I totally agree on the JBL 305/308. I've also read great reviews on the Presonus Eris series
https://www.presonus.com/products/eris-studio-monitors
For the money they cost they seem to be a no brainer. When I have the cash, I'd like to give them a go.

 

I also vote for buying used... as a matter of fact, I have yet to buy a new pair... I started with krk rokit 6 (bought those for 250eur), then Adam A7 (400eur), and right now I am waiting for the pair of Focal Solo 6 Be to arrive, bought those on ebay for 800eur

 

I mean, look at this... I don't think this price can get too far:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adam-A7-Stu...722248?hash=item3d1b38f388:g:VUQAAOSwrnNXQglR

And I am sure that you can find quite a few pairs of the older models with big names.

 

Last edited: May 26, 2016

With Monitors there are 3 areas to consider.... price, accuracy and power, you get to pick 2.
If you want cheap and accurate, they will not be loud.
If you want accurate and loud, they will not be cheap.
If you want cheap and powerful, they will not be accurate.

With your budget, grab some used KRK 6000 or 7000 passive Monitors with a cheap amp. They would be considered cheap and accurate and will get you further than almost all the suggestions listed here.

 

i have many sets of monitors that i've acquired over the last 20 years Genelec, Adam,Yamaha,KRK and some others that are old old lol ... i bought some the JBL 305's off the net without hearing them first and man i gota say they blew me away ;) so much so i bought the 308's too \m/... honestly i get better mixes on em then my other monitors.... my mixes translate very well to other systems sense i started using the JBL's and they sound stellar too ... also you can park them 15 ft apart and the center is spot on \m/