Jbl lsr305 - ?

I had a pair, well I still have them, but only one works. One failed just after about 5 years (? - it was literally 1 month out of JBL warranty).

They are decent 5" monitors. I do like my Yamaha HS5s slightly better, but it is subjective as the room has changed. Plus they haven't failed yet, but I've got a good 4 1/2 years to go.

It's not a steal of a price - new they're $129ea now. Honestly at that price I'd get a pair of new ones with someone's easy-payment plan over a year or two, so you get a long-ish warranty on them. Monitors in this price range are not generally economically repairable.
 
Well, at $140 for the pair, it did seem like a good price since it's roughly half new ea. However, I haven't been convinced by anything I've read that these should be my first monitors. I think I'll keep an eye out for others and keep looking. Still waiting for some HS8's to miraculously pop up on sale.
 
Well, at $140 for the pair, it did seem like a good price since it's roughly half new ea. However, I haven't been convinced by anything I've read that these should be my first monitors. I think I'll keep an eye out for others and keep looking. Still waiting for some HS8's to miraculously pop up on sale.
From what I see, whether JBLs, Yamahas, KRKs, et al, their reviews are generally quite positive, given the fact that they're relatively tiny speakers, at least compared to the "stereo speakers" I was accustomed to for decades. And to be fair to all entry monitors, (IMO) many purchasers are often unclear on the purpose or usage of a small driver, nearfield monitor. And because they're spending what might be about as much on a couple small speakers as they already have tied up in an interface and mic(s), they suffer some disappointment when they don't sound amazing, or at least not what they were expecting.

Short story long, unless you know you're going to get some windfall that lets you move up to a very high-end set, and your optimally treated room will reward that investment, or you simply must have a larger driver because you're going to be using them in a big room for more than nearfield mixing, I'd say getting anything decent and learning to use them is a better choice than continuing to mix in the cans.
 
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The red ones are ugly, but that's an OK price - the reds (only) were on sale a year ago at $99 each. The one thing to keep in mind with these and most other low-end monitors: rear bass ports. Unless you've got these well out from your front wall, you need bass traps behind them.
 
The red ones are ugly, but that's an OK price - the reds (only) were on sale a year ago at $99 each. The one thing to keep in mind with these and most other low-end monitors: rear bass ports. Unless you've got these well out from your front wall, you need bass traps behind them.

They wouldn't be. They'd be about 1 ft from the wall behind them. Thanks for the info, that's what I need. I think I'll wait until I grab the HS8's. Just thought I'd check here about those while the store had em'. thnx
 
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