Monitors for tiny home studio

[olepro]

These are very good, and because of the one point driver you can be very close to the monitor , and still have a coherent sound.
https://www.thomann.de/dk/tannoy_gold_5.htm
https://www.thomann.de/dk/tannoy_gold_7.htm

[Passing Bye]

I know, thanks. It is just that it is quite confusing for a newbie like me. Recording and mixing is really nice to do, but is has some many technicalities that you have to consider, also when getting gear, preparing a room, choosing setups etc. And it is never a nice experience to buy stuff only to find out that you should have bought smaller/bigger monitors, that your headphones do not match the impedance level of your audio interface, that you need another room etc. So forgive me for asking stupid questions

You didn't asked stupid questions, I wanted to clarify something clearly, you probably had your own mixed up interpretation of things based on everything you heard from different people and sources.

[El°HYM]

You really shouldnt put 5 or 7 Inch speakers into a 2*2.5 Meter Room; get the tiniest ones which work for Monitoring, like the IK, JBL or maybe the Cubes. The reason is that a Wave needs to travel through the Air and if it cannot complete its Cycle you will get Phase-cancellations or even Some kind weird Build-ups etc. - The Wavelength of a 100Hz Tone needs about 135 Inches to complete one Cycle. If you go Higher in Pitch the Length gets shorter e.g. 1kHz = 13.5 Inches & so on. So You dont need speakers which go deeper than lets say 200-300, which is the Maximum and Lowest you ca go, if you set up the Monitors to the longer 2.5 Meter Wall, which I would do if it is possible. Keep in Mind, you need a sweetspot - listening position, too; so in between the Monitors should also be a space like 1.5 Meters or something. Like I said, you dont really have that many options in such a tiny room, so my suggestion would be; buy some tiny speakers that sound decent enough to Mix on.

[excuse me please]

Just discovered the Fostex PMO.4c
They're €189 (pair)

[roman.i]

So basically what you are saying is to take the classic approach and get monitors and make sure the room gets treated to some extent? What monitors would be the best for my small space given my budget?

I think there is no such thing "the best monitor". It's a matter of a personal taste. You need listen in a shop to your favourite music, and purchase the monitor sounds nicest to you.

[Aloysius]

[excuse me please]

My choice would be KRK Rokit Classic 5. Electronic music and first purchase.

[LocalTrack19]

So basically what you are saying is to take the classic approach and get monitors and make sure the room gets treated to some extent? What monitors would be the best for my small space given my budget?

I think there is no such thing "the best monitor". It's a matter of a personal taste. You need listen in a shop to your favourite music, and purchase the monitor sounds nicest to you.

I agree, the issue however is that in my country there are practically no physical music shops anymore, only online stores. Since you advised me 5” monitors while some others say I should go for smaller given my room size, would you advise for or against using a very small sub (5”) in combination with 3” or 4” speakers? The ones excuse me please recommends look quite interesting combined with the Fostex 5” sub for the LF

[roman.i]

I agree, the issue however is that in my country there are practically no physical music shops anymore, only online stores. Since you advised me 5” monitors while some others say I should go for smaller given my room size, would you advise for or against using a very small sub (5”) in combination with 3” or 4” speakers? The ones excuse me please recommends look quite interesting combined with the Fostex 5” sub for the LF

I had an opportunity to listen to tens of monitors in one of the biggest shops in my country. I came there with all these suggestions from the internet, but they didn't pass the reality check.
I purchased a 7 inch monitor for my 3.5mx2.8m room and happy with it. I wouldn't even consider the extended frequency response in bass range as a disadvantage, since you always can and should use the on-board DSP or software for tuning the monitor's frequency response for the room.
The main difference in driver size is the sweet spot distance between you and the driver. For example, if you stand close to a 15 inch speaker it will sound too "big", and a smaller size speaker will sound too "small". That's why there are categories: nearfield, midfield, main. You need a small nearfield, with a 5 to 7 inch driver that would fit for a close distance, in your case up to a meter or so. The other, but also important issue with bigger drivers is the loudness they require to drive them.
To me, a 5-inch driver sounded too small. But, probably for your room 7 inch is too big, and 5 inch will be OK if taking into a consideration 80s music bass response requirement.
Regarding the blind monitor choosing. An important thing to understand - in this price range there is a lot of competition going on, almost all monitors in this price range sounds of the same league. Except some that have unique technology, like the ADAM/EVE tweeter.
Basically what I'm saying is your hearing will get used to any of these speakers, but for blind purchase, I'd avoid getting unique tech since it can be annoying sounding to some people. Get the average 5 inch monitor, and don't forget the rest accessories they are equally important for the sound, acoustics, stands etc.

