Monitors for home recording studio - on a budget

Which monitors would you choose?

  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
pete3006

pete3006

New member
Hi I am just building a new home studio, and am going to invest in some monitors. I am on a budget so can only sped a certain amount on them.
I thought the best way of getting your opinion is to do it with a poll, as a straight forward thread normally goes of topic rather soon than later. :-)

I would like you to vote in the poll, and also tell me why you chose that certain type of monitor.

I thank you all very kindly in advance for being a great help to me.

Peter
 
I voted for the M1's -- And I'm assuming you mean the M1 MkII's (not those horrible 3/5/620's or something).

Reason? They suck. But they suck less than the others.

Personally? I think you should wait and save up for something reasonable. Your monitoring chain is the most important purchase you're ever going to make (as far as recording is concerned). Every single sonic decision you make is going to be based on the accuracy and consistency of what's coming from those monitors.

Skimp on anything else - Don't ever skimp on the monitoring chain.
 
no rokits, yamahas or events?


thats the three i got down to recently before going with rp8's..
 
forgot to say the 8s maybe be a bit out of budget but you can pick up generation 1 krk's for under $200, event 20/20p are also going for under $200, thats a nice 8" woofer, i saw a set of passive 20/20s go for $100, add on a crown 75 amp for under $100 and thats a nice little set-up on a tight budget imho, hell the passive behringers are $150 upwards anyway....
 
The JBL LSR are good. I mix with the JBL LSR4326p's. I dunno what your budget is, but if your tight budget can afford $1,000, You should look into them. Do not skimp on monitors.
JBL also came out with a lower priced version

Dynaudio also makes some great monitors for a good price


I had events years ago (10 years ago) and isnt real happy with them
Cj
 
id hazard a guess that the OPs budget isnt $1000...in fact i doubt its $500...just a feeling
 
Audio Mastering said:
A tight budget means many different thnigs to different people. I was on a tight budget when I bought my JBL's
Cj
Click to expand...

you did look at the monitors in his poll didnt you?


Id say the budget was around $300-$400


now you can go on and on about the best $1000 monitors or how you should really spend as much as you possibly can on them and that $1000 to you is a tight budget, lucky you, I wish I had that budget


fact is the OP is naming monitors around $300-$400...not $1000, so why bother?
 
Only you can decide what is best for your situation, your studio, and your ears. I'd try to go to some music stores and test out as many of them as you can. Take the poll results into consideration, but make the final decision by yourself.
 
Thanks for the replies everybody.
Yeah the budget is indeed around the $500 mark or £250 in our Uk currency :-)

I am looking around for the moment for monitors but they are not very urgent.

I just splashed out on a brandnew iMac for which I had been saving up for a long time, (and which I need for other purposes as well lol) which has got a decent set of speakers in it so might use them for a while to see what I come out with.

But if I find a decent "beginners" pair of monitors for my budget I will get them. I will look in to all the ones you guys mentioned.
Thanks again for the contribution to this thread.

Peter
 
monitors

Just to lett you know that last week I purchased a pair of KRK RP6 G2s and they are wonderful, a revelation for me. I managed to get them from Dolphin, very good supplier online. based in Liverpool, for £255, they were ex-display and in perfect nick. I would recommend going for ex display from a good reputable supplier, you will still get a one year warranty. I ptomise you will not be disapointed with the RP6's

Roger
 
pete3006 said:
Thanks for the replies everybody.
Yeah the budget is indeed around the $500 mark or £250 in our Uk currency :-)

I am looking around for the moment for monitors but they are not very urgent.

I just splashed out on a brandnew iMac for which I had been saving up for a long time, (and which I need for other purposes as well lol) which has got a decent set of speakers in it so might use them for a while to see what I come out with.

But if I find a decent "beginners" pair of monitors for my budget I will get them. I will look in to all the ones you guys mentioned.
Thanks again for the contribution to this thread.

Peter
Click to expand...

£250 is less than $400 US now......gone are the days when it was worth twice :(

(as a Scot living in the US that still gets an income from the UK it stings mate :o )

try to get a listen to the RP6's mentioned above...for most small room studios these are a great buy at that price.....i listened to the RP5s as well before setting with the 8s and while they sounded pretty defined Id say they were only suitable for the smallest of bedroom set ups


If you are having to settle with no nearfields for the time being check out pawn shops for older high end speakers...some of them are pretty flat or at least usable to work on, if you pair them with a half decent set of cans...say something like ATH-M40f's.... you should still get working results while you save....increase that budget to say $600+ and you open up another level of quality

if you saved for the Mac you can save for the monitors...they'll be at least as important if not more than the Mac you just bought


welcome to the site btw :)
 
Thanks for the replies Gents,

I am using normally headphones from.....Argos which go for......6.95
and they give the flattest sound I can imagine, so really good for the purpose.
I am however gonna save for some decent monitors as it is massively important.
Who knows, ebay may be my friend :-)

Thanks again for the replies
 
pete3006 said:
Thanks for the replies Gents,

I am using normally headphones from.....Argos which go for......6.95
and they give the flattest sound I can imagine, so really good for the purpose.
Click to expand...
But they don't beat the laws of physics. There is no such thing as a set of headphones that are good for mixing. Your entire sense of spatiality, phase coherency, low end content --

Everything sounds good through headphones...
 
Massive Master said:
But they don't beat the laws of physics. There is no such thing as a set of headphones that are good for mixing. Your entire sense of spatiality, phase coherency, low end content --

Everything sounds good through headphones...
Click to expand...

Massive what are you doing here on your birthday? :spank:






:cool:
 
Massive Master said:
But they don't beat the laws of physics. There is no such thing as a set of headphones that are good for mixing. Your entire sense of spatiality, phase coherency, low end content --

Everything sounds good through headphones...
Click to expand...

actually theres no such thing as anything good from argos, period lol



To the OP id love to hear what you're mixing with those phones because I doubt very much they're flat


Ive done loads of headphone mixes recently, with varying degrees of success, and always check with speakers...you really cant start and finish with a set of phones...and its takes at least twice as long than just using a set of monitors and misses so much in the soundscape


if you are going to be stuck with phones for a while at least try and get something better

ATH-M40f, Beyerdynamic DT235, Shure SRH240's are all at the cheap end of the scale and will blow your phones from argos away mate....seriously even if its to upgrade later its worth buying something at least designed for what you want it to do


good luck :)
 
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