Studio Monitors

J

Joemexistrat

New member
Looking for some fairly decent studio monitors in the $300-500 range. Environment will be a very awesome cube room home studio treated as best as the situation will allow. Was looking at the Yamaha HS8's, seem to be pretty popular.
 
im in dallas, but have a set Im going to get around to selling.
not going to ship though...

Yamahas are pretty well liked. Cant go wrong I bet with those.
 
If there's a music shop nearby I'd go there and listen to a few. Guitar Center in my area has a small studio setup in the back with several lower end models, and one or two mid range. The Yamahas and JBLs seem to be the most popular entry level 5-8" monitors right now. Note that "fairly decent" is about all you get in that price range, which puts you squarely in the entry level.
 
Pinky said:
If there's a music shop nearby I'd go there and listen to a few. Guitar Center in my area has a small studio setup in the back with several lower end models, and one or two mid range. The Yamahas and JBLs seem to be the most popular entry level 5-8" monitors right now. Note that "fairly decent" is about all you get in that price range, which puts you squarely in the entry level.
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Yeah, it's cool. At this point it's just about getting reacclimated to recording before dropping $$$ on a nice set.
 
Joemexistrat said:
Yeah, it's cool. At this point it's just about getting reacclimated to recording before dropping $$$ on a nice set.
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Same here, you can get quite a bit of mileage out of lower end equipment nowadays, it's much better than lower end gear just 10 years ago.
 
I've got the Yamaha HS5s - recommended by my composer uncle as the modern replacement for the classic Yamaha near-fields. They are very representational--meaning, if you can make something sound good on these, they will sound good anywhere.

I've actually even used these on a small outdoor gig as the house speakers!
 
skwee said:
I've got the Yamaha HS5s - recommended by my composer uncle as the modern replacement for the classic Yamaha near-fields. They are very representational--meaning, if you can make something sound good on these, they will sound good anywhere.

I've actually even used these on a small outdoor gig as the house speakers!
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Yeah, was deciding on the HS5 or HS8. Wondering if the HS8 might be to much for my cube of doom studio lol. If you look in the Studio Building section I'm near the top with my plans for treatment and ideas from other users.
 
Remember the Yamaha NS10 was a home hifi speaker that didn't sell. It ended up getting studio status purely by accident.

Don't exclude hifi speakers. There are some bargains around at times that can double as monitors. There once was the Wharfedale Little Diamond active, that was better than most of the lower end studio monitors, fi. Only problem is, Harman exploited that fame by releasing a large number of other speakers under the same name and of course, the later ones are crap.

The JBL LS305 wasn't really planned as a studio monitor either. It's just that Harman's marketing dept saw an opening in the pro market that wasn't there in the home market.
 
cyrano said:
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The JBL LS305 wasn't really planned as a studio monitor either. It's just that Harman's marketing dept saw an opening in the pro market that wasn't there in the home market.
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There was a line of JBL monitors before the current LS series that included a 5" (LSR2325P). I always assumed the LS series was just the latest model lineup. Hard to imagine they plucked a powered 5" speaker out of some other realm, or are you saying all of the LS series were originally something else? Just curious about your statement's source, honestly.
 
JBL has for many years had a dedicated line of studio monitors. LSR and LS series are just the evolution of them
 
Current higher end JBL's are designed and built (cabinets) in Denmark. Assembly is in the USA, I think.

Lower end stuff is designed in the USA and built in China.

It's pretty solidly built though. I recently repaired a JBL sub. Just one of the better surround things. It's amp is discrete, not the typical LM3886 amp. And that is fairly expensive. But it has "Chinese" written all over it. And the same goes for the LS305. The speaker units are from one of the best Chinese suppliers. I took one apart because of a rattle inside. It was a piece of hot glue that was tumbling around inside the cabinet. The owner only noticed it because he moved his setup. It wasn't audible when listening to the speakers.

The same goes for a lot of manufacturers these days. Once the owner of the brand is Harman (now owned by Samsung) the research facilities and factories are closed and product development and manufacturing is outsourced, usually to Chinese outfits.

It's a shame, but that's the way things go these days.
 
Golden age for JBL was when they were in Northridge Ca.

It was a sad day for many when that ceased to exist.
 
I'm using the HS-8s for some years now. Very happy with them. Use them for all my mixes. About a year ago I added the subwoofer. Much better still. Although the monitors have decent bass by themselves already.

Keep in mind that careful placement of speakers and listening position in the room is at least as important as the speakers themselves. 10k speakers in a bad position or unfit room will still sound pretty shitty.. Learnt this some time ago as I tried a simple sine-sweep test. Followed some free tips from acousticsinsider.com and now I've much better sound without spending a dime.

Good luck!
 
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