Price v/s Quality... The best Studio monitors

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stevenyuko

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Hello everyone! so here is the question of the day. When looking at price v/s quality at what point do we find a good balance. When shopping for monitors for your home studio, what is a good speaker, for a good price? I'm in the market to buy my first set of Studio Monitors speakers for mastering and not really sure where to start since there are soooooo many different options to chose from. Place your suggestions here. Thanks everyone.

Steven
 
Generally, you aren't going to be looking at studio monitors for mastering. Full-range, high-quality loudspeakers. As consistent and accurate as possible.

The "good balance point" is a matter of opinion. Figuring the chain to be the DA, controller, amplifier & speakers, you could very easily hit $10k (and easily double or triple that to go a few steps up).

You could probably get a usable (but somewhat limited) rig for under $5k - Maybe a set of B&W Matrix 802's (series 3 would be recommended), a Rotel 1070 and a Benchmark DA (as it has a built-in volume control).

If you really want to go cheap-as-hell, you might shop for a used set of (B&W) DM605S3's, a used Bryston 3 or 4B (or again, a Rotel RB1070) and a PreSonus Central Station. All together, probably around $2k, not including room treatment (your speakers will only ever be as good as the room they're in - and 'foam' need not apply).
 
stevenyuko said:
what is a good speaker, for a good price? I'm in the market to buy my first set of Studio Monitors speakers for mastering
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What kind of budget do you have? ...a good starter set of monitor's are the K& H 0300's ....you'll need a sub or 2 as well.
 
We need your maximum price to see what you think is expensive.

Some would thin $1000 is expensive some would think $10,000 expensive, and others would spend whatever it takes.

The are however good value for money choices in every price range.

Cheers

Alan.
 
Price is irrelevant, IMHO. It's all up to your ears. If you don't have the ears to translate $10k speakers, you're wasting your money. Besides, no two $10k speaker models sound the same anyway. Which one of those different-sounding $10k speakers would work best for your ears is impossible for us to know.

OTOH I knew a guy once who could rival anybody here for mixing or mastering, and all he had were two pair of consumer 2-ways from Advent at a total cost for all four of about $700, because he had the ears and the brain to properly translate them. He found the perfect fit for his ears and his room.

You need to get out and *listen*. Loudspeakers are like shoes (can we all stop using the word "monitors" and call a duck a duck?; they are loudspeakers. "Monitors" are for video. ;), and "studio monitors" printed on a box means nothing), just like one shoe style and size may be perfect for one foot but make another person's foot uncomfortable, what one person thinks is a "flat"-sounding speaker another will think sounds like a hyped duck call.

What will fit your ears best is something only you can figure out.

G.
 
If you are looking for your home studio, your probably not prepared to drop a lot of money on a set of speakers dedicated for mastering, although I've seen some pretty great home studios. Generally very good full range speakers or a good set of speakers and subs that can be used for mastering on a pro level can cost some money.

There are thousand of speakers out there...How these integrate with your amp and room is very important so it's always a good idea to try before you buy.

Here is a list of a few of the more popular brands and models that you'll find in dedicated Mastering Studios.

B&W 800 series - Duntech - Dunlavy SCV- Wilson - PMC - Dynaudio C4 - Lipinski 707 - K & H 0300 - Quested
 
Thanks for the inputs

I'm still fairly new to this so, I probably shouldn't of used the term Mastering... but mostly mixing, rough mixes and a beginners definition of mastering which would probably wouldn't even qualify for a rough mix for you guys.. lol. This studio is strickly for my own person fun. Nothing that I ever plan to make money from, but... I would like a "decent" set of loudspeakers (see... I didn't say monitor!!!, I'm learning) to hear my tracks and get a good idea of what the overall recording sounded like. My recording room is actually a "library" majority of the room is lined with book shelves full of books (makes for good sound absorption??!?! not sure) I'm looking for a nice pair of speakers that under $500.00 for a set. I will probably be making a few home made sound traps to cover up the wall space that I do have open (which isn't much)
 
Steven,

What you're asking is a very reasonable question, and has been ask here a thousand times. Unfortunately, there's no really good answer of the type of answer you're looking for.

In your price range - indeed, in ANY price range - there are going to be many models, most of them will be of pretty solid construction and decent enough materials. No two of them will sound the same. Here's the rub:

The natural question then is which ones sound "best". Ask 100 users and you'll probably get 110 different answers to that question ;). The problem is that just like no two loudspeaker models sound the same, no two human models hear the same or have the same hearing preferences. One person's "flat" is another person's hyped and that second person's "flat" is the first person's midrangey. Complicating that is that there's little agreement among perfectly good engineers as to whether flat, hyped, midrangey or something else actually helps or hinders their individual ability to coax out good-sounding mixes.

Hopefully you have two things going for you; that understand your own ears and hearing well enough to be able to judge for yourself what sounds "right" to you, and that you have some showrooms (both pro audio and home audio) that you can go to with some of your most familiar-sounding CDs and listen for yourself. This is not perfect, as the showrooms themselves will affect what you're hearing, but it should get you close enough.

And when you do this, make sure you're working with a salesperson and company that understands your situation as described here, and has a reasonable exchange policy, since you'll explain to them that you won't really know until you get the speakers home whether they'll work for you. This is equally true of any Internet or mail-order sales places.

If you really don't know or can't tell what sounds "right" to you, then you've got far more problems ahead of you than just choosing speakers (;)). Then you'll have little real choice other than just gambling with what looks like the best deal and best sound, and getting them home and and simply learning how to mix with them; i.e. getting you ears used to those speakers rather than getting speakers that naturally suit the way your ears are now.

G.
 
Do people REALLY think in terms of sub woofers when monitoring/mastering for reasonably good stereo?
 
One would hope people would think of "full range" -- Whether that will require a sub or not sort of depends on the capabilities of the speakers.
 
personally, i would think if you are trying to make your tracks sound better i would start with mic's and mic pre's. because as we all know you have to do the real world test of your song before you call it done. most your mixing can be done in cans initially. if you find yourself some nice stereo speakers sometimes it can point you in the right direction. im using a vintage adcom preamp and power amp with 3 differnt sets of great plains audio speakers. "they are re manufacturing all the sweet old altec stuff we love so much" and you still need to hear it on a shitty boom box to know if its done or not. but to answer your question EBAY!! i bought a set of behringer truth b2031p for my post production room, and they sound really solid.
 
rayc said:
Do people REALLY think in terms of sub woofers when monitoring/mastering for reasonably good stereo?
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There are quite a few mastering studio's that incorporate stereo subs.
 
I dont have much experience with the best Monitors (most expensive) Most I`ve seen and heard I`ve heard on "Messes".

But in the cheaper price range, I think the Dynaaudio BM6`s are really good also the cheaper Yamaha Msp5 aint that bad if you go really cheap
 
Nakatira said:
I dont have much experience with the best Monitors (most expensive) Most I`ve seen and heard I`ve heard on "Messes".

But in the cheaper price range, I think the Dynaaudio BM6`s are really good also the cheaper Yamaha Msp5 aint that bad if you go really cheap
Click to expand...

Forgot to add, the newest cheapo speakers from genelec sound really good as well
 
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