Couple of comments:
In the first place, I know I'm spoiled rotten, because some manufacturers will send me their new monitors to try and comment on. On top of that, last year we spend one week evaluating nearfield monitors. Believe it or not, this was in a major studio, at $1500 a day, for a (very well known) artist to decide what he wanted to use as nearfields for his new recording. Six days - that is 9 grand, plus money for me and a second engineer. *grin* Sell a lot of records and its nothing.
First, I know a lot of you guys like the Events. I have a pair here which I use for testing gear, not for monitoring. This for 2 reasons.
1) If you use them for any length of time, I mean for more than 1/2 an hour, there is a tonal change. I wondered what it was, the reason became apparent when I felt the speaker cone. The top end was hot, the bottom end cool. They don't have a heatsink, and therefore the heat of the amp takes the easiest way out, through the top part of the cone.
2) They change character depending on volume. This goes not just for the Events, but for MANY cheaper monitors. Very confusing!! By nature you'll start working with monitors at a reasonable volume setting. When the day goes on, ears get fatigued, and the volume goes up.... and the sound changes. You make adjustments and carry on. The next day you start fresh, turn your gear on, press play to listen to the previous days work, and the whole mix sounds like shit. Start again!
NS10's. One thing is for sure, nobody I know has them at home to relax and listen to music. Despite this, the vast majority of large studios around the world have them. Why? Very simple. You reference something on them, and are happy with the results - it will sound good on anything. Put it on a CD, a cassette, play it in your car, on your grannies boombox, it will be fine. Volume high, volume low - no difference (and that stays the same 'till you blow the cones, I'm sure Yamaha has made more money from selling replacement speakers than selling monitors). Yamaha has just stopped making them, if you get a chance to pick up a pair cheap, I would recommend it.
So, what do I think it the "best for the buck?". Well, regebro said space is at a premium, and even if it wasn't, I'd still recommend JBL's new
LSR25P's. About 300 each if you shop around. JBL finally did it right, threw away the book and started from scratch with the LSR design, the result is simply in a class of its own. A new monitor, but already on its way to become a classic. More and more recording and post production facilities are starting to use them for surround mixes, which, as they normally work with high definition audio, says a lot.
In case you wonder about the results of the studio "shoot out" - after 5 days we had 3 pairs of monitors left,
Quested VS3208, KRK E8 and
JBL LSR 28P.
The KRK's went, The Quested's were simply outstanding, but a bit big for nearfields, so the choice was the JBL's.
Hope the above helps a bit.
