Monitors on a budget...

boydrj

boydrj

New member
Hello all,

Here is my delimma ... I'm on a pretty tight budget and only have about $300 or so to spend. Are there any monitors even worth looking at for this price or are the monitors in this price range all for shit?

I do much of my recording and mixing in the garage so I shouldn't have a problem finding a place to set up the monitors, I'm just wondering if I'll be able to get anything decent for this amount...

Thanks for any advice (even if it is to keep saving...)

:)
 
Dont jump until you have at least given the Paradigm Mini-monitors a 20 minute listen. $340 a pair at most local hifi stores.
Try em at least. They resale 3 years later for $300. Beat that. :)
 
"You are bidding on a pair of Yorkville YSM-1 Studio Monitors. These enclosures have some surprising low end. I used them in my kitchen on a plant shelf and had some fantastic audio while I was suffering doing dishes. I really do not want to sell these but am unemployed and need the money. "
 
Hafler M5

How about the Hafler M5? Has someone heared or tested them, and if so what do you think about them?

I've read some site's and teh get pretty decent reviews.

Hafler M5
 
YSM-1s are $229 at gear1 music. DO NOT pay more for a used pair. I would watch that auction and see where the bidding ends up.
 
EDIT

"Dont jump until you have at least given the Paradigm Mini-monitors a 20 minute listen. $340 a pair at most local hifi stores.
Try em at least. They resale 3 years later for $300. Beat that."

Thanks Tubedude. I'll have a look at these too. I haven't started visiting retailers yet to begin looking/listening. I'll be sure to check these out as well. Thanks for the info.

Gidge -- I think I will be looking at an active pair since I don't really have a powerful amp for a passive pair. I'll check out the E-bay auctions, but I'll probably go and listen to a pair somewhere first. This is my first venture into getting studio monitors...before I've always mixed to some old speakers that I got for a Kenwood stereo system years ago. Any tips on what specifically to listen for?

Twist -- Thanks for the good advice.

Later...
 
I have a pair of the Paradigms and a pair of YSM-1s. The Yorkvilles smoke the Paradigms.
 
When I went monitor shopping awhile back I did quite a bit of research and then finally came down to SB5Bs or Event 20/20 passives. I went with the 20/20s, and picked up a second-hand Yamaha power amp. Very pleased with them.
 
Yeah I use the SP5Bs. They kick butt. What more can I say. I a/b'd them against the passive Event 20/20s and some others and went with the SP5Bs for their clarity.

The events had a better low end but their midrange was not clear to my ears. The Events were running on a Haffler 1100.

The KRK4s contrary to many others opinions sounded optimized to my ears. What I mean is they sounded sweet in the low mids and lows but upper end clarity was not happening.

Now the KRK8s were a different story. I could see these or the Yorkvilles someday.

Remember that when you get opinions here, each of us has his own type of music. The rappers wanna hear low and old guys like me wanna hear James Taylor, Sting type of stuff. So, I've said this before, get your favorite CD and head to Guitar Center. Only you can decide which set of speakers is right for you.
 
I use the SP5B's, and they've been very good to me. I have very little real experience with near field monitors, I really just use them as reference and review monitors, but they have been tough, quiet, and reliable. They also make a pretty good recording guitar amp if you plug a POD into them and mic them up.
For what it's worth, several people who are engineers have heard these speakers in my studio and commented on how surprisingly good they are. The real secret with monitors seems to be that the best monitors are the ones you're used to mixing with. Good mixing engineers get used to certain monitors, because they know how to translate the way that they sound into a mix that will sound good on consumer level audio gear. They may dislike other monitors that are perfectly good ones because it's like they're speaking a foreign language to their ears.
I am sure that very good mixes can be done on a set of SP5B's, if those are the monitors your ears are used to.-Richie
 
I got the studiophile BX-8.

I returned them a week later because of a weird buzzing the enclosure will make at certain frequencies. When i would solo clean guitars, it would buzz, i thought it was from the amp, nope, the monitor. Went to the store before i saw this post and got some paradigm m3. They are quite the speaker.

Brandon
 
Been lurking here a little while now. I see lots of monitors recommended across the forum, -- with the usual "use your ears" caveat.

I never see Spirit Absolute (Zero/Twos) mentioned. Is this because they are too cheap, suck too hard, or because no-one will admit to liking them?

What gives? :)

Mike.
 
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