$400 to spend, 4 speakers to chose from.

[ladewd]

While they transfer well, I like a little more lo freqs than they're willing to give up. Maybe a sub would help.

CA

[smithy]

My vote is to look for some KRK V6II's. I've had mine for over a year and they translate well to other formats and you can really hear your mixes well. I suppose those kevlar woofers do it justice. Not to mention you will find these speakers being used in many recording studios as reference speakers along with the Yamaha NS10's.

[C_R_J]

i found my m audio bx8as on ebay for under 400. everyone ive talked to said the 5 inch ones suck. check around for the 8 inch ones..

[lowsaturation]

put me down as another vote for the Tapco S5s I have been very happy with mine.

[Vartan K.]

Paradigm Mini monitors

Better then speakers 3 times the price.

[xopher]

You know, I got some KRK Rokit 8s for $400 at Guitar Center. About 2 years ago. And they're pretty decent. That said, the new Yamahas sound stellar. A definite notch up from the Rokits.

[Lukey]

For what it's worth, I really like my rokit 5's... despite the appearance. I haven't yet been unhappy with the way mixes from them sounded on my various home/car/headphone/et cetera gear.

[Chromarec]

I would say go with the KRK RP5. The M-audio's are too bassy. The RP series to me sound more even overall. I use rp8 in my studio and my mixes come out sounding great on the first mix.

[Professor]

I say this every time these questions come up, but I gotta do it again.
Go find an amplifier.
Maybe you have one in the basement or attic or something. An old hi-fi receiver. Or go to the local thrift store or pawn shop. Pick up some old Sony or Pioneer stereo-only or Dolby ProLogic receiver that goes for maybe $20-30.
Now you have $350 or more to spend on some nicer speakers, and there are Sooooo many to choose from in the home hifi world that are really spectacular.

My favorite have always been B&W, and the 300 Series fits in your price range, or maybe the 600 or 601. But then this summer I picked up a pair of Mordaunt Short speakers, the Avant 902i which are spectacular little bookshelf 2-ways that I think would be great in a small studio (better with a sub perhaps, but then that's any small 2-way), and they list for $450 a pair, so I'm sure you could find 'em for a little less somewhere.

The important thing is to maximize the cash you can spend on speakers by not spending half of it on crappy little built-in amps in a "studio monitor". Then you can take a few choice CDs and go listen to all the great products out there and find something that actually sounds good with a little more room for quality within your budget.

Happy listening.

-Jeremy

[jmpace]

I like your idea, I mean it seems cost efficient and it did get me thinking that I have a nice Luxman receiver that I can imagine would work really well for mixing.. but can you explain the signal flow because I can't understand how you would get the 1/4" output from a 002 to the binding posts of a consumer-style loudspeaker because a stereo receiver can't accept 1/4" in inputs.

[Professor]

Well you have to go from the audio interface (in your case the 002), through a preamplifier (hi-fi type, not a microphone type) which will act as a volume control, and then through a power amplifier, and then to the speakers. So that's:
interface --> preamp (vol. control) --> power amp --> speakers

With your Luxman receiver, as a receiver it is a preamp & power amp combination in that it selects sources, controls the volume, and then amplifies the signal to drive the speakers.
And as it happens, your 002 has an extra pair of RCA output connections, conveniently labelled as "ALT MAIN UNBAL (-10dBV OUTPUT)" which should be able to plug into the Luxman receiver directly.
If those are in use and you only have 1/4" connectors available, there are a couple of approaches. The absolute best is to use a balanced-to-unbalanced converter to take the +4 balanced signal down to -10 and still have the noise rejection of the balanced cable. But those can be a little spendy, and kinda defeats the cost savings. The next possibility is to use a 1/4" to RCA cable that will shunt the 'Ring' in the 1/4" TRS connector to the 'Sleeve' (ground) and connect tip-to-tip. There's no problem doing that, it will simply hit the receiver a little bit louder.
If the receiver happens to have a coaxial digital input, then you could also feed the S/PDIF output of the 002 over to the receiver that way. And just let the receiver know (in the setup menu) to expect a PCM signal at that input and not a Dolby-Digital/DTS signal.

-Jeremy