Nice snag on the JBL's. Guess it wasn't in the cards for me. My wife did allow me to up my budget - so the D8's might be in my future. Even on sale, $750 is a lot to lay out though.

Anybody have thought's on the M-Audio M3 line that just came out/is coming out?

Even in a large room, if I'm only 3 to 4 feet from the monitors, would 5" woofer (possibly with a sub) work out. Would an 8" woofer be too much that close? Guess I can put stands behind my desk.

I'm a D5 early adopter and I love them. I bought a second pair for our production area.

I liked the D5 better when it was only $300/pair but they're still an incredible deal and IMHO easily trumped the much more expensive and larger Neuman compact monitors when we did our shootout.

Don't discount the coaxial design of the D5, the extra phase coherence makes them easy to listen inside a mix. On the D5's I can tell if the drummer was using wood or plastic tip sticks :-)

The D5 are nearfield monitors so you would not choose them to fill a room, but when you're sitting close and mixing I love them, very smooth and not fatiguing at all. I switch to my Meyers when I want to hear 30Hz, otherwise I think the D5 have very natural sounding bass.

I greatly prefer the D5 to my NS-10M which sound very mid-rangey and colored by comparison.

A good set of speakers is a critical aid to training your ears, get some that let you make mixes that translate well to all systems. I could live with the D5's alone but I could never live with NS-10M alone. For me it's much easier to get a mix sounding fat on the D5 and then tweak it to also sound good on the Yamaha's.

My other monitors are JBL 4311, JBL Control 1, Meyer HD-1, Soundolier FC-104 and Yamaha NS-10m on a Bryston 4B

Good luck and good music to all.

The D5s would be my main monitors for a while. Not sure about the lows. Really tempted. But the JBLs look nice too.

just bought the JBL lsr305's after all the love GS is giving them. I'll be using them to A/B my mixes with my Mackie HR628's. Will report back once I get them.

I wish the OP would have jumped on the MF stupid deal of the day. I think he would have been pleased with these 2328p's for under $300 shipped.

Hoping maybe MF will somehow get more in! Might check the local stores too to see if they're trying to get rid of them.

Pat, after moving to a new house with a much smaller music space, I had to downsize from a pair of very good but large mid-field monitors. After reading a bunch of reviews, I ordered the Equator D5s knowing that I could send them back if they didn't work out.

It's been a couple of months and the D5s aren't going anywhere. I'm monitoring up close, at much lower levels, so I'm getting much less interference from the room. And as has been said in other threads, I often hear details that I never knew existed in recordings I thought I knew well, including my own.

The D5s aren't right for high volumes or massive bass but I've found them great for pretty much any style of music. If you decide to try them, use them for at least two or three weeks before making up your mind. They need to break in and if my experience is anything like your, you'll need some time to recalibrate your own listening.

Hozay

Just saw that Equator is running a holiday sale - D5s are $379/pr and the D8s are $699/pr. Still think the D8s are out of my price range and not sure about the SPL of the D5s - the LSR305s would probably work better. They sounded pretty good at Guitar Center.

Just two things about the D5s that cropped up here..
- the low end is unbelievable when you look at these cute little things. MUCH (_MUCH_) more powerful and accurate than my Alesis Monitor One Mk2s (passive) were. I do use headphones when working on kick drums and bass but more out of habit than necessity.
- the sweet spot is very large. This must be due to the coaxial design (tweeter sits on dome of woofer).

I can't compare tons of speakers (Equator D5, Alesis M1Mk2, Adam A7, Genelec 6010 is all I've ever really used) but I'm way happier than I expected to be. I originally bought the D5s as a temporary solution until I could move on to something "proper", but now I probably won't. They're fantastic.

Is there no-one able to put the OP out of his misery?

truly LOL'd

The OP can put himself out of his misery if just buys one set of monitors (either one) and tries it out. If he doesn't like it, ha can send it back.

For what it's worth, I like my D5's, but I've never used the JBL's to make a fair comparison.

I don't own either but... I only heard the D5 once at the NAMM show 7 years ago. My ears can't remember. What should the OP do? Should the OP buy a set of LSR308 for $399 or Equator D5 for $379? Should the OP trust he will hear enough bass response out of the D5 to not overcompensate during the mix? Is this worth risking versus the extra clarity of the Equator D5? Can the OP get used to knowing there's probably a good 6dB drop after 100Hz? Does Equator boost the low end with DSP on the D5 to compensate? Does anybody have any frequency specs on the D5? Me wants the specs for the precious D5.

Sorry guys - I'm indecisive! Just trying to figure out the "best" monitor for my budget. If the MF catalog is for real, maybe I should get the HS8s for $525/pr? ;-) I do appreciate everyone's comments! Or maybe I should have stayed a lurker? I know these "what's the best monitor" threads are beating a dead horse, but it has helped me as I'm getting backing into mixing and recording.

I'm considering getting a pair of D5's mainly due to their portability, suggested mid-range clarity, and the countless positive reviews. Also, their return policy takes all the anxiety of whether or not I'll like them out of the equation!

The MIDRANGE is most important, and almost invariably, the smaller the driver to perform the midrange task, the better.
So look at monitors with 5" or less woofers. You can always add a $200 subwoofer later. Like a BIC Formula F-12.

I went with the JBL LSR305s. I'm pretty happy with them - they sound really great. The highs and mids are really clean and clear. At $120/each I couldn't pass it up - especially since I blew part of by budget on the NI Komplete 9 Ultimate cross grade - couldn't pass that up at half off. I've got my old Infinity sub hooked up for the low end until I can get a better sub.

Are you comparing these to the KH120's? I was torn between the Neumann's and other similarly-priced monitors, but ordered a pair of D8's for about half the price on sale.

Looking forward to getting them. I wonder if the larger woofer will have any drawbacks when compared to the D5, although most published reviews so far have only praised the midrange.

Are the KRK VXT 6 in the same league, or much more expensive?
I can buy ones for very low price.
Are the Equators still better?

D5s are my first monitor and I was blown away by them. I'm sure there are better monitors for more $$$ but I feel these will always be in my setup to check my mixes. I love the stereo separation and have no complaints about how the low end translates. I usually only have electric bass so no real low end but like how things translate to other systems. I'm a true gear hound so am always looking for the next upgrade and contemplated the recent trade in offer up to the D8 but didn't feel like monitoring was where my system was most lacking. I could hear the preamp and room noise in my recordings so chose to upgrade my interface and next will be room treatment. The D5s got surprisingly loud on me the other day when I cranked the volume to listen to some hi-res music as I was doing other tasks outside of my mix position and I was pleasantly surprised...and I had to turn them down.

Sorry for no comparison info but definitely a whole hearted D5 recommendation!