Monitors that compete with quality floorstanders??

What would a monitors frequency response have to be in order for it to be considered in competition with a floor stander?

The Sjofn (the clue) claims to measure from 28-33Hz to 42KHz - that more than competes with most floor-standers.

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.