Self powered speakers for Benchmark Dac1 Pre

I am open to trying near field. Since the source is a PC to the Benchmark I might try putting the speakers on the desk with the monitor vs. across the room against the wall.

How would people describe the differences between near field vs normal speaker positioning?

I own the benchmark and have done just this with a pair of quad self powered monitors. Sounds pretty good. Though depending on what you were thinking of spending on speakers you may be able to get into a set of dynaudio xeo 3 speakers. Check them out they are everything DAC/amp all in one. There is a little box that takes USB or spdif or toslink even an analog in sent wirelessly to the speakers that only need be plugged in. I personally own both of these setups and there is no comparison the dynaudio xeos are way better and so much less clutter. I had a huge rack of gear in my bedroom a system that retailed over 10k and I like the xeos just as well. They sound so good that one would almost wonder why bother with all the clutter and wires at all.

Near field is about the same (a little more detailed) but you can get away with smaller speakers because they don't need to fill the room, only the listening area. You also tend to get less rom effects.

Focal CMS50

Bam! The Emotiva Airmotiv powered monitor line.

This latest generation of air motion folded ribbon tweeters are quick, articulate, and best of all naturally smooth and easy to listen to. They also show up in the GoldenEar products and the MartinLogan Motion Series, but it's Emotiva's pro line that puts them in compact powered monitors.