Cheapest pair of not-entirely-worthless speakers/"monitors"

Most people don't need or have the space or an 8" speaker. 5" are great. I have 2 pairs of Tannoys, Reveal 5. I liked them so much I purchased another set. They are the previous generation, so I can't say the quality of the newest. I use Adam A7 (not A7x) and whatever sub that goes along with them for surround mixing in my studio. The Tannoys, for the price, are almost as good as the Adams for most people. I purchased my second set for less than $100 each. The negatives: they are not grounded. So make sure you don't have any ground loops and you'll be OK. More important is to get your room sounding good. Use lots of egg cartons. Tons of them. Plaster them on everything... twice. (please don't do that with egg cartons... the best thing you can do with egg cartons is hold eggs)

You should really use paragraphs. It hard to tell where the satire begins in this form. :)
 
This is about where I'm at now. (<$240) Oh and I don't buy used.

Thats pretty tough there.

<$240 and new....

I knew a couple people who were happy enough with Behringer 2030A $149 each, 6.75".
$149.99 each... buy local if you can so you dont have to do the shipping if they burn out. Shipping speakers would suck $$$$.

The gang here recommended 6-7" speakers years ago when I was seeking to improve the mixes.
I tried some 5" but the bass was too lite in the bass for me. I didnt need the 8" but they had some more bass ...the 6-7" size seemed just right for the typical 3ft triangle.

Actually today I use open-back headphones a lot for playback to eliminate the room. Ive moved the hobby into a really small room and the speakers are just barely 3ft triangle with little to no room from the wall and not much room behind me in the chair(6ft or so). So I started looking into better headphones and headphone amps. I feel I get a better image with headphones than this small vocal booth sized room. haa....the headphones start seeming pretty nice and grabbing a good headphone amp and using crossfeed Im thinking it can be done. Its not # 1 choice or ideal but its not as bad now with open-backs and a good headphone amp. Doing up a room is no small task and not for the lazy..

practice mixing will probably get you further along than what type speakers you buy. but I think Ethans got the basics covered well and offers some free advice for the HR broke bastards.:drunk:


http://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm
 

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from parts Express ..... Dayton had a couple of pairs that run less than 60 bucks ..... pretty decent sounding speakers.
i got the cheapest at 30 bucks a pair .... Dayton B652's.
They're surprisingly good ..... I bought them for a desktop system ...... Stereophile had reviewed them favorably.
They make a pair about twice as much that are essentially the same but with a ribbon tweeter.
 
The OP was very clear. He didn't want advice, he wanted an answer.

Agreed. It may not line up with everyone's preferences but the OP made his position pretty clear.

You (not DM60) can argue that a request for cheap but not useless monitors doesn't work but it does.
In that grand scheme of things that's what everyone here, except maybe Master, is using. It's just varying degrees.
 
Agreed. It may not line up with everyone's preferences but the OP made his position pretty clear.

You (not DM60) can argue that a request for cheap but not useless monitors doesn't work but it does.
In that grand scheme of things that's what everyone here, except maybe Master, is using. It's just varying degrees.


Not many of his first posts do, actually : )

"Prefer experience talking but will settle for 2d-hand info of people you trust music-wise. I say "not-entirely-worthless" because I know how in love people often get with gear and insist you have to get something pricier/trendier/etc than what is really necessary, esp for a home studio type who has zero commercial aspirations.:) And this will be in a smallish bedroom so smaller/weaker the better, frankly. It's not like I'm making any "it has to be loud to be good" tunes".

Do I need to go over what is missing : )
 
I'll be honest I didn't read the replies about used gear/etc; thanks but as I said before it is a pointless discussion for me. Back to speakers. New ones. :)

Has anyone used anything significantly less than the JBLs (about $300 a pair) that sounded at least decent, and I don't mean "decent for a pro-level studio" or other similarly high standards, but just in general a respectable, accurate, even modestly acceptable sound quality?

I'm jumping into this party a little late and I didn't read all the posts. I can't help but think that you might be better served looking for a decent pair of regular speakers without the "Studio Monitor" label attached. I personally use Bose 140 bookshelf speakers with a powered sub woofer. The sub woofer has an amp to drive the bookshelf speaker. I also have a pair of Event 5" monitors, but I can get by without them if needed.

All the different speakers and monitors out there are going to require you to learn them. If you're budget conscious, then you can learn that consumer grade speakers sound great but have a hyped low end and high end. You'll just have to compensate.
 
There are box MFG that market that "shiney is better" in monitors and speakers, but there are straight shooters, too. You can't have any of that wiz-bang on Classical Music - it just sounds too fake.
 
There are box MFG that market that "shiney is better" in monitors and speakers, but there are straight shooters, too. You can't have any of that wiz-bang on Classical Music - it just sounds too fake.

Well then define the 'straight shooters' from the 'Shiney' ones. You are not giving any direct experience information dood. In fact you are creating more convolution by your vague responses.

Please help us understand what you are stating with facts. Please? I am listening.
 
Well then define the 'straight shooters' from the 'Shiney' ones. You are not giving any direct experience information dood. In fact you are creating more convolution by your vague responses.

Please help us understand what you are stating with facts. Please? I am listening.

You mean like swee*water ? The page with my last mixer says 8 in one place and 10 in another as to +48 jacks.
 
You mean like swee*water ? The page with my last mixer says 8 in one place and 10 in another as to +48 jacks.

Well I would say that is indirect to the thread at hand. It in fact has no direct meaning to this thread, so yeah man. Stop making irrelevant posts please?

Keep on topic dood. :)
 
There are box MFG that market that "shiney is better" in monitors and speakers, but there are straight shooters, too. You can't have any of that wiz-bang on Classical Music - it just sounds too fake.

This 'standard' might mean something to you, but is worthless to literally every other human on the planet without detailed explanation and examples. As Jimmy suggests, a lot of your posts are cryptic. No one's got time to decipher your posts.
 
I'm curious what makes the D5's stand out to you? I have a set of KEF speakers with a coaxial design which I enjoy greatly though they are not truly monitors.

Which Kef's? I had Coda 7's and I currently have Q300's. Love them.
 
I think the bass is pretty alright, and for the money (OP's original idea was cheap ones) they're not bad. Plus OP said they don't ned to be loud....
 
I have the Kef C55's. Traded them for a couple patchbays and couldn't be more happy with that trade

kef-c55-60439.jpg
 
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