Upgrade Monitors?

[DaJMan]

Right now I'm using a pair of cheap Alesis USB monitors (the 320 model) that cost about 90 bucks. Are there any monitors in the $150-200 range that I could upgrade to that would give me better performance? I've read some people's opinions here that you shouldn't spend on monitors unless you want to jump to around $400-600 range. at the minimum.

 

[SaltSlasher]

I bought the B1030A's and they were really nice especially for $200! But mine had a lot of cosmetic scratchs and stuff so I returned them. But they sounded very good. I am getting a credit, so I am looking at just coughing up the extra $70 to get the Mackie MR5's cause they seem to be top of line "home studio", as far as 5" woofers go.

 

[Armistice]

Bump - board's being spammed, so just bumping this thread back above the spam until teh mods kill it...

 

[John Willett]

A proper monitor is a precision measuring instrument that should be telling you exactly what you are doing.

A good monitor will often, at first, sound bland and uninteresting - because it is doing things "right" instead of sounding "good".

I would have said a genuine monitor would be over $1,000.

To be honest - at your low budget I would monitor on headphones until you can afford decent monitors.

In fact, that's what I did when I started - I could not afford loudspeakers and used headphones for a couple of years or so until I could afford monitoring loudspeakers.

 

[snow lizard]

A proper monitor is a precision measuring instrument that should be telling you exactly what you are doing.

A good monitor will often, at first, sound bland and uninteresting - because it is doing things "right" instead of sounding "good".

I would have said a genuine monitor would be over $1,000.

To be honest - at your low budget I would monitor on headphones until you can afford decent monitors.

In fact, that's what I did when I started - I could not afford loudspeakers and used headphones for a couple of years or so until I could afford monitoring loudspeakers.

I don't think NS-10's were ever that expensive when you could get them new. Not so sure about Auratones but I doubt it.

I'm sure that good headphones are fine for checking you mixes, but they take the room out of the picture, any kind of phase information - basically a lot of things you need to hear to get your mix to translate to other systems. I wouldn't rely on them for the whole mix process.

 

[Massive Master]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record -- Your mechanical skills and listening skills are not intertwined. A monkey can be taught to set up a compressor or run a console, but the monkey won't know how to listen.

You can learn the mechanics of recording through almost anything - to some extent, anyway. But every single decision you ever make is based on your listening skills -- skills which will develop only to the extent that your monitoring chain will allow. You will only ever hear as accurately as your monitoring chain will allow you to hear.

You can get an "okay" set of monitors and jump in, quickly getting yourself up to "okay" in less than a year -- and stay there. Or you can save up for something more substantial and exponentially develop those listening skills almost overnight. Well, depending on your aptitude for the task (a lot of people simply don't have the ability - and that's fine. This isn't for everyone). But in any case, no matter what your potential in the long run, you'll never reach that potential without a monitoring chain that can exceed that potential.

Cut corners anywhere - Except your monitoring chain (yes, including the room they're in).

 

[Shadow_7]

Cheap monitors are probably better than NO monitors IMO. There are things that you can/will hear on monitors that you won't hear on conventional speakers. Low end rumble of wind noise will be a lot more evident. Even electrical buzz (power lines) and faint radio stations that might have gone unnoticed on speakers or headphones. Headphones are fine, but you can't hear phase issues of the channels interacting in a real space. Sure there's a mono button, or mix and render, but that's a lot harder to compare with an original stereo track to notice the small-ish differences.

It really depends on what you're doing recording wise. I do event recording and stereo audio ONLY. I don't really need monitors outside of the original auditioning of stereo pairs for my usage / genre. And the initial attempts and DIY protection from wind and other elements. So once that's all figured out and automated, the rendering process is fairly automated and can almost go un-monitored IMO. But risky, since there's always that something unexpected that affects your recordings. Birds, insects, cables slapping the stand in the wind, and other annoyances. It's better to be aware of those things, than to be told after the fact by any would be clients.

 

[Murdersgalore]

All over explaining and audio snobbery aside, a set of KRK Rokit 5's can be had for around $150 each.

Would it really make sense for a dude just starting to spend thousands on a set of Genelecs?

 

[Massive Master]

Would it really make sense for a dude just starting to spend thousands on a set of Genelecs?

Without question. If he's reasonably "serious" about it, without hesitation. He can always go "used" and sell them for what he paid if he gives up on the whole thing --

Nothing snobbish. Just physics and realism.

 

[snow lizard]

All over explaining and audio snobbery aside,

I'm not sure if audio snobbery and grabassing around in the dark are mutually exclusive. Hopefully there's ways around both.

 

[CoolCat]

Right now I'm using a pair of cheap Alesis USB monitors (the 320 model) that cost about 90 bucks. Are there any monitors in the $150-200 range that I could upgrade to that would give me better performance? I've read some people's opinions here that you shouldn't spend on monitors unless you want to jump to around $400-600 range. at the minimum.

used you might nab some $400 for $200.

I think where I wasted time & money was getting several cheap sets.
then trading out 5 or 6 or more sets of same level monitors..

but yes, from $90 ..might be a good move to grab some $400, and I bet you notice a large difference. probably a big "wow" difference.

a large majority of HR are using the $400-$600. as you apparently noticed already. theres a reason for that.


I wanted to add, the poster is using USB powered 3" woofer speakers now. So some KRK 6" would probably be a huge improvement.

 

[.Tyson Studios.]

I really like krk's. if you do go for them, get the rokit 6 or 8's. I went with the rokit 5's and they dont provide enough bass IMHO