More to the question is:
Are these monitors right for my room?
If you ask a dozen people what they think of KRK's, half of them will say they are no good.
Now, were they talking about the cheap ones, the expensive ones, or the really expensive ones. And which room were they testing in. You end up with a question that looks like the:"how long is a piece of string", one.
I have the cheap ones - the Rokits. But they are the 8" jobbies. Great for drum and bass - don't need a subwoofer. Now, if I got the slightly more expensive VXT8s would they sound better or resonate more equally with my room dimensions?
Unfortunately, Monitor size and placement has more to do with your question.
You need to find out your max price you can pay. You need to find out your room size. You need to find out what kind of music, you will 'mostly' be playing on them.
Up until that point, it is quite useless to ask on a public forum: what are the best monitors?
I don't particularly like my KRKs. They are ok. I worked quite a while with the Yamaha HS80s too, they are ok, but you know, you need to make allowances.
But yeah, the HS50s. They are a beautiful pair of monitors that you will find many people use.
Excellent choice!
KRK RP5G2 Monitors
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- KVRAF
- 4584 posts since 21 Sep, 2005
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 7903 posts since 24 May, 2009 from Nationalism isn't my thing...
Thanks! It helps to shop around as zZounds was able to beat a competitor's price.codec_spurt wrote:But yeah, the HS50s. They are a beautiful pair of monitors that you will find many people use.
Excellent choice!
I got them for $165 apiece. 
To the rest of your post, I had no ideas of what to ask, as I've never had monitors before, and right now my office (er...studio) is untreated. I will do some treatment for it soon, though. Mark shares the room with his computer, too, so I can't take it over completely, but having some treatment should be fine.
I have no idea where I'm going to put these monitors on my current desk, though. I'll be building a custom desk soon, but for now I need to squeeze them in where I can. It's definitely not optimal with my current situation.
Thank again, everyone.
Blue Phase Music
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 7903 posts since 24 May, 2009 from Nationalism isn't my thing...
Later, once I can afford to spend the money on this hobby, I probably will upgrade, but for my purposes now, these will be fine.
Blue Phase Music
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- KVRAF
- 2158 posts since 11 Oct, 2007 from Almanya
I just recently compared them all in a listening room.
The KRK RP5 (which I had up to that point and was completely happy with) were the most ridiculous of the lot.
The mixes I made on them ALWAYS had too many and too harsh highs, nearly no bass at all. Comparing them directly to the others, I noticed why: they over-pronounced the low end and were too shy in the highs, typical "we need them to have more bass" hype design. Got rid of them immediately after that.
The RP6 sounded better, but somehow boxy and boomy, like a cardboard box.
The highs were hyped and the midrange sounded like it was cut back, still Hi-Fi style. Maybe a good option for a beginner, but not an option to me as an upgrade.
They also had the Yamaha HS50s/HS80s which sounded alright, but the low-end was ... dunno, just not really there. Also sounded very harsh to me, which is a common adjective to be read about these. I guess because they're somehow shy with the low mids.
Please don't assume the NS-10 thing about these, "they sound like sh1t but they're revealing, if it sounds good on them - it will sound good anywhere". The HS80s (and the HS50s just as well) are a different beast.
I listened to my band's album on all the speakers, and I know that mix very well from listening to it on everything available, from mobile phone over car stereo to night club (yup, it's that good). The mix is a little over-compressed, but not aggressive in the high mids or highs, and on the Yamahas ... it just sounded shrill.
So they were out of the race for me.
The best of the lot were the KRK VXT 4s, and that by far.
The smallest set had the most linear and clear sound of them all. Impressive.
No itching highs - but clearly there, no boomy bass - just low end pressure, the high mids were clear and crisp as they should have been, and the low mids were tight and truthfully revealing all the little details of my very own terrific (
) guitar work. I would never have suspected those little dwarves to have that much low end! Of course, no sub bass <55Hz to be found, but the "bump" of the rapid-fire double-bass metal kick drum was tight and just right.
In the end I got the Tannoy 601, though. Couldn't afford the KRKs without skinting myself for the month, and the Tannoys were so much cheaper.
