Monitors that compete with quality floorstanders??

Simao mentioned the Part Time Audiophile review of (the clue), and I've found him to be a pretty straight shooter although I'll say our tastes are probably similar since I love the JA Pulsars (and all JA speakers) as well. Also read the Positive Feedback review if you haven't. Having heard (the clue) in person I can personally vouch that he's not exaggerating and pretty much heard the same things I heard.

As for your prior comment on picky room placement, I'd kinda disagree there. Yes, you need to place the speakers 2" from the wall with a specific toe-in and distance to the speakers. But how nice is it that a lot of the work has already been done for you and that you can just follow a known formula and pretty much be done with it? And how nice is it that you don't have to spend weeks or months fiddling with moving speakers around and that you don't need to have the speakers 4 or 5 feet into the room to sound balanced and image well? I'm not a fan of speakers up against a wall and mine are a good 6 feet into my room, but (the clue) really changed my perspective on that given what I heard.

Lastly, if you don't live near a Sjofn dealer I think you can get a 30-day trial at home, so what the hell? And if you live near a dealer have them let you demo at home. If they're anywhere near as good as what I heard I doubt you'd return them. And no, I have no affiliation with this company at all. Still just flabbergasted by what I heard in NYC that day. Just surreal. By the way, I'm also a very big Ref 3A fan and may even own a pair one day, but I just don't see their smaller monitors (or any that I can think of) doing the extraordinary bass thing I heard out of (the clue)s if that's an important consideration. Hope this helps (again) and best of luck (again).

Part Time Audiophile raved about the Soundfield Audio Monitors as well. Here is an excerpt:

AJ specs the Monitor 1 to 38Hz, but check out the in room response he was getting at AXPONA! He measured seven different seats in two rows to generate the average responses and graphed ‘em all for us. What’s the bottom line (as it were)? It’s 10dB down at 20Hz and flat to 30dB.

These definitely compete with floor standers.

AJ the designer built these specifically for people who want full range sound from a monitor without having to augment them with subs.

Czarivey was the first to mention the obvious choice, the Totem Mani-2 Signature. There is a pair currently for sale on A-gon in your price range. Furthermore, here's the Stereophile Review, plus measurements, plus updated measurements from 2009. The averaged response curve is remarkably flat, and indicates an honest -6dB point of 28 Hz. This would be excellent bass in a floorstander, but is totally remarkable in an 8.5"x16.5"x12" monitor.

PS: I have no affiliation with the seller listing those Mani-2's.

Agree with Johnny. I've heard the Mani-2s and they are remarkable for their bass output (as well as many other things) for their size too. The thing is, (the clue)s are rated at -3dB from 28 to 33Hz (room dependent) and are about $1000/pr. new. That's the rub with these ridiculous speakers. The Totems listed, as good as they are, are $2800 used. For that price you could get four stacked (the clue)s and a pair of decent stands NEW, and with four of them working the bass would obviously be even more formidable. That's the way I heard'em, and WOW. I think their somewhat unfair advantage is that the designer figured out a way to use the walls, ceiling, and floor to synergistically bring these small speakers to a completely unexpected level in comparison to more traditionally designed speakers. I also think there's some innovative thinking going on in the crossover in these speakers maybe not too dissimilar to Joseph Audio's infinite slope design as it seems to be a sliding crossover slope. However they do it, the imaging despite being shoved up against a wall was very impressive. Whatever. What I heard was seamless, natural, and absurdly bass proficient -- more than anything I've heard anywhere near their size and certainly their price.

I realize I sound like a complete shill, but really just forwarding impressions from a product that literally knocked my socks off. And that just don't happen much. For what it's worth...

I think there is some heavy-duty "marketing" going on with Sjofn's specs. A standmounter with a 5.5" driver and a small-moderate sized cabinet is not going to do 28Hz on the bottom. It may have a very impressive low end, but I find that specification very suspect. So, if someone feels it might be able to compete with a floorstander on the bottom end, give it a listen first. Admittedly, I haven't heard the speaker, but I'd like to see a little more accuracy in the way things are rated. It kind of reminds me of the little home theatre in a box systems bragging about having 1500W (probably rated one channel driven at a lower impedance for a nanosecond at 20% distortion multiplied by the number of channels).