that will do most recordings no favors? Tons of commercial mixes sound like crap on them because they didn’t fix basic midrange issues or the limiter is pumping and crapping up the sound or they didn’t address the mud regions? And your typical ho hum three way with a a heavy, overdamped mid dome is going to minimize the midrange issues that will be glaringly obvious on an Atc, small monkey coffin two ways with no dip on axis or maybe even a resonant crossover, and horns.

OOF. I know a guy who has the mackies and I literally can't stand them. They murder my ears every single time I try. I end up using headphones at his place instead. I moved to the KH310 and have been doing the best work of my life on them. No guesswork at all. I know they're outside your ballpark but I suggest looking at the smaller Neumann monitors that are closer to your budget. Hopefully they're of the same pedigree, because if they are then they should be a HUGE step up from the mackies.

Just give your ears time to reset because moving from a very colored monitor to one that's not will be a huge difference and it'll sound very strange at first.