Overall I found their sound a little more pleasing than the KRKs, which isn't automatically a good thing, but they were very close in ways of a "linear" and honest sound. Maybe a little less high mids.
I had also read quite a lot of good things about the Tannoys on the Net beforehand, so at the moment I can live with my decision. I don't regret buying them, and they're definitely a step up from the RP5s going in the direction of the VXT4s' caliber.
Once I have the means to safely finance them, I'll get a set of VXT4s or VXT6s as my main monitors to mix on. But I'll definitely keep the Tannoys and gladly continue using them until (and after) that is the case.
While we're at it... I see that some lunatic (not me) has listed his KRK RP8s with the fitting KRK Subwoofer on ebay (Germany) for 299€ buy-it-now price. If you're short on cash and need a big set of speakers ... thank me later.
The KRK RP5 (which I had up to that point and was completely happy with) were the most ridiculous of the lot.
The mixes I made on them ALWAYS had too many and too harsh highs, nearly no bass at all. Comparing them directly to the others, I noticed why: they over-pronounced the low end and were too shy in the highs, typical "we need them to have more bass" hype design. Got rid of them immediately after that.
The RP6 sounded better, but somehow boxy and boomy, like a cardboard box.
The highs were hyped and the midrange sounded like it was cut back, still Hi-Fi style. Maybe a good option for a beginner, but not an option to me as an upgrade.
They also had the Yamaha HS50s/HS80s which sounded alright, but the low-end was ... dunno, just not really there. Also sounded very harsh to me, which is a common adjective to be read about these. I guess because they're somehow shy with the low mids.
Please don't assume the NS-10 thing about these, "they sound like sh1t but they're revealing, if it sounds good on them - it will sound good anywhere". The HS80s (and the HS50s just as well) are a different beast.
I listened to my band's album on all the speakers, and I know that mix very well from listening to it on everything available, from mobile phone over car stereo to night club (yup, it's that good). The mix is a little over-compressed, but not aggressive in the high mids or highs, and on the Yamahas ... it just sounded shrill.
So they were out of the race for me.
The best of the lot were the KRK VXT 4s, and that by far.
The smallest set had the most linear and clear sound of them all. Impressive.
No itching highs - but clearly there, no boomy bass - just low end pressure, the high mids were clear and crisp as they should have been, and the low mids were tight and truthfully revealing all the little details of my very own terrific (
) guitar work. I would never have suspected those little dwarves to have that much low end! Of course, no sub bass <55Hz to be found, but the "bump" of the rapid-fire double-bass metal kick drum was tight and just right.In the end I got the Tannoy 601, though. Couldn't afford the KRKs without skinting myself for the month, and the Tannoys were so much cheaper.
Overall I found their sound a little more pleasing than the KRKs, which isn't automatically a good thing, but they were very close in ways of a "linear" and honest sound. Maybe a little less high mids.
I had also read quite a lot of good things about the Tannoys on the Net beforehand, so at the moment I can live with my decision. I don't regret buying them, and they're definitely a step up from the RP5s going in the direction of the VXT4s' caliber.
Once I have the means to safely finance them, I'll get a set of VXT4s or VXT6s as my main monitors to mix on. But I'll definitely keep the Tannoys and gladly continue using them until (and after) that is the case.
While we're at it... I see that some lunatic (not me) has listed his KRK RP8s with the fitting KRK Subwoofer on ebay (Germany) for 299€ buy-it-now price. If you're short on cash and need a big set of speakers ... thank me later.
Reaper user? Get my free JSFX plug-ins, also available via ReaPack extension.
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- KVRAF
- 1959 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
When you get around to room treatment one of the the first upgrades I'd do if your deskmounting them is get some speaker vibration dampening stamds to stop it resonating through the desk. I'm using the Iso Acoustics L8R155 stands and the difference between with and without is astounding no matter what speakers you have. Those some bass traps and reflection point panels make a world of difference to any rooms accustics.4lb Kitty wrote: I have no idea where I'm going to put these monitors on my current desk, though. I'll be building a custom desk soon, but for now I need to squeeze them in where I can. It's definitely not optimal with my current situation.
