Monitors for ~$500 - Recommendations?

H

HomeRec

New member
I've been looking at monitors for a home recording solution I'm setting up, and several names have come up. I'd like to keep the price close to or under $500 for the pair. The monitors I've looked at or heard of so far in that range are:

Event: PS-5, PS-6, PS-8, 20/20
Tannoy: PROTO-J, Reveal

I've also heard of Yorkville monitors, but I can't find them anywhere. I've also heard JBL recommended, but I couldn't find the specific model anywhere.

With passive speakers, I'd most likely go with an Alesis RA-150 powered amp ($200). Any recommendations?
 
I was gonna rag on you for not using the search feature of this forum, but you can't search "JBL" (too short), and you don't know the model number: LSR25P search for that (or LSR25, and you'll find reviews, links to reviews, etc. Great active monitors!!

Queue
 
Yo HOmeREc:

You can contact Yorkville on the net: Yorkville.com should get you there and they will let you know the closest dealer.

Here in Grand Rapids, MI, I found a "out of the house" dealer and my Yorkvilles ran 102 pezzutos each; however, I've seen on this site that some places sell them for a few bucks less each. Nice speakers for the money.

[Hey Queue} Are you still making Bond movies?]


I had a friend stop over at the studio, a non-musican, and he heard the Yorkvilles and asked me to order him a pair. He likes good sound.

No, I don't sell the product. I just like quality and if it doesn't cost as much as others, well, I like it better.


Green Hornet
 
Queue

Actually, I didn't need the search feature for the JBLs; I actually read about them in a post, then went to musiciansfriend.com (where the person in the post said thay had just bought them) to look up the price and specs. After that, I probably would have searched for opinions, but I couldn't find them anywhere, even at musiciansfriend.com.

Thanks for the model number, though... makes it a lot easier to find.

Green Hornet

Interesting capitalization on "HomeRec"... hope you weren't aiming for that meaning... ;)

I did find Yorkville on the web once. I had to, as they aren't carried by any online music retailers that I've run across. If you find them online at a retail site, let me know.



I'm definitely eyeing the Event PS-6 monitors, possibly the PS-8. It seems as though the only major difference between the two is size. Am I missing something? I know the PS-5s only have dual cross-over, while the PS-6s and PS-8s have four-way cross-over.

Another quick question - are you better off buying a pair of monitors, or is 1 and 1 okay? I ask, because musiciansfriend.com has PS-6s for $599.99/pair or $259.99/ea.

Thanks for the recommendations and help. :)
 
Another quick question - are you better off buying a pair of monitors, or is 1 and 1 okay? I ask, because musiciansfriend.com has PS-6s for $599.99/pair or $259.99/ea.
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Sounds like some sort of typo...

Makes no difference, unless it affects pricing/shipping/stock etc. When you buy a pair, they aren't a 'matched set'. Many places are selling singles to make it easier on the consumers building 5.1 setups.

Queue
 
Queue said:


Many places are selling singles to make it easier on the consumers building 5.1 setups.

Queue
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Sorry... what's a 5.1 setup?

EDIT:

On a whim, I decided to make the rounds of the online music retailers again... this time, musiciansfriend.com, marsmusic.com, zzounds.com and sweetwater.com all had the JBL monitors. Bizarre.
 
Lots More threads, and I thint that "SRM" was a typo.

Just hit the search button, type LSR25* in the Search by Keyword box, and hit the Perform Search button.

I got 30 threads with that search....

Happy reading...

Queue
 
Queue said:
Lots More threads, and I thint that "SRM" was a typo.

Just hit the search button, type LSR25* in the Search by Keyword box, and hit the Perform Search button.

I got 30 threads with that search....

Happy reading...

Queue
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Way ahead of you... ;)

I'll try the wildcard search - I ran a search on "LSR25", and that yielded several posts. I haven't run the "LSR24P" search yet.

But yes, there is definitely information on the LSR25P out there... the only reason I had trouble finding them before was the fact that "SRM" was used instead of "LSR" in the first post that mentioned the JBL monitors.
 
HomeRec - lotsa Yorkville & JBL fans here - not me!
Unless you've got $1400 don't go active. The manufacturers like to tell you about the "matching" between the speakers and the amps, but not about the "drag" (from the electrical field around the amps) that can occur during high peak times. Also a lot of the less expensive beasts have small throws on their 8" or 10"s. Do yourself the greatest favor and look very hard at Tannoy Reveals. I am overjoyed with their clarity and power, and would never go back.
 
buddhaskin said:
HomeRec - lotsa Yorkville & JBL fans here - not me!
Unless you've got $1400 don't go active. The manufacturers like to tell you about the "matching" between the speakers and the amps, but not about the "drag" (from the electrical field around the amps) that can occur during high peak times. Also a lot of the less expensive beasts have small throws on their 8" or 10"s
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"Drag"

What is "drag", and what kind of effect would it have on a monitor's performance?

"Throws"

Another term I'm not familiar with. What does this mean?
 
"Drag" from the electric field around the amp during peaks? I'd like to know more about this subject as well. I've been doing this stuff for a little while now, and I have never heard that term bandied about before in this context. Do you have any online references that we could look at to chase this down more? Enquiring minds want to know...

I've used both powered and unpowered monitors, and the differences I personally have heard have been due entirely to amp or driver and enclosure issues, not to the proximity of any E-field or B-field around the internal amps. You're more likely to hear effects from _lousy_ internal amps and/or power supplies than you are to hear some E-field related interaction. Lots of the low-end powered monitors have truly abysmal amps, for sure.

