What monitors do you use?

What monitors do you use?

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krks are to colored, M-audio has no mids, and makies are over bearing..

ns-10s, jbl lsr 4328P, are doing me the trick, I'd love to get my hands on some genelec 8040As, got em at work for 1031 each.. thinkin about it
 
KRK ST6's, Polk Audio Monitor 30's.

Yes, a decent monitor can be had for those on a restricted budget and already owning a stereo amp. These Polk 30's are a great buy for $99. Just add some cotton in the rear ports.
 
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:cool:
 
I was all set to go with a pair of KRK Rokit 6's, but when I called my good friend Stuart at Sweetwater, he talked me out of them for the Yamaha HS50M. Same price, and he said that the better components and negligible differences in bass response make the Yamahas a better choice. Add a sub later on.

Anyway, I'm burning them in first, and I'm noticing that they are uncomfortable to listen to at slightly above "normal" listening volume. Are all monitors this way? It's the high end frequencies...very precise and piercing. I've read about "ear fatigue" while mixing...is this why? I'll be mixing at lower volumes for sure!

-Bruce
 
i found my 5"s pretty uncomfortable at loud volumes I dont with my RP8's....but thats expected isnt it? i mean they distort quicker if the woofer is smaller??
 
I'm not playing them loud enough for them to distort, and the frequencies I'm assuming are coming from the tweeter and not the 5" woofer. Just EXTREMELY bright!

Maybe typical stereo loudspeakers are rolled off up there to make them sweeter-sounding?

-Bruce
 
bcfromfl said:
I'm not playing them loud enough for them to distort, and the frequencies I'm assuming are coming from the tweeter and not the 5" woofer. Just EXTREMELY bright!

Maybe typical stereo loudspeakers are rolled off up there to make them sweeter-sounding?

-Bruce
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yeah....i mean they shouldnt sound "good"...but "good" is a hard one to describe on the internet lol
 
kcearl said:
i found my 5"s pretty uncomfortable at loud volumes I dont with my RP8's....but thats expected isnt it? i mean they distort quicker if the woofer is smaller??
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My RP8's don't bother me much either when they're super loud, but generally I do prefer listening at a moderate volume on any speaker system, I usually don't like stuff so loud that my ear can't handle it and it gets distorted.

kcearl said:
yeah....i mean they shouldnt sound "good"...but "good" is a hard one to describe on the internet lol
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I think the RP8's DO sound good just for listening. Especially when I flip on my secondary monitors (big stereo speakers) and cut the mids and highs on the receiver, gives it some subwoof. Alone the RP8's are a little midrangey to me (might be my room) but I end up with nice smile EQ'd mixes, so thumbs up!
 
The never ending thread!


I used cheap Tannoys for years. I loved them and learned to trust them, but I blew them up one too many times.
Now I have some vintage JBLs. I think (I just got them) that they are really gonna serve my purposes better. I immediately noticed my imaging was better and reverb tails were more apparent.
As always, time will tell, but for only $150, there's nothing new on the market that can touch them.

Also, don't forget how freakin' important the amplifier is in the equation!
 
Well I was using Behringer 2031P's (which I'm selling) but I found a pair of Jamo's in a pawn shop and matched them up with an Elements sub. Sounds good to me... When I need or want to really crank it up I have a pair of Polk Audio SDA2's
 
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guido #2 said:
Also, don't forget how freakin' important the amplifier is in the equation!
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Absolutely. Cheap monitor manufacturers don't even tell you whether the internal amp is class A, AB, or (shudder) even D. (Never mind that the low prices immediately make the accuracy of the drivers suspect.) I use an old Technics "New Class A" DC amp. It's a class AB amp with servo-bias that makes the zero crossings closer to class A than regular class AB amps.

I use old KEF C20s for monitors, partly due to the old prejudice that European and American speakers sounded more musical to Western ears than Asian-made speakers, and partly because each pair was computer-treated to be identical (both speakers came in one box), and the frequency response graph for each individual speaker (not just the product line) shipped in the same box. And, again, I am deeply suspicious of the quality of the drivers in cheap active monitors - or anything else that is mass-produced in China, for that matter.

Someone will say that a home hifi amp and speakers are a poor substitute for near-field monitors, but let's get real: how many monitors in the same price range are really worth a damn?
 
AndyDenyer said:
I don't use proper monitors. I have a logitech surround sound system plugged into the headphone amp of my Tascam us-1641. My studio is very basic.
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Bypass the surround processor if possible and use it as a regular two-channel stereo setup. Surround sound encoding (at least the older schemes) works by mixing out-of-phase rear channel signals with the normal front channel signals and introduces hideous distortion.
 
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