The more I look into budget speaker measurements on ASR, the more obvious it becomes that passive speakers at about $200 a pair are a waste of money. It's mostly 4'' woofer stuff with weak bass reproduction and they are not a standalone product. I also need a DAC, an amp and possibly a subwoofer. The tests so far seem to confirm that a high no-sub preference score for 4'' speakers is impossible. As an off-topic, the super-jump with pref score while using a sub looks like a $10 000 sub in an equation.
Pairing it with a budget good quality DAC Topping D10 at $70 (which I already have) and SMSL SA-98E at $130 as an amp (a choice based only on the customer reviews which aren't even all-so-positive, there are no good budget amps in ASR tests). It makes the setup $200 speakers + $200 other + optional subwoofer.
My point is that setting a tight budget for passive speakers + an amp is not a good idea when you can instead buy active ones, JBL 305 for example. Less research, less risk (unless the hiss kills you haha!), less money. Also, the less you pay, the more you need to add a sub to your shopping list. Even in a second-world country where I live, audio enthusiasts will easily spend $300-500 on speakers as long as there is evidence that they perform significantly better than the $200 ones and better than many $1000 speakers. Gamers, on the other hand, won't even type "passive speakers" in Google. It's all about headphones for them. While scientifically it's a good idea to test various speakers at different price points and see how their performance is correlated with price, I would advise testing only a few that are really popular and recommended, to have some point of reference.
Recently ELAC DBR-62 scored pretty well, so possibly ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 at $360 could do quite well. It has great availability in Europe. I'm a bit skeptical about them, however, as the reviewers claimed that they are relatively bright and discover a lot of badness in the recordings. I had AKG K240 Studio headphones once and there was too much badness in the long run for my taste.
@amirm - how many devices approximately do You have stockpiled and waiting for tests if it's not a secret? Did this pile get smaller at all over the last month or new shipments with return deadlines effectively keep it constant/make it grow?