I can't help you with professional monitors, but I know there are some on AH that can (I know
@KEW has talked about Focal studio monitors before) but I REALLY like your budget and am curious to read the responses!
Sorry for the delayed response, but I knew this would be more than a casual post, so waited until I had a bit of free time!
When I first started looking to update my (late 70's) system 10 years ago, I had found a pair of used Paradigm Signature S-2's which I was very happy with, but I wanted to see how much I was still "leaving on the table" as far as SQ of speakers (certainly I have still not heard any speakers that I could mistake for a live acoustic performance - with electric/rock several come close!). I am lucky to live close enough to Atlanta to have some high-end audio shops around and based on advice from here, I found a Focal dealer (he had a showroom, but was more of an installer as he had little foot-traffic) who was willing to let me bring in my Paradigm Signature S-2's and two Marantz SR6001's (at the time I was not convinced that differences between amps would not make a significant difference, so I had bought two Identical AVR's just for speaker A-B) and set up a A-B comparison. The guy stayed around when I was hooking things up (I suspect to make sure that I did not do anything which would fry any of his gear - I haven't done that yet, but am happy to have someone double checking me - I have my share of brain farts from time to time!), then left me to it while he went into his office to take care of some paperwork.
I compared the Focal Electra Be towers and recognized that the Focals were better than the Paradigm S-2's, but I had gotten a killer deal on the S-2's (with stands) for $1350 (IIRC) from a guy who was setting them up in what is best described as a sunroom (lots of glass and the S-2's are bright speakers) and the Focal towers went for $8000! I wasn't willing to commit at that level.
I was a fan of the 2.2 approach as implemented with my S-2's, so I looked at the bookshelf Electra Be ... seems like they were close to $4K which was a possibility, but then I found out about the Focal Solo6 Be which was a studio monitor that appeared to have the exact same drivers as the $4K Electra (my memory of prices is sketchy, so I am making them up to convey the general situation). I found a pair of Solo6 Be returns at Sweetwater (Internet pro-audio dealer) which (IIRC) were around $2000/pr and liked the attitude of the guy I spoke with at Sweetwater, so I decided to give them a shot (I actually only bought one to test, but the guy assured me they would have another return before long - I don't know if they just move so much inventory or if he was willing to sell new inventory as B stock). Although I would have liked to, I was not going to
knowingly waste the Focal dealers time (or offend him by) bringing in pro audio Focals to compare with his Electra towers. The best I could do was compare the Solo6 to my S-2's and I found the same types of differences in the same places/songs I had noted in my comparison to the Electras, so I was very happy with the Solo6's!
Buying pro audio open box returns, I had saved about 50% over home audio and I think it would have been about 30% if I had not chosen B-stock. Of course, that 30% savings is based on MSRP. As far as I can tell, the only thing I sacrificed was cosmetics (although Focal advertises their curved baffles as being an audio enhancement, which I think is true in theory, but obviously not significant enough to concern recording engineers where "the rubber meets the road"!). Of course, I don't know that the Solo6 Be is absolutely the true equivalent of the Electra Be bookshelf and there is also the fact that amplification is covered (and custom matched) with the Solo 6Be.
My general takeaway from this experience is that pro audio does indeed cut through some of the BS and generally offers more value for your money!
Exceptions are:
1) Anything Dennis Murphy has done (and, by extension, Salks speakers - if you are willing to pay for the incredible craftsmanship Jim Salk puts into his cabinets/finishes). I think Selah Audio may offer pretty good value, but I have not really dug into them.
2) Closeouts and discounts. Deals like the current DCM TP and TFE series being sold on eBay or the Infinity References and JBL Studio when they have their sales discount anywhere from 50% to 75% from MSRP represent amazing values when you can find them on speakers that were good for their original price. Occasionally we will see an exceptional deal pop up on Accessories4Less. These types of bargains do not seem to come as often on pro-audio although we have recently seen JBL LSR-305 at $90 each. The main limitation here is we essentially never see these kinds of deals on premier/top-of-the-line products which have much lower sales volumes and, thus, are manufactured in much smaller batches with more of a Just-in-Time approach!
3) and, the obvious wild card is buying used - I'm sure there have been many equally incredible deals made on both pro and home audio, but many of us don't have the time and patience to find the special deal. For me, every now and then, I will take a quick look on Craigslist just to see what is there. Usually not much I really have interest in [and even then the competition from item 2) above makes it hard for used product to compete]. My one "find" is my Martin Logan Vistas in great shape at $1500/pr. where the seller was upgrading into "hand me down" Summits from his boss. My Vistas were the previous "hand-me down" from his boss!
You want a speaker for home use, in a medium sized room, with a listening distance 1.8-2 m or 5.9 to 6.6 feet. Those studio monitors you mentioned are optimized for near field or mid field listening. Maybe you would be better off if you looked for speakers optimized for far field listening. With far field listening and larger rooms, mid range and higher frequency off-axis performance and the resulting imaging capability, become much more important than in smaller rooms like recording studios.
