How big is your control room or listening area? How far from the speakers do you sit?

There are a few studio monitors on Ebay (UK) at the moment at around your price range. Try the KRK RP5/RP6 that are there now, or wait for some of the rather better mid-size V series (e.g. V6) to come up, which they do from time to time.

Hi Boswell I only have a small music room (smallest bedroom in the house) 10 foot by 9 foot and I sit approx 2/3 feet away.

Thanks

Paul

A 5" or 6" monitor would be fine - I would advise not going larger than this with modern monitors in that size of room.

I forgot to ask: you are considering active monitors rather than passive ones driven from a separate amplifier?

I have a sony smaster pro amplifier so I was going to continue using that? what do you think?

Do I need nearfield?

From the information you have supplied so far, nearfields are what you should be using.

Don't discount active monitors. I know you already have the Sony amplifier, but at this level, the match that a speaker manufacturer can get between internal amplifiers and the drive units can make a big difference to the integrity of the sound.

Ah thanks a lot thats great-I will have a look at some active/nearfield -krk's looks good (got around 400 pound budget on the pair)