Just to get back on topic, I'm currently using Event Trias. They are a nice combination of powered and passive: the power amps are located in the subwoofer bin, and the satellites are essentially biamped PS5s, I think. They were about $400, but they have since been discontinued (although Full Compass might still have some in stock). I tried the Tannoy Proto Js as well, and did not care for them at all in my room: they sounded too much like NS10s, which I find very much like listening to a dentist's drill at close range. Your mileage may vary, though: I'm widely known for having very odd ears. (;-)
 
SX-7

I've been using a pair of KLH SX-7 monitors for some time. I orginally found them at Sam's Wholesale Club for less than $200 for the pair. I have not ever put them through a pink noise test to check thier actual response, but my ears tell me they cover a nearfield situation exceptionally well. This is an Americian owned company and I think you ought to check em out at least.
Others may disagree, but I've been building speakers for stage and home use for sometime and I still bought these instead of building my own. I've got a set of EV thumpers with a 15" bottom, compression driver and horn mid, and T350 tweeter in each cabinet to fill in with, when I want to crank it up and rock.

I just about used JBL exclusively for my pro gear and I think they would be the best choice if you decided against KLH , but if I went with JBL I would try to stick with thier pro gear. Everything I ever tested was excellent.
 
Re: SX-7

the Ozlee said:
I've been using a pair of KLH SX-7 monitors for some time. I orginally found them at Sam's Wholesale Club for less than $200 for the pair. I have not ever put them through a pink noise test to check thier actual response, but my ears tell me they cover a nearfield situation exceptionally well
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It's probably common knowledge, but what is a "pink noise test"? Would running one be a good idea in the decision-making process? (assuming it's possible to run in a buying situation)

Also, is the quality of the amps included in low-end active monitors enough to drive the preference to passive monitors, or are they usually fairly well-matched? The general opinion on this board, from what I've read, is that active is the better choice.

I was also told that the matched amps in active monitors allow them to display the full range of sound in each monitor, whereas an unmatched amp with passive monitors cause the crossover frequencies to be "dropped", mostly in the mid-range.

This is the toughest component for me to buy, as it is the one I probably know the absolute least about (with the possible exception of microphones). :confused:
 
active verses passive

Without going into a lengthy explanation or opinion I don't really know how to cover all the possiblities. But let me try this and see what other opinions you get.

First of all to do a "pink noise" test you have to have a pink noise signal or generator. Pink noise as I understand it, is a signal covering a given frequency range, in general for audio from 20HZ to 20,000HZ, with all frequencies produced at the same level. This signal is played though a reference amp of known quality and then sent to the speaker to be tested. A reference microphone is placed in front of the speaker at a given distance that is routed through a spectrum analyizer, generally a 1/3 octave spacing, at which time you can tell what kind of performance you are getting from your speaker cabinet. What you hope to achive is a perfectly flat response from your componets through the entire useable frequency range.
This is what you want from either passive or active in my opinion.
What I mean by this is powered or non-powered cabinet.
Personally I would buy the non-powered and would buy the best amp I could afford. I think this is the most practical in the long run. Low frequencies require the most power to reproduce acurately and to have a powered sub-woofer for your bottom end has advantages. The biggest problem with speaker performance comes from building the crossover network for a given set of componets so that you do not have an unwanted coloration of your music (the choice of componets is a factor as well). And that imho is why you want the flat response, so that when you boost or cut you are dealing with your music and not the limitations of your speakers. Which way you achieve this is not important in my opinion. I would think most pro music shops have the components to run a pink noise test, getting them to set it up, well I guess you'll have to ask and find out.

One final thought. When I buy tools anymore I try to buy them for a specific purpose and not a one tool does it all. I think amps are built for a specfic use and speakers can be built for a specfic use, for some reason combining the two does not seem like the best approach for a studio, but that is just my opinion. Subwoofers on the other hand is an "EXCEPTION TO THE RULE" I would make, for reasons I'm not going into right now. Something I think is also important when you do your mix is to consider what the most likely enviroment your music is going to be replayed in and mix accordingly, i.e. a car, boom box, home stero and not to fool yourself with your sound system but again that is just my opinion.

I hope my opinion finds support among most of the members and I really think it should, but I learn something new every day. I hope this helps. Some of the things you mentioned do not jive with my experience, it may just be a matter of terminology.

Keep the faith, Ozlee:)
 
Thanks

the Ozlee said:
Without going into a lengthy explanation or opinion I don't really know how to cover all the possiblities. But let me try this and see what other opinions you get.

First of all to do a "pink noise" test...
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...I would think most pro music shops have the components to run a pink noise test, getting them to set it up, well I guess you'll have to ask and find out.
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Thanks for the information; I had never heard of that test before. However, I can't picture Mars or Guitar Center setting all of that up, so I'll probably have to stick to the "listen to them" test (a.k.a. the "does it sound like noise?" test). :p


Something I think is also important when you do your mix is to consider what the most likely enviroment your music is going to be replayed in and mix accordingly, i.e. a car, boom box, home stero and not to fool yourself with your sound system but again that is just my opinion.
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Hmm... popular mantra around these boards is that, if you get monitors that are accurate, and mix something that sounds good on them, that something will sound good anywhere.


Some of the things you mentioned do not jive with my experience, it may just be a matter of terminology.

Keep the faith, Ozlee:)
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Most likely, I'll just end up getting what sounds good, which is the prevailing wisdom. In reality, it seems that every monitor and type of monitor has its "strengths" and "weaknesses", depending on who you talk to.

In the end, it seems that unless you get something completely horrendous, it will still be better than using headphones, computer speakers or stereo speakers to do your mixes, so I'll at least keep that in mind.

That said, more opinions are always welcome. ;)

P.S. - That's 50 posts... I am "Newbie" no more. :D
 
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