Best Monitors for £200?

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choconutjoe

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I need to invest in a reasonable set of nearfields for my home studio. I think I can probably stretch to somewhere around the £200 mark. I'm guessing that for that money I'm better off going for powered monitors? Anyone have any suggestions?

I've read good reviews of the samson resolv 80a and the alesis M1 active mk2 does anyone have any comments on those?

Thnx.
 
I would see if you can get some Wharfedale passive Diamond 8.2s (usually around £80 for the pair brand new but an obsolete model now) and spend the rest on the best 2nd-hand power amp you can afford. I have a pair of Alesis M1A Mk2s and they're not great ... too bassy and I think missing some high-end extension. If you go for separates you can upgrade a bit at a time - even the Alesis M1 passives and a half-decent amp would probably be an improvement.

I am not a huge Samson fan on the whole. There are some Fostex and M-Audio ones to consider around that price point but you'll have to do some listening with your own ears at some point too!!! :)

Nik
 
Ok, those Tannoys look pretty cool (not that I'd really know hehe). Will any power amp do? Do I have to buy one that has the same wattage as the monitors?

Noisedude,
If I were to go to a shop how do I go about testing monitors? Sorry if that's a dumb question, but I'm not sure I'd be able to tell if monitors were giving a flat response or not. I don't really have anything to reference it against.
 
choconutjoe said:
Ok, those Tannoys look pretty cool (not that I'd really know hehe). Will any power amp do? Do I have to buy one that has the same wattage as the monitors?

Noisedude,
If I were to go to a shop how do I go about testing monitors? Sorry if that's a dumb question, but I'm not sure I'd be able to tell if monitors were giving a flat response or not. I don't really have anything to reference it against.
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Well I would suggest getting a couple of CDs that you know inside out, going to your local Sound Control or whatever and listening to maybe three different sets of monitors side by side. Whichever you think you can hear the most on you should go with ... don't go for whichever simply 'sounds nicest'.

It's not foolproof but you'll know what you're buying at least. And it'll be a good bit of listening practice for you too!! :D
 
choconutjoe said:
Ok, those Tannoys look pretty cool (not that I'd really know hehe). Will any power amp do? Do I have to buy one that has the same wattage as the monitors?QUOTE]Same wattage and Ohm. I learned this the hard way with my PA, lol.
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Yeah, very important you get the right Impedance otherwise you risk not only damaging the amp but the speakers aswell.

At a pinch you can use pretty much any stereo amp, as you would find in seperates (I personally use a Cambridge Audio A1 - about £70 from Richer Sounds) but ideally you would use a low noise, flat response amp.

For mixing the speakers you use will make a huge difference compared to the amp but it is not to be forgotten how the amp does change the signal. Worth remembering when your checking your mix on other systems.

If you go the ebay route you could probably pick up a pretty much identical monitoring set-up as me for under £200 - don't think it's a pro set-up though! I'm just a student but you can hear some of my mixes at www.myspace.com/sictransitneil. Enjoy...
 
keep saving till you've got £250 and buy the Wharfedale 8.2A's. Nothing else comes close to them at that price point.
 
Thnx guys!

I've just discovered where I can get the Tannoy Reveals and a Samson 170 power amp for £200.

Sounds like that could be the way forward!
 
That sounds like a good deal to me. Go with it. Thing with monitors is, you'll probably change your mind a few times anyway ... keep that in mind and most importantly get to know what you've got inside out. :)
 
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