If you haven't already, I would think about where you are going to put them. There are good places to put speakers in a given room related to the room dimensions and it is extrememly unlikely that optimal placement will be on a desk. Been there, done that. So you may end up, for sound quality reasons, with your desk in the middle of the room somewhere...with speakers somewhere between the front of your desk and the front wall, on stands. So factor stands into your budget. Make sure they are the right height. You could also go the "home brew" (or used equipment) route for stands.
You could be making a mistake by buying too small a speaker and deciding to get something bigger later. Also been there, done that (Yamaha HS-5-->Yamaha HS8). It is better to get the right speaker the first time instead of hoping to add a subwoofer later. IMHO the HS8s are fine for casual listening which is how I use mine, in a dedicated listening room the size of a master bedroom. They have more bass and loudness than the HS5s but the HS5s worked pretty good right on my desk, which was up against a wall.
I heard the JBLs in a music store and (like the Tannoys I also auditioned) they seemed to produce a bit too much "self-noise" in my audition, but YMMV.
Other than Yamaha HS Series, I was also going to check out the following, but never got around to it: Mackie MR8mk3, Event 20/20BAS.
You could be making a mistake by buying too small a speaker and deciding to get something bigger later. Also been there, done that (Yamaha HS-5-->Yamaha HS8). It is better to get the right speaker the first time instead of hoping to add a subwoofer later. IMHO the HS8s are fine for casual listening which is how I use mine, in a dedicated listening room the size of a master bedroom. They have more bass and loudness than the HS5s but the HS5s worked pretty good right on my desk, which was up against a wall.
I heard the JBLs in a music store and (like the Tannoys I also auditioned) they seemed to produce a bit too much "self-noise" in my audition, but YMMV.
Other than Yamaha HS Series, I was also going to check out the following, but never got around to it: Mackie MR8mk3, Event 20/20BAS.