Just to conclude I have now had a good chance to use my new speakers with my M Audio fast track ultra 8R interface, at first in a large room 40ft x 18ft. I played a CD through the lap top. Before the track started I noticed there was absolutely no hiss or crackle or other noises coming from the speakers. When the track started playing the sound quality was crisp and bright. The drums were sharp and the bass was set just right. The guitars came in and were very clean and a lovely tone and the vocals were fab. At this point I should mention I am no expert and the sound system I have been using for a while now comes from a Marshall guitar amp taken from the headphone socket of my laptop so I do not have a reliable comparison but the overall sound was amazing.
 
I put the speakers about 15ft apart and turned the volume up to about 3/4 and it easily filled the room with sound. There was no distortion at all and particularly the bottom end sounded sweet.
 
Next was the studio which is a room 12ft x 12ft and at the moment is untreated for sound proofing. I set the speakers up to about 8ft apart. At these lower levels I could hear every element of the track perfectly. There is some adjustment for the high and low levels but I did not need to touch these at all. All in all I could not fault these speakers apart from physical size and I may need to build some wall mounted shelving to free up some desk space.
 
Hope this may help someone looking at slightly above entry level speakers at a fair price.
 
andi
 

A very basic rule of thumb is that your listening position (your head) and your speakers should form an equilateral triangle so if your speakers are 8' apart, consider your mixing position if you now sit 8' from both of your speakers. Studio monitors are considered near field usually thus you are hearing more of the direct sound radiating from the speaker than room reflections. The further from your speakers the more of your rooms characteristics will enter the sound field. Five to six feet will be much better, even less if you can manage it.

Being a square room you're going have plenty enough problems.

I just noticed you mentioned sound proofing.

Understand that sound proofing and sound treatment are two entirely different processes with seperate goals.

Once built it's unlikely you'll ever make a room sound proof. Our aim in audio work is usually to modify the reflections in a room so that our speakers will translate accurate reproductions of what we're committing to the recording process. If done correctly our speakers, room and ears will all be calibrated so that a recording done in our studio will sound equally pleasing in any playing environment. While this is an ideal we may not achieve, our aim is still to achieve the best compromise we can for the resources we can put to bear.

hi thank you for your input, very interesting. My desk is 8ft long so that is the max I can have them apart at the moment. It means that I will be sitting 4ft away which is a tad uncomfortable. I am sorry I did mean sound treatment and not sound proofing.