I'm looking at buying some nice studio monitors for my newly aquired Dual G5 editing setup with Final Cut Studio. I have done some searching on the forums, and some other research online, and have narrowed it down to two different possible sets of monitors, listed below:

Mackie HR624
M-Audio BX5a

Unfortunately, I am unable to go somewhere to test these out myself, so I will rely on all of you for that. Because I can get either of these monitors for the same price, it comes down to performance. Which ones are the better speakers? What are your opinions or thoughts?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Why can't you go test them? I have the BX-5's... Don't know about the Mackies, but I think you'll find the BX-5's at any guitar/musical instrument store, along with a number of similar ones - or at least that's the case in my area...

FWIW, I just bought a set of BX8a on eBay for $275 including fedex freight.

I'm looking at buying some nice studio monitors for my newly aquired Dual G5 editing setup with Final Cut Studio. I have done some searching on the forums, and some other research online, and have narrowed it down to two different possible sets of monitors, listed below:

Mackie HR624
M-Audio BX5a

Unfortunately, I am unable to go somewhere to test these out myself, so I will rely on all of you for that. Because I can get either of these monitors for the same price, it comes down to performance. Which ones are the better speakers? What are your opinions or thoughts?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

In the SF Bay area there aren't any dealers with a pair of each set up for demo? No offense but that's awfully hard to believe. A quick website check turns up a dozen dealers within a few minutes of Cupertino and surely some of them have demo units set up for your listening pleasure.

Yeah, I guess I could do a search online to find some dealers. I just don't know of any around me other than Guitar Center. I usually buy all my stuff online, so I often just ignore the fact that there are still stores which can be used to try out products.

I'll do a search and find out for myself which I like better!

FWIW, I just bought a set of BX8a on eBay for $275 including fedex freight.
Where did you find these on eBay? Were you just lucky or was there some other strategy? I just did a search on eBay for BX8a's and the lowest price anywhere is $499.

Of course both other posters are correct; go listen to them.
FWIW, you'll likely find the Mackie's kick the M-Audio boxes all over the map. I have both, use both, and much prefer the Mackie's. We travel with the M-audio boxes, because they are lighter, and need less tweaking, but the Mackie's simply sound more robust. Heavier by a long shot though.