[El°HYM]

Still thinking that 4 Inches Maximum would be more than enough for this tiny room; yet, also agree that you would need a sweet spot and the getting too tiny speakers might not be a good idea. The ILouds actually seem pretty fine to me, for this situation. As said above 1.50 meters between monitors and the hearing sweet spot 1.50 meters in a Triangle from that, plus the Speakers should be some Inches away from the Walls... not too many Options here, like I said. Adjusting the Frequency - response to your Room would be the next step and after that, some slight Treatment of the Room, to get whatever is best possible for the Situation.

[Passing Bye]

These are very good, and because of the one point driver you can be very close to the monitor , and still have a coherent sound.
https://www.thomann.de/dk/tannoy_gold_5.htm
https://www.thomann.de/dk/tannoy_gold_7.htm

Can't wait to hear them, some colleagues that I trust immensely praised those and if I would go to trust anyone blindly and buy monitors without hearing them, it would be those Tannoy's for sure.

[roman.i]

That 1.5m distance suggestion comes with assumption that you have a proper studio room, but it doesn't work in small spaces, mainly because of phase cancellations that can happen in this specific area.
The rule of thumb 1/3 size of the long wall is a good starting point for listening position, theoretically with less cancellations.
Genelec has a good tutorial how to place a speaker near walls. 35cm between the front monitor panel and the wall works for me. Equal triangle is also important for stereo image, but the size of triangle is dictated by other major issues of the small room, the stereo image is the least important one of them.

[LocalTrack19]

It would be possible to create an equal triangle listening position of 90 cm. That would be slightly below the 1/3 size of the long wall as you suggest, so close enough I think.
I should also mention that behind me there is a door to a walk-in closet which I can also open to “enlarge” the room if that is better for LF waves.
Also I have space to place bass traps in the front two corners of that helps. Behind me, there is the abovementioned door in one corner, and a book closet in the other corner

[El°HYM]

You are right, the 1.50m is more like a Rule of Thumb, same as the 0.50cm away from the Walls. Even if he uses the longer Wall to place the Monitors and have a decent Sweet - spot & Stereo field, he would then also sit pretty much directly to the Backwall, which is also not a very good Idea. Maybe your suggestion using the smaller wall and squeezing the Triangle a little Bit, makes more sense here, that would also be about 1/3 size of the long wall then for the sweetspot. If its really just 90cm then really get small speakers, which then might get a little closer to the Walls, as 1m would really make sense, even for a very tiny monitoring - triangle.

[roman.i]

It would be possible to create an equal triangle listening position of 90 cm. That would be slightly below the 1/3 size of the long wall as you suggest, so close enough I think.
I should also mention that behind me there is a door to a walk-in closet which I can also open to “enlarge” the room if that is better for LF waves.
Also I have space to place bass traps in the front two corners of that helps. Behind me, there is the abovementioned door in one corner, and a book closet in the other corner

My setup is an 80cm equal sides triangle. It's very hard to find a good position in a small room, every 10cm change makes a difference. But with smaller distances, it's easier to control reflections and it requires less acoustic panels. I use four 120x60 broadband panels(GIK 244), one on the front, two on the sides for early reflections, and one to kill the rumbling of the back wall. I think 5 inch monitor doesn't produce that much bass, so not sure if you need bass traps at all. I'm not a big fan of floor bass trap unless you're a professional, because it does one thing and can't be used for anything else, a broadband panel can be used as a general purpose acoustic panel, but as a bass trap as well if you tilt it or install it in the corner.