you get what you pay for when you buy monitors. I've read how a lot of people buy KRK's or cheaper monitors and because its their first pair they claim that the monitors are great, and this type of proclamation is true in the context of a biased comparison to an old pc monitors. There are no cheap substitutions is basically what i'm saying. If you want/need an accurate representation of your sound you need quality parts and that cost money. The next step above those mackie hr824's is basically genelecs and those are just too pricey for me. Another good company which is really not too well known is
http://www.nhtpro.com/ . they make good durable clean sounding monitors but they are pricey, and i don't believe they are mass produced i may be wrong about that.
A warning tho to future monitor consumer two different sales people told me not to buy Event TR8XL because there is a flaw in their design. I was told that some drum or other high pitched sounds get caught in that opening on the monitors and bounce around and basically from getting trapped at the opening it turns the sound into a high pitched click or pop.
I went with the different peices of vintage gear for different reasons, but mainly production costs where higher and gear was more expensive post 90's so there was an overall increase in quality durability and parts. The kx88 is a work horse and its claim to fame is the most realistic piano feel. The eiii cost 15 grand in 1988 and was built to be a low priced conteder against synclavier and cmi fairlight, 100 grand and up workstations which got you instant work if you had them. Eiii also has 16 independent analog filters for its 16 mono outs and those 16 analog filters go to its stereo outs 2. Emu spent so much money in research and development for the eiii that it tanked their company. When people complain about the eiii its because they are tired of having to pull out the four motherboards and reseat the chips. Basically buy gear that won't break and that you will never have a reason for selling