Accurate monitors?

[Peter Lancaster]

Crayon Boy,
Welcome to a fellow VS-2480 user. Hopefully you also frequent http://www.vsplanet.com/ for all things VS.

As far as monitors go a lot of people like the Behringer Truths which are slightly cheaper than the Roland DS-90A and by all accounts a lot better sounding.

If you've got the money I think you'd be very hard pushed to get better value than a pair of Mackie HR824.

Personally I use HHB Circle 5 Passive with a Samson Servo 170. This set up appears to be very accurate. I rarely manage to do mixes that don't sound fine when played elsewhere, although if I had the money I'd have a pair of HHB Circle 5 Actives. I've listened to them and they are very good, I just can't afford them.

Pete.

 

[Robert D]

Wow, am I the only one here using KRK's?

 

[ambi]

Bruce (blue bear) uses KRK v8's, which he chose over the mackie hr824's. Not saying they are better, it was his personal preference. I'd choose the mackies over the KRK's, but that's just me.

PERSONAL PREFERENCE!

 

[Noodlehoss]

Anyone have experience with the Samson DMS80 system, the Alesis MK2, or the ART SLM1? I'm in the market for a set of powered monitors for around $200.

 

[ambi]

I know to avoid the alesis. have you checked out the yorkville ysm1i's? I'm fairly certain they would be much better than all of the models you listed and in a similar price range.

 

[Noodlehoss]

thanks ambi

YSM1's - I've looked on the net, seems not many dealers offer them online. Do you know of a good source? I think there is a powered version of these also- any idea of the cost? Or is there an inexpensive amplification solution?

 

[ambi]

I know the powered versions are the Yorkville YSM1p's.
They are also supposed to be excellent. I'm planning on getting a pair asap. I know they are made in Canada, and long and mcquade owns yorkville, so they are mostly sold at Long and Mcquade stores.

I know there are other places to buy them, and people on this board have found them online, but i'm not certain. I live near a long and mcquade in Canada so i've never had to look. Maybe some of the other guys can help out, or maybe you could do a search from them and some links might be in the threads.

As far as price, the passives are 340 Canadian, and the Actives 740 Canadian. They are bi amped, and i think around 115 watts per speaker. As far as i know you can't really get passive monitors with a power amp to match the quality of an Active pair for the same price or less. I went over this with Alfalfa before, and you can get a nice power amp (i would choose an integrated amp so that you have a volume control) with passive speakers and they would be awesome too, but the setup i was looking at was about 300 more than the actives, and not as much power.

Remember getting an amplifier that does 100-150 watts perside is going to cost you a lot of money. I've seen them for about 350-500 US, and they DON'T have volume controls on them. Also if you get the Active yorkvilles you get trim knobs and room dip switches, the passives don't have those. And remember sometimes an amp will say it does 100 watts, but it will be 100 watts at 4 ohms and not 8 ohms, so really when it jumps up to 8ohms it is much less powerful (i might have that backwards, it might be when it jumps to 4 ohms its less powerful, christ it's been a long day...)

Also if you get a seperate power amp it would not be in a biamped configuration. With the active yorkvilles there is a seperate power amp for the tweeter and for the midrange/bass driver in each cabinate.

Well either way will do you well and will work great, it just depends on what's available to you and your budget. You could probably get a good used hi fi power amp or pro audio power amp on ebay for a decent price and a pair of the passive yorkvilles (model YSM1i i believe).

Hmm...

Also a pair to look at are the Powered Tannoy Reveals. They are supposed to be great too, but more money than the Yorkvilles. This might be getting a bit expensive for you. I mean if you have some sort of amp already, you could get a pair of passive yorkvilles and run them with that and it would work fine, and when you can afford a proper pro audio amp or good hi fi amp you could upgrade.

I get stuck in the audio recording mindframe and don't realize that sometimes you have to be realistic and use what's at your disposal. You don't need 800-1000 dollar monitors, and you don't need 5000 dollar monitors, but it can help.

You can also get some passive Tannoy reveals, but they are also more than the yorkvilles as far as i know.

 

[cavedog101]

I use a set of Genelecs but they are a bit spendy...ya get what ya pay for though...I dont like the hyped low-mids in the 824's.. they just mush things up...the 624's though sound tighter to me....Audix makes an entire line of monitors....they are awesome....I'm going to add a set of the M5 midfields sometime this year....Check out the Boston acoustics 65 75 an 85 series...they are fine refenence speakers ...the yorkvilles are nice....a little toppy but nice...any of the Celestion 3 or 5 series are some of the best mids and highs cabinets ever made..i use a set for reference...much like ns-10's....

 

[Bighand]

Thanks Speeddemon!

I was dead set on YSM1p's, and started saving.
Then I read:
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=76970&highlight=BX8*

Naturally no one had any specific goods /bads on 6.5"woofers vs. 8"ers. [between the Yorks($431pair) and BX8's($479pair)]

Shortly thereafter my sales Rep e-mailed me that he would offer 10% off my next purchase. So I bought the BX8's for $431.

They kick out some bass and I enjoy them.

[]