I heard them both and I thought the bx8's were bass heavy. I have the bx5's and I love 'em. BUT - you have to place them properly. I have moved them a few times and this time, I got it right. Even if I stand up, there is a different balance. I have them on a shelf and I had a computer between them, moved it out of the way and it sounds different.
It really doesn't matter what you have as long as it's decent, and you HAVE to test other systems always, the pro's do it too. you have a box, a car, a stereo, a stereo w/ a sub, PC speakers, headphones, and your Studio monitors. There's no way around it, you can't trust one source. and play CD's and radio thru your monitors too, so you can get a comparison and learn what they sound like. I'm always going back to my old stereo speaks for comparison, not b/c they are any good, but b/c i'm used to hearing everything thru it and I need to do that to check that I'm hearing the right way, as a reference.
I say save money and space and don't get monitors b/c they sound great, but get 'em b/c they sound flat or so you can hear everything you are used to hearing on you test CD that you bring with you to the store.
I had a CD w/ all kinds of familiar stuff and it had about 20 short clips, it was very odd, but helped a lot to choose.
