Just thought I'd reawaken this thread, as I'm curious about the mixed opinions on the JBL LSR305s; I've seen so many positive reviews/posts, and hardly any negative until I read this thread. I was in my local music store today and was lucky enough to be left alone in the monitor demo room. I auditioned the LSR305s and they were ok, but they weren't amazing. In particular, I expected a good bass response (for their size) as they are rated down to 43Hz. But kick drums had no bass oomph at all. The 305s were set up next to a pair of Presonus E5s and the E5s' bass sounded much more solid.

At that point I started to think about buying the E5s, but, trying them up against other monitors, they sounded identical to the Rokit RP5 G3. And I mean, absolutely identical, I couldn't tell them apart. This scares me, because from what I've read the RP5 G3 is considered to be a bit 'hyped', sounding more like a hi-fi speaker than a reference monitor.

So now, I'm more confused than I was when I went in there :D .

i will also say, just for the record, that the LSR305s sounded nicer than the Yamaha HS5 and 7 - no surprise there, I guess, as the Yamahas are known to be a little harsh/fatiguing.

The most depressing discovery of my little demo session was that the monitors with 8" cones sounded considerably better than the ones with 5". Unfortunately, they were also all out of my budget. :'(