Depending on your location you should be able to find a good used pair of Adam TV7s or definitely some gen3KRK Rokit 8's.

I just saw a used KRK 8 set on FB (Chicago) for $175 for the pair.

 

What Adam's have you ever heard that were "not so good"? They consistently rank extremely high with professionals and indie home studio peeps.

 

Yeah, Neumann's aren't really in equation, so going with least hiss level and flattering sound, you are pretty much left with Fluid Audio F5's in that price range. if you expect massive low end or bright hi end, they aren't going to deliver there. Balanced sound, something like Kali LP's, but with less hiss and less low end.

 

Last edited: Dec 23, 2023

I never heard any of them and honestly I doubt that this will ever happen.

However, how they rank to some people is fine to me.
Also tube driven equipment seems to rank extremely high. It's technically straightforward bad to me as well. Any of this stuff, regardless the company.

I exclusively care about the purely technical aspects and act extremely pragmatic then. I barely ever listen to and compare technical equipment anymore by now. Those exhausting times really are over for me.

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2023

Samson Resolv 6 here...excellent

 

wishing you some fine Holidays too

i really disliked the ax series, they where a biiig step down from the P series
now the whole range seems better/good again, but haven't heard the latest t series.

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2023

One should rely less on some random opinions, and more on proven data, interpreted with rather transparent vision.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/adam-t5v-review-studio-monitor.18122/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kali-lp-6-review-studio-monitor.17978/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/jbl-306p-mk-ii-review-studio-monitor.18505/

 

The Master Audio Review Index of studio monitors under 500 bucks:

 

All that data is great, but in the end one needs to trust their ears and as someone who has mixed on KRK (V8, Rokit 8, V88) M-Audio (BX8a), and Yamaha (HS8) I prefer my Adam T8V's as the folded ribbon tweeter is the most revealing without being overly harsh or fatiguing. To each thier own though..

 

if you have the acoustic treatment done in your studio, then the jbls or the krks are fine

if you don't have acoustic treatment done, i would tell you to buy open back headphones

 

Why openback?
Which do you recommend, for me confort is a must

 

If the Kali LPs wasn't that ugly I'd buy them instantly.

 

if you plan to mix/master, you will inherently spend long hours in front of the computer, which will lead to hearing fatigue. alongside that, open-back headphones tend to give a somewhat more realistic reference of how something sounds because the audio tends be less concentrated (giving more ''air'')