What monitors to buy??? Help!!!

[Tasha Morgan]

Can someone help me please?!!! I am an extreme newbie. I have only made myself familiar with recording for home studio purposes oh for about 1 month now. I want to do some recording on my home pc (Dell 667 with 20gigs of hard drive and 128 memory). I have Cakewalk Home Studio 9.0 installed. When I do recordings at home, I want to be able to hear what I am recording while I am recording it. I know this question has probably been asked a million times, but I want to know what kind of near-field studio monitors to buy. I want them to be active so I don't have to mess with an external amp. I am just starting out, so a pretty good sounding set of speakers will do. My budget is around $300. Can anyone give me any suggestions? Also, where would I hook them into my computer? In the digital out connection???

[Emeric]

The event 20/20's are pretty popular. I got a pair about a year ago and have no complaints. These are not powered though so you would need some type of amplification as well. I don't know of any powered monitors that fall into the $300 range. The Event PS5's are $400 +. If you have some type of home receiver/amp you could go non-powered for now with the 20/20 ($200 - $300) and upgrade the amp in the future.

[Emeric]

Oh yeah, you would send the signal from the speaker out on your soundcard. I suppose they make monitors with digital in's to, but speaker out is your best bet.

[Tasha Morgan]

Emeric-

Thanks for replying, I'm new at this posting stuff. So if I run my monitors through my speaker jack, what would I do with my computer monitors? I use my computer for a little bit of everything. Would I be able to use my monitors AS computer speakers in addition to using them for recording purposes?

[MISTERQCUE]

Peace and welcome Tasha! Hahahaha..you're right,this question has been asked an awful lot!
You say you want to spend 'round $300,well do you own an amp? Most decent near-field monitors in that price range
are passive and require amplification. However,if you do own
1 you can check out some Alesis Monitor1 @ $299.The Monitor1's handle 120watt programs with a peak of 200wts peak.The Yamaha NS10MS are also good monitors @ $350.00.
Yu can also perform some research on your own by checking
out http://www.samash.com http://www.musiciansfriend.com http://www.zzounds.com
or http://www.allprosound.com
BTW if you don't own a amp the active monitor is the way to go but yu might have to raise the financial bar a little bit. The Event PS-5's are excellent and are bi-amplified @
30W for Hi's and 70W for low and go for $499. Alesis also
make powered monitors the M1 also @499.00.
Also check out the "Search" function on this BBS for additional monitor information.
Good Luck.

[Emeric]

"Would I be able to use my monitors AS computer speakers in
addition to using them for recording purposes?"

For sure. That's the way to go, I run all computer sound through either 20/20's or a pair of hi-fi Paridigm's, much better than any computer speakers.

[Sabith]

Me like Tannoy Reveals.... they sound guud, Dragon uses em too =)

I listen to all my music through them, no probs with them at all(nice lookin too)

Sabith

[RWhite]

I have a pair of Yamaha monitor speakers from a few years ago, they are not powered but they have been fine for me and were very reasonably priced. I would say that an amp and non-powered speakers is the way to go in terms of flexability. If you already own an extra stereo receiver that would work fine for starters.