bitflipper
I've been reading some gushing reviews of the Stealth 8.
 
Speaker reviews are often hard to glean actionable information from, with vague references to piccolo harmonics and such. Then they sometimes veer totally off the rails, with declarations that you have to let the power cable burn in or how 23 KHz really makes cymbals sizzle. I found a few of those in my searches.
 
But among the legit Stealth reviews, however, all have made the same point: these are comparable to speakers costing 4 to 10 times as much. I am really tempted to give them a try. With a 30-day money back guarantee it's not that great a risk. It won't be this week, though. I still don't have a DAW.

I hate audio reviews, they tend to be completely useless and people are WAY too in to snake oil. I usually check them only to see if they noticed any flaws. Otherwise, I'm more impressed by data which is something Emotiva is willing to provide. They don't give ANSI/CEA-2034 data, but almost nobody does (requires a lot of gear to acquire) but gives a lot of other useful info.
 
Emotiva is reputed for punching above their weight with their amps, making massive amps that compete with the likes of Krell for 10% of the price. If they can do similar with their speakers, well then they are a pretty worthwhile brand to own. Their speakers I don't have any experience with, however. I personally use SVS, another company known for hitting above their weight (they do passives though).

batsbrew
Don't miss my post.
Could be a big oversight

I didn't miss it. I looked them up and read reviews, all positive. But as I noted above, they're 3 grand for a pair, beyond my budget. Same for the Opals suggested by deswind. Great speakers, but I still have to buy a computer, too.
 
I am quite intrigued by the Emotiva Stealth 8. Glowing reviews, incredible specs, great price. The review in Recording Magazine compares them to speakers costing 5x as much.
 

Reading these posts with great interest. RE: the review of the Stealth 8, it had my adrenaline flowing until I read the sentence about how the reviewers friend preferred the older speakers for most jazz and classical.
Since I do a lot of jazz (in addition to pop/rock/blues, oldies, etc.), it would seem perhaps these monitors wouldn't be as good for me to upgrade to.
Not that I was really looking, but some day I want to upgrade my budget speakers (KRK Rokit) and see how the other half lives....
I'm learning a lot just keeping track of the various suggestions, etc. Keep 'em coming. Good luck getting everything back in your studio, Bit. Really stinks to be robbed, frankly you seem to be handling it better than I would.

Probably a step down from the sort of monitors you're considering (if price is any indication, which of course to a certain extent it is), but I recently picked up a pair of the Yamaha HS8 monitors and I'm really digging them. (Then again, my previous monitors were Alesis M1 Active MK2s so while decent startups, there was plenty of room for improvement.)
 
I was seriously considering the Focal Alpha line but they didn't have any of the Alpha 80s at GC when I demoed them all, and the HS8s, to my ears anyway, blew the Alpha 65s out of the water. 38Hz - 30kHz according to their specs, rear-ported. 
 
The only downside is a bit of a hiss when there's no audio going through them.

Looks like I'll have to lower my expectations. Reading the insurance settlement letter, it basically says all I get is $6,800 to cover nearly $15,000 in losses. I've already spent $5,500 and still don't have a computer. Another grand will go to my new steel door, and all I'll be able to afford after that are some instrument cables.
 
Maybe I should be looking at some nice headphones...

Insurance companies are jerks. The deprecation schedule they run on some things are totally unrealistic. While it probably won't do any good, fight back against that amount. If they are underpaying you for stuff, push back. In particular if you can show items, like software or something, that keep the same price year after year argue against the deprecation. If it doesn't wear out, and doesn't go down in price, then a deprecation schedule is BS.
 
can't hurt to try.

A pair of jbl 305's wouldn't cost more than a good set of cans, they are really good monitors for the price

The KRK V8s I use are the very first model. They've held up incredibly well and I really like the midrange response. If they went out, I'd replace them with the newer model. 

Also, I've had great luck buying from Zzounds and their Open Box prices. I've acquired some really good gear cheap.
 
 

Sycraft
Insurance companies are jerks...

 
True, but insurance policies differ a lot. I once claimed for some stolen photographic equipment (Pentax SLR camera and several lenses) and I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. When I submitted the claim I didn't even expect it to be successful as the items were not stolen from my house. I had lent them to my niece who was a university student, sharing a house with other students and their house got burgled. Naturally they didn't have any insurance. Also most of the stolen items were used when I originally purchased them. The insurance company required me to supply receipts and luckily I still had them. They arranged for a photographic supplier (Jessops) to send me the nearest equivalent current version of each item. In each case it was an upgrade, as SLR technology had advanced a lot during the 1990s.

I doubt whether my current home & contents insurance policy is as good as that now. Back then I was probably overinsured.