What are the best 100$ moniters?

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david7287

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Ok im not going into professinal mastering or anything because im just a teen recording mt own band. But i waqnt to know wat are the best moniters for around 100$. Ive seen some at music shops for 100$ but i dont know if there any good. Please share your experiences with these type of moniters
 
I'd say, pick the coolest looking ones cause they're all going to be pretty shitty. You'll learn quickly that the words good, recording and cheap don't play nice together.
 
HangDawg is right. $100 monitors are going to be terrible and extremely weak. If this is your absolute highest budget I'd say stick to computer speakers and save up for something good.
 
david7287 said:
Ok im not going into professinal mastering or anything because im just a teen recording mt own band. But i waqnt to know wat are the best moniters for around 100$. Ive seen some at music shops for 100$ but i dont know if there any good. Please share your experiences with these type of moniters
Click to expand...

Radio Shack has some great speakers. They sound very warm and analog like. The big name stores like Bradlees and Woolworth's used to have good low priced stereo speakers that I used for years. My mixes were not very good, but when I played them on other systems, my mixes would sound completely different. I would often just sit and listen to my recordings on other people's systems until they had to go to bed. I had to leave then.

Anyway, I guess that a place like Guitar Center has good speakers, but not for $100.

Good Luck in your search. I think my writing is getting better.
 
Well, for $100...

I have a pair of Audix powered monitors I'd sell you. They're not the most terribly accurate speakers, but I've done a few mixes on them that came out really well. They have a lot of detail, but are a little scooped in the mids. I'm using Event TR-5's now, and I like those a lot (About $250 for a pair at GC). They're pretty flat, and give a good representation of what the mix will sound like. In fact, I've hardly had to go back and change anything after listening on other systems, the only area of question being the low end (what do you expect in something with a 5" woofer!)

If you're interested in the Audix speakers, let me know, I can send you a pic, and I do take Paypal ;-)

John
 
Don't buy radio shack speakers because they are "warm and analog like" thats not what you need from monitors. IMO bottom of the line is M-Audio's dx4's should've mentioned them earlier but didn't sorry. I think those speakers run about 150 they are only 4 inchers but you'll get an idea of what monitors sound like. I still think you should save up just a bit more if you can and wait to get something like the bx5a's or the Events mentioned above they're between 250-300 and the difference is noticeable. Also check out ebay if you can.
 
"warm and analog like"? aren't speakers analog no matter how ya cut it?...... :D :D just kiddin'
 
Alright wow i didnt think i would get that many responses. You all have been a great and think ill just use my computer speakers. My speaker setup is two speakers and around 4 or 5 inch woofer. Any suggestions on how to get the best recording use out of computer speakers?
 
Listen to a lot of music on your speakers, and get as familiar as possible with them and your room.

Then make a mix, and go listen to it everywhere you can. Take it to Best Buy, and play it on the car stereos. Take it to your friends, and drive them nuts.

Take notes, see what consistenly sounds wrong on those other systems, then adjust your mix.

Repeat until you get good consistent results.

I should say, though, that the biggest improvement you can make to your recording rig is a good monitoring system. How can you paint when you can't see the canvass?
 
Buy 50 sets of $2 speakers and put them in a massive array.


BAM!
 
or a type-o, whichever...

I like the array idea...

I once thought it would be cool to buy about 40 little radio shack 3" speakers, then stack them from floor to ceiling in the corners of a room (facing into the room, of course). The idea being that you'd create a really tall stereo image. And you'd get ok bass, because of the large surface area.

But I never had the gumption to try it out, so there's that... :)
 
alright that sound pretty cool but wat about headphones? They seem like they could produce a flat EQ. Although, Bass seems like it could be a problem. Oh yeah ive heard a lot about the 1 in. fiberglass board things and i was just wonderin if that material is that much different than thick balnkets, furinture foam, actual furniture (couch cushions), and the eggcrate foam you put on your bed.
 
If you're talking about monitoring thru headphones don't. Its probably worse than monitoring thru computer speakers. Headphones will come in handy for checking mixes later on down the road when you've already tweaked it to good levels. I tried monitoring on headphones when I first started and man it was ugly everything was way off and everyone always asked why the mix sounded so damn good in the headphones and so damn awful everywhere else.
 
$100 bargain bin

no headphones...i have many years of exp. making crap mixes and a closet full of crap ass sounding recordings due to using headphones......wasted a lot of CD's too..... trying to get a playback in the car. oh yeah everyone once in awhile one gets lucky.

i agree with whoever said pc speakers probably better than starting the headphone habit. the goal is after you mix/burn..your tune plays ok on various systems. your gonna have to learn any speaker you buy, but some will probably work better for YOU than others.

I think BlueBear has a great article on not using headphones. He got me out of the mud BIG TIME on that fhkd up habit!!!

$100..Passives...
GC had some Tannoy Proto J's .pair for $100. Their gone now but $100 is possible.
 
david7287 said:
Alright wow i didnt think i would get that many responses. You all have been a great and think ill just use my computer speakers. My speaker setup is two speakers and around 4 or 5 inch woofer. Any suggestions on how to get the best recording use out of computer speakers?
Click to expand...

Also, don't forget to go into the mixer in the Window's control panel (I'm assuming you're using Windows, otherwise ignore the following) and put the bass and treble sliders in the middle.
 
I just LOVE the "$100 is crap and you're screwed" advice. That's very helpful. :D

I'll second the Tannoy Proto-J passive monitors if you're on a tight budget. They're only 6.5" and lack a little in the low end, but you can accomplish some very nice mixes on them. Last year I produced and mixed an entire project with Tannoy Proto-J's that got quite a bit of regional air play and sold a couple of thousand copies. That's not much for a lot of the bigger players around here, but the point is, yes it can be done on a budget if you must.

I'm now running Event 20/20 powered monitors I picked up on Ebay for like $300....a steal in my book, and I've got the J's around as a second reference.

For the tiny price tag, the Tannoys are great.
 
Buy a lot of beer and pretend that your mixes are good.
 
What is the point of Quantagee on this forum?

My opinion is that you should try and locate a half decent set of hi-fi speakers and amp, or a hi-fi with an auxiliary turntable input or whatever. Surprisingly good results can be had from them, IMHO ...
 
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