AS never fails to provide a laugh. OP comes in asking about real monitors and the first suggestions are Behringer/Mackie/Tannoy..

 

I love the 305, they're my goto recommendation for the most decent monitors on a budget.
And your upgrade route makes total sense too imho as neumann stuff has that soft not at all harsh airband that the jbls have. If only their subwoofers weren't so expensive. I stuck with my ancient ks-digital subwoofer when I upgraded.

 

Well accshually...... Tannoy is a brand with a huge heritage when it comes to monitors.
Yeah, sure the reveals.. but on the other hand my first pair of speakers one would consider a monitor were tannoys pbm 6.5 II. And given that it was the first half of the nineties and they were dirt cheap these weren't at all bad to work on.

 

Harmonic distortion is mostly negligible. For the other factors, there is no evidence for an actual existing, neither an evidence for an effect on sound.

However a way more important factor that wasn't mentioned here for some reason is directivity.

 

Last edited: May 4, 2025 at 2:58 PM

First suggestions were Neumann KH150, DynAudio, APS and PSI. After that Mackies for 2k, which I'm sure are just fine. I admit I was the first one to mention that I prefer average speakers in a great room over high end in a shitty room.

Agree on the Tannoy Reveals though, I tried them and they sucked

 

Last edited: May 4, 2025 at 3:58 PM

That looks like you've been round my place and stolen several 19" units off me...

...ok just checked, they're still there.

 

I use my ears, not my eyes
798€ for a pair + 649€ for subwoofer
movie and game soundtracks, voice/speech, and all kinds of music genres really,
I love their coaxial 3-way design I would never go for anything inferior anymore,
I don't like their idle hiss (which gets masked away once anything is playing though)
I would probably go for newer revision which supposedly is having lower noise floor of the hiss
-> Kali Audio IN-8 (+ WS-12 sub)