I bought a pair of white 305p MKII's (£99 each) and some
Fluid Audio desk stands (£36). Last night, I unboxed one monitor. First impressions were good, the monitor was well packaged, seems to be put together properly and would look really great on my desk - a desk which I would have to re-arrange as the 305p MKII is considerably larger than my JBL 1 Series 104's (perhaps too large for my little office...).
To test the monitor, I plugged into into the pre-out of my JDS Labs Atom (RCA to XLR). As I feared, I was greeted with a large amount of hiss from the tweater. It didn't seem to matter what volume was set on the Atom or the 305p, the hiss remained audible and was much to annoying for me, so I decided to send them back.
I have considered the alternatives. I almost ordered the Presonus Eris E5 XT's (£125 each in the UK), however the XT's are even wider than the 305p's and I just couldn't see a way to fit them on my desk. I looked at lots of other 5" monitors and decided that they are all too big for my desk, so I've dropped down to 4" and have ordered a pair of Tannoy Reveal 402's to try. I found them for £68 each, they are usually £80-90 in the UK, so it seems like a bargain - time will tell, they arrive on Friday...