KVR Audio

cheezy102 · Post by **cheezy102** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:08 pm

i'm new to music production and am looking for a pair of budget studio monitors. i'm using my stereo at the moment but when I played my music on a diff system it sounded VERY different. i would like to spend around £200. i suppsose i could go a little higher. what can I expect to get in this price range and does anyone have any recommendations?

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:54 pm

You have the choice:

* get some passive monitors, hook them up with your hifi amp (needs to be a good one with plenty of power) for less money than powered monitors.
Bonus: one volume knob! if your amp has A/B speaker switches you can compare!
Recommendation: Alesis Monitor 1 Mk2 (have these myself)
Cons: this set does not have massive bass sound, but it's there still.

* get a set of active monitors, e.g. Behringer Truth B2030A
The builtin amp will definitely match the speakers.
Bonus: bass sound is better than of the Alesis passives.
Cons: power switch + volume knobs nearly always located at the back. If you have a mixer then that's not really a problem.

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:54 pm

Yamaha HS80M aren't that bad for the price. Nice boom for dough ratio. Fostex PM-2 even better, but both cost more than 200 squid. I don't believe you can get anything decent at that or lower price. Now to define what's decent, that's tough. Let's just say "decent" are the monitors with which your mixes can translate as good as possible to other systems. For that, you need the flattest responsing monitors you can get, and they must also be the ones that sound best to *your* ears. The decision can be fairly easy if you get a chance to listen to as many pairs as you can and AB-ing them, before you make the final decision, but it's hard to find such a shop.

If there's anything that's extremely important if you want to do your own CD-s, that's studio monitors, the audio card and acoustics in your room, nothing else [also a mic if you use vocals]. Think about it and keep saving money until you can buy something "decent"

. At least that's what I'd [and did] do.

Cheers!

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:00 pm

Plz have a look in this thread: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 38&start=0

Dux has a good point: always demo & listen before buying, if possible some contenders next to each other in one shop. Take a day off and travel hundreds of miles if you need to, it's worth it! Bring a CD with some well-produced reference tracks for critical listening.

cheezy102 · Post by **cheezy102** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:37 pm

BertKoor wrote:You have the choice:

* get some passive monitors, hook them up with your hifi amp (needs to be a good one with plenty of power) for less money than powered monitors.
Bonus: one volume knob! if your amp has A/B speaker switches you can compare!
Recommendation: Alesis Monitor 1 Mk2 (have these myself)
Cons: this set does not have massive bass sound, but it's there still.

* get a set of active monitors, e.g. Behringer Truth B2030A
The builtin amp will definitely match the speakers.
Bonus: bass sound is better than of the Alesis passives.
Cons: power switch + volume knobs nearly always located at the back. If you have a mixer then that's not really a problem.

thanks for all the advice. i would certainly need active monitors because the stereo i'm using is old and was only £250 when i bought it

DuX · Post by **DuX** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:58 pm

Oh yeah, that's a brilliant thread Bert, thumbs up for pointing it out

. Thumbs up for going active, too cheezy102, less [cables?] trouble and better sound. These ChipAmps which they usually install into these work really great these days.

Cheers!

where02190 · Post by **where02190** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:56 pm

The KRK Rockit series are fantastic, even the little 5's are great. IMHO best bang for the buck in low priced monitors.

mmichalski59 · Post by **mmichalski59** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:05 pm

I just picked up a couple of Yamaha HS50Ms and I really like them. I have a very small space and these fit nicely, sound great and are a great value at $200 US a piece. I listened to a few different models including Mackies, Tannoys and KRKs and, for me, these were perfect.

budget monitors