Mackie HR824

From what? They have plenty of deep punchy bass. Some unpleasant resonances and harmonics make sound somewhat fatiguing. Sound is not smooth, partly because monitors are supposed to be revealing, partly from poor design. I thought they were bright with Marantz CDR-500 as source and HAD to turn the treble down all the way (maybe -2dB ?).
Try Dynaudio BM-5 from markertek.com. They are passive but much more smooth and still plenty of bass although not as punchy and deep as you will get from an active speaker.
KRK V-8's from Guitar Center stores are better still IMHO.

Mackie HR824's are fabulous speakers. They are bi-amped, powered
speakers and they will take a balanced XLR input from your pre-amp. They
are a huge bang for the buck, impossible to beat the sonics at that price since
you won't have to buy an amplifier. They are used in many recording studios.
Far from being fatiguing, I can listen to them all day long. I'm guessing the
differing opinions here are due to upstream electronics and listening room.
Taste may have something to do with it. Mackies are accurate speakers --
they do not color the sound with artificial warmth or punch out the highs for
artificial edgy detail. They are linear within +/- 1.5db from 39kHz to 22Hz
and the bi-amping means you will get deeper, more accurate bass out of
these than from any other speaker of their size. I've had them in a 15' X 20'
room and they filled it, no-sweat.

Second the KRK's,still have them in a 2nd system.The Mackies are good for that room size.Either way your going to be happy,Bob

I am looking to upgrade from Quad 12L driven by Roksan Kandy III. Looking for bookselves that are more extended but smoother at the top-end. Present combo can get a little fatiging. Quite listenable with recordings of lesser quality. Total listenable with pop/rock music.

Thanks.