Recently my son wanted to invest in a set of active studio monitors and he was interested in the Yamaha HS7's.  We took some very high quality material down to a great shop here in Melbourne (Sound Corp) where they have many sets of speakers well set up. All the brands were there mentioned here so far and the Yamahas.
 
It was  very  revealing. Firstly one of my ref CD's was Steely Dan's 'Everything Must Go' which is a cracker of an album. I know it backwards.  I know how it sounds on my Mackie HR 824's.  I have heard it on $70,000 studio monitors too.  So I KNOW IT!
 
First KRK are absolute rubbish and I don't care what anyone says here.  They were crap.  I could not believe how bad they were.  They sounded like a blanket was hung in front of them.  ( I know many swear by them but in a continuous switch test it was amazing the difference. Cheese and chalk. I did teach a student once in his home studio who had KRK 8's and I thought they were pretty OK in fact, we were on the smaller KRK's in the shop)
 
The cheaper Mackies are not much chop either.  Only two speakers stood out.  The JBL's you guys are talking about here and the Yamaha's.  Both Yamaha and JBL's with the 5" drivers were also NOT great in the bottom end either.  The JBL's with the 8 " woofers were way better and much better balanced in the bottom end than the 5's.  The Yamaha HS7's were also much nicer than the 5" Yamaha's too. HS8's were slightly better (than HS7's) too but only by a very small margin.
 
Out of interest the Yamaha HS7's and 8's still out performed the JBL's over almost everything musically.  We listened to Steely Dan, Jazz, Hip Hop, folk, classical you name it.  (this is personal taste and I get that) We stayed within a certain price range and included many other brands too.
 
Bats you may be incorrect.  An 8" speaker will be fine in your room and it will sound way better than any 5" driver too.  The Yamaha's  (and others) have settings on the rear for controlling the low end.  An 8" driver set correctly will sound better than any 5" driver in any room.  Just ease some of the low end out and you will be fine.  Bats  my son was worried too like you about a 7" driver in his setup. He is in a small room too but after listening we found there was just too much missing on the 5" drivers and the larger driver just sounded so damn nice down there.
 
Right now the Yamaha HS7's or 8's are amongst the best value on the planet. (for the money)

i don't doubt your research, jeff...
not at all.
 
 
i do like the sound of the yammys, and i would have preferred to spring for the 8's,
but this is all i can afford right now.
 
using the ARC system for adjusting my room beyond what i've done as far as treatment goes,
i have some issues that the ARC solves to almost flat, in the low end...
 
and if i am to trust the graph, it is covering my frequency fairly accurately down to about 50hz, which is plenty for me in this room.
 
so, all in all, i'm happy with the jbls at 5" for now,
i'll upgrade again when i can,
and seriously a\/b those HS8's, which originally were my first choice for upgrade.
 

I too had considered the Yamaha's as they had very good reviews.  But, I'm happy with the JBL LSR308's and glad my Sweetwater sales rep suggested them.  My sales rep seems to be straight with me and not just "sell what they want to push". 
 
All the reviews I saw on the KRK's were not good.

batsbrew
using the ARC system for adjusting my room beyond what i've done as far as treatment goes,
i have some issues that the ARC solves to almost flat, in the low end...
 

 
Has anyone tried "flattening" two pairs of similar sized monitors in the same position with ARC yet?
 
I guess the best way would be to stack the speakers on top of each other with the top ones upside down to minimize the distance between the tweeters. 
 
I'm curious how close they will sound!

that's not the correct way to setup ARC (which is graphically shown in the manual/pdf)
 
you can interchange the speakers with each other, or change your height at which you sit in front of the speakers...
but because of the physical location difference of the speakers, you would have to run two complete analysis.
 
i basically a/b'd my older krk's in the exact location as the jbl's are now......
 

batsbrew
that's not the correct way to setup ARC (which is graphically shown in the manual/pdf)
 
you can interchange the speakers with each other, or change your height at which you sit in front of the speakers...
but because of the physical location difference of the speakers, you would have to run two complete analysis.
 
i basically a/b'd my older krk's in the exact location as the jbl's are now......
 

Yeah, I'm talking about how you could easiest take measurements of two different sets of monitors one right after the other (you'd have to make a "map" on a sheet of paper on the floor), and then be able to quickly switch between them to audition the differences.
 
I've got the old Dynaudio BM5As and it would be very interesting to get to borrow a set of ADAM A7s (their natural enemy), put them on top of the Dynos an try to measure and audition how close they'd sound after ARC has flattened each of them in basically the same position in the same room. 

Jeff Evans
...KRK are absolute rubbish and I don't care what anyone says here.  They were crap.  I could not believe how bad they were.  They sounded like a blanket was hung in front of them...

 
Are you just referring to their Rokit range, or do you mean all KRK models?

a lot of pros use krk's

Yes sorry for lack of clarity there. I was referring to the smaller KRK Rokit range as well. 5's and 6's. Certainly not the VXT range. They look a lot better and I am sure they sound it too.
 
We were in that cheaper price range for a pair of active 5 to 7's. The (cheaper) Mackies were not much better either. (compared to say HR824's which sound way different)
 
I did have a student with the larger 8" older Rokit and I did not mind the sound of that speaker at all. But I think brands like Yamaha and JBL get that mid range the way they do. I found the Yamaha mid range to be smoother overall and not like the NS10's in any way. The Yamaha's can sound like a pro monitor most of the time.
 

that's what i hear over my older trapezoidal-shaped krk rokits (5")....
was more clarity in the midrange, with a tighter low end (on the ones i got)