Active near field monitor recommndations

I sold my Equator D5 speaker pair a few months back. I also used Lautus USB into Bitzie into Lautus phono-XLR as my signal path into them. Coaxial monitors, very good sound quality for the £349 that I paid.  They need a room with good damping properties and quite a bit of space otherwise you will get the dreaded upper bass thump. Unlike passive speakers connected to Graham's Proprius monoblocks, which under most circumstances will be DEAD QUIET, the D5s do have some very low level noise at the driver's surfaces, ultimately limiting the absolute purity of the reproduction. However, give them GSP drive, a medium/large room and lots of use and they're probably one of the best speaker pairs of this size/type available. Mine were very good but you know how I feel about speakers in a sub-optimal environment; I hate them haha.

Perhaps look at something like the Adam A3X, which would probably be a more sensible solution for the room constraints you have. 

I may have given the impression that I'm just a headphone fan but actually, the whole point of everything I've done so far was to explore how close headphones could get to speakers. It was basically a sanity check, to teach myself what the speakers should sound like, in both frequencies and phase. What I learned in the end is that I don't like headphones or speakers.  Both have their own character and benefits but it's only natural to enjoy listening to music more when it originates in free space, where it is not bound within an enclosure.

I've just dug a couple of photos out of my collection. My then HD250II was more neutral than the D5s but was spatially flat and 2D in comparison, with a lack of body in the midrange. The transition clearly demonstrated the restrictive spatial character of headphones, the terrible acoustics of my listening room and the inadequate purity of a box speaker, especially one with its own internal amplifier.