Active Studio Monitors For £300 or less

[indysmith]

Hi there, I'm in the market for some active studio monitors around the £300 mark, these will be used for general listening (when I can't use headphones for anti-social reasons), and for real studio monitoring and production work (I'm a Sound Engineering and Production student).
So far I've been looking at these:
Yamaha MSP5
Yamaha HS80M
Mackie MR5
KRK Rokit 6
Event TR6-E
Fostex PM0.5 MKII

I've only just decided to start shopping for monitors, so currently I don't really know where to start.
What I want/need:
Incredible detail (I'm used to Grado SR325i's)
Flattest response possible
Not too much power
They shouldn't need too much space, as they are going to be used in my small university accommodation room.

I'm just about to have a look at the specs of all the monitors mentioned above - as they are things I can understand. Tomorrow I'll be going to town to give some different monitors a go, so be sure to recommend me anything that I've missed and help me choose!

Thanks.

[indysmith]

P.S. These will be plugged directly into my Apogee Duet

[indysmith]

Noone? If you're all yanks, then £300 = $600ish

[jinp6301]

I personally liked the Yamaha HS80M over the KRK and event speakers . the mackie mr8s were pretty good as well but not on the same level as the yamahas.

[saint.panda]

I didn't really like KRK or Yamaha. Event were ok. For 300 quids, I'd try to find some good deals on the used market such as an used Mackie HR624 if you can find one for that price. If you must buy new, I rather like the M-Audio BX5a. Stay away from Behringer. Check out gearslutz.com for more on this topic. If you're willing to stretch your budget to 500 pounds, you'll get into the range of some really fine speakers. Maybe something to consider ; )

[indysmith]

Well yesterday I went and tried a number of different speakers, and as I'd expected the Yamaha HS80M was by far my favorite - It sounds kinda like a Grado, in that it's very forward sounding, detailed, and has bass that's controlled and packs a punch, but doesn't go that deep. I thought the HS50Ms might be more suitable for my room at uni, but they just didn't sound the same - they lacked punch and sounded smaller (as you'd expect I suppose). I'm going to town again today to try out some more monitors just to make sure, and then I expect to be coming home with the HS80Ms.

Stretching budget is not an option I'm afraid - My student loan will only give me so much to spend :P
Also the used market is not something I'd like to get into - to be honest, I just want to go to a store and buy the monitors and bring them home, with a warranty. So much more less hassle than searching for something the internet has told me is good, and it means i get to try before I buy.

[indysmith]

Okay I'm back from the shops, and I didn't get the HS50Ms.
I heard the Roland DS-7s and couldn't turn them down. INCREDIBLE sounding speakers. They were goin for £475 but i got him down to £415 - still more than I'd have liked to have spent, but it's worth it!!!

[drummerboy47]

Removed.

[spookygonk]

Originally Posted by indysmith

I heard the Roland DS-7s and couldn't turn them down. INCREDIBLE sounding speakers. They were goin for £475 but i got him down to £415 - still more than I'd have liked to have spent, but it's worth it!!!

That's a bit more than your original budget, they must have been good.

[indysmith]

They're very flat sounding monitors, with great detail. After living with them for a week now, I'm very impressed with how my mixes are turning out.
I can't find much info about these monitors out there on the internet - they're clearly not a very popular choice but I genuinely can't think why. They do everything I want them to and more (there's a 24-bit, 192khz digital input), they have fantastic detail, made of real wood (whereas many competitors are cheap MDF), they're great speakers for monitoring, but I'm finding myself using them for hifi listening too - as far as i can tell they reproduce the original recording beautifully.