I'd really hope you would reconsider on the KRK's...especially with the VXT's.
I had some personal experience with them. My first pair of dedicated monitors were the RP5's. I struggled to mix on them...but they sounded good for listening to music. Looking back, they had smooth highs, but the mid's were smeared...and I could never get enough resolution to make good mix choices. I then found how crappy the resale was on them when I sold them to upgrade!
I wanted to keep it in the family, so I upgraded to the KRK V8 series one. Now the V-series are a whole other animal...Focal drivers, made in USA...They were great monitors! Resolution compared to the rockits wasn't even a contest...I would wholeheartedly reccomend you consider the V6 or V8's...they can be had probably less than any of the pairs in your list used.
So here comes the other thing...
I decided to downsize my monitors, and sold the V8's (now on those, I made $ selling them). I got in on a good deal for Yamaha MSP7's. They are in a whole different league, and are full on professional mixing monitors....I digress
I also got a deal on a pair of KRK VXT4's...I bought a pair for about $60 to flip. One worked perfect, the other cut-out intermittantly. I looked into it, the amp could only be purchased as a unit for $200 from KRK...and I had to ship them the monitor. Since these were going for $400+ new street price, it seemed pretty safe. I eventually decided to just flip them for a small profit and not bother with the whole KRK thing. I did some research and found the VXT's are plagued with a widespread problem with the amps...and most common in the VXT6's I may add! Long-story short, I had to sell the pair evenually for just under $100...
That is some terrible depreciation from new!
I guess where I'm going with this, is I'd shoot higher and look at the resale on whatever you pick, because you'll probably upgrade at some point. Don't get fooled into thinking monitors need to sound good to make good mixes; you want honesty!
Some of the better low-cost monitors are the Yamaha HS50/80, Yamaha MSP5's, KRK v-series, Event Precision 8's. I would also look used in your price range to get more for your money. When you get in the $500-700 monitor range new, you can't do much better until you spend MUCH more.
It's a tool; an important one. Trust me, you won't know the limitations of your monitors until you get them in your room and mix with them for several weeks. If you find they don't meet your needs a few weeks down the road you will NOT be happy!
PS: sorry for the long reply...I'm chatty today.
post edited by Ron Vogel - 2010/11/19 02:26:45