I have heard this argument enough times, but I see near and mid fields defined as:
Nearfield monitors are designed to be positioned approximately one to two metres away from the listener, making them ideal for smaller studios, whereas mid-field monitors are generally larger and optimised for positioning between two and four metres away from the listener.
In this guide well outline the basic principles of studio monitors, and take a closer look at their most common features.
www.thomannmusic.com
So, near-field and mid-field interface at 6.6 feet which is close to the distance you are suggesting for home systems. I know your room is set up with the larger dimension from side to side. For many of us it is the other way resulting in listening distances closer to 8-11 feet (which better makes your case). However, I have to wonder how often it is that a speakers which is designed to have good imaging at 6.6 feet has poor imaging at 11 feet. On the other hand, this makes the 2-4 meter distance of a mid-field monitor perfect for me! It seems a reasonable argument that these speakers are optimized for my listening distance while a home audio speaker appears not to care (I don't think that is true, I suspect most well-designed home audio speakers are designed for something like 5-15 feet - maybe bookshelf speakers a bit closer?)
I think the biggest issue is that you need near field speakers if you are going to be sitting 3' away from them because the drivers from many speakers will not properly integrate until you are farther away simply due to the physical distance between the drivers!
I would love to see measurements showing the imaging behavior of some more common speakers (both pro and home audio) at various distances to get a sense of how sensitive speakers generally are to this issue. I can say that I have not noticed any short-comings on this count with the pro audio speakers I do have (JBL LSR 305, JBL 306P mk2, Presonus C3.5 BT, Presonus R65, Focal Solo6 Be, and Focal Twin6 Be).
I should say that I never listened (critically) to the Presonus C3.5 from more than 8' away - they are 3.5" speakers that I use for travel. They fit perfectly in a padded camera bag I found and I will pack them if I am traveling by car and going to spend more than one night in a hotel room. If I am renting a house at the beach for a week, I will also throw an 8" Sony subwoofer I found for $15 at Goodwill in the trunk to have an "audio happy place" near! I have certainly heard the C3.5 BT from across the LR or eating at the dining table at a beach house and they sound fine, but I am sitting in a chair in a proper location whenever I have listened carefully to them.
To respond directly to Egoquaero, I think your reasoning is sound with the caveats I have expressed above.
Looking specifically at the monitors you have listed, I am only able to comment on the Focal, and my thought with respect to the Focal Trio 11 Be (MSRP $7200/pr) is you should consider Focal Twin 6 Be (MSRP $3960/pr) if you will integrate with subwoofers. There may be analogous situations with the other monitors you are considering, but the $3240 saved will easily pay for a great pair of subs to mate with the twins and if you get the Trios, I am not at all sure you will realize the benefit of the 10" woofer over the twins.
You may get lucky, but I have seen too often where attempts (with proper measurement/evaluation) to use the bass from full range speakers have failed and the best solution involved a crossover at 80Hz or even higher because the proper location of the L&R speakers was not the proper location for subwoofers in their room!
Additionally, with the Focal Twin 6 Be's you have the additional endorsement of DTS labs, who chose to use the Twin6 Be (with Solo6 Be for height speakers) in their California demo HT room (photo below) and the Solo6 Be in their overseas (I forget where) HT demo room.
I should mention that for stereo, you will be better off standing Twins up with the tweeter on the inside edges. I'm certain that DTS made sure that the sweet spot covers their seating, but standing them up will result in a broader sweet spot!
It looks like they have a system in place for listening to their speakers ("Book a Demo" link)!
The Twin6 Be is the best seller of the Focal Professional range and the most versatile work tool of the SM6 line. It represents the only necessary solution for recording, mixing and mastering.
www.focal.com
Edit - I should also give a "shout out" to active design!
In the case of the Twin and Solo, each 6.5" driver gets a 150WRMS Bash amp and the Be tweeter gets its own 100WRMS class A-B amp! Active crossovers allow some additional opportunity for tuning compared to passive. Most importantly, the manufacturer can specify the exact amp to use with their drivers. I set up my Solo6 Bes in my full basement (very large open space with only a few columns) and I cranked them LOUD! My "oh poop!" moment came when the sound of the right speaker cut out! Before I could dive for the remote, the left speaker cut off! Trust me, my adrenaline had me "cranked up" at this point! I turned off the speakers, turned down the volume at the pre, slowly counted to 60 (just to make sure any electronics had the chance to cool/reset), turned the speakers back on and involuntarily held my breath as I slowly turned the volume up (all while wondering how much new drivers would set me back).
Happily they came on just like normal, but I still spent the next half hour listening very carefully to assure myself there were no new distortions!
You can't get this type of protection from any normal home system I know of!
I like what Tom V. says about his PSA subs (well-designed subs also have the advantage of custom matching amplification/electronics to the driver). He says "They are pretty much "bullet-proof" ... but don't take that as a challenge!"
