Entry level studio monitors

FatBoy

I am looking at getting a pair of monitors, budget is between 3 and 5K.

Anybody know of real value for money ones I can check out?

I spoke to someone yesterday and he told me that using powerful monitors in a room that hasn't been acoustically treated will probably not work out that well because some frequencies will be accentuated or something like that. Any truth in this?

Riaan

The way I understand it is that using any kind of soundsource in a room that is not acoustically treated will have this effect of standing waves, nodes, flutter etc. resulting in certain frequencies being overemphasized, and hence poor mixing.

Seems to me that acoustic treatment is money well spent, as even the most expensive set of speakers or monitors will sound bad in an untreated room. I must say, I really noticed that effect in my living room, which is not acoustically treated at all - wife had the final say about the decor there - where my home entertainment system is. I notice this particularly with music DVD's. There are definite spots where it sounds better than others.

I don't know much about monitors but from what the guys here have said in the past, KRK Rockit seems good value for money. And the yellow speaker cones look cool too!

FatBoy

Mmm yea I understand that, problem is I can't really do major modifications as I am renting this house. I think what the oke meant is that if your monitors are able to put out say for instance a lot of bass, this will make the problem even worse than say for instance a smaller pair that can't output so much bass. Not sure if I'm making sense at all...

Manfred-Klose

Fritz

i would recommend the KRK RP6 G2, because it is a 6 inch speaker, the bass response would be perfect for nearfield monitoring.
Would not recommend a studio monitor bigger than 6 inch for home studio use.
I bought mine for R4500
Really awesome value for money, takes a time to get use to.

P.S: if you want to you can come and check it out and listen what it sounds like.

AlanRatcliffe

using powerful monitors in a room that hasn't been acoustically treated will probably not work out that well

Let me just change that a little: "using any monitor at volume in a room that hasn't been acoustically treated will probably not work out that well". There. That's better.

The bigger the room, the more volume it will be able to handle, treated or not. Bass frequencies are the biggest problem and the hardest to treat, but that doesn't mean you have to avoid them completely. Treatment also doesn't have to be a permanent fixture - a bit of plush furniture and a loaded bookshelf works wonders. See http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/acoustics2.shtml

+1 on the KRK Rokits, BTW

FatBoy

Ok cool thanks guys, anybody have anything cheaper to recommend? Not entirely sure of budget yet and just want to check out all my options.

Manfred-Klose

I would not recommend any of these, because any cheaper monitors could degrade the quality of the recording.
But go and have a look at these brands and what they have to offer:

Behringer, Samson, M audio, Alesis

Some is good and some is not............

AlanRatcliffe

I'm not sure I would be willing to settle for less either. It's rather a critical part of the studio.

FatBoy

Ok thanks guys, noted!

majestikc

At the end of the day, all a "reference monitor" is, is a speaker.Any good speaker, even if it's a hi-fi speaker that is uncolored, meaning it has a flat frequency response will do.

Even if you just plugged your sound card output into the aux input of your average hi-fi, you could still get a good mix.If you listen to a good reference mix of a bands' song that you like and then try get yours sounding similar, then it's going to be good.
A crappy recording and mix is a crappy recording and mix, it's going to sound crappy on the greatest "studio monitors" and on the greatest audiophile speakers or even on cheap R50 flea market pc speakers, and the reverse is the same, if it sounds good on your average home hi-fi speakers.........then it sounds good (maybe not AS good had you mixed on a really great set of uncolored speakers, but still good!).

All you really need is a decent pair of speakers, I wouldn't buy into all the hype.For all it's worth, there aren't too many good sounding recordings coming out of this country with all the engineers using there pro tools and there KRK's.
It's not what you use, it's how you use it.

The speakers I'm using at the moment are audiophile Areil Acoustic T10's, and hopefully soon there'll be a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 801's (the same speakers they use at Abbey Roads and at Peter Gabriels Real World Studio).That's extremely BEYOND "budget" though.

Lastly, it's actually a good idea to mix on a whole bunch of speaker's ranging from really bad to as good as possible, and if you get an overall average good sound coming out of all of them, then you know you've good a good mix.

majestikc

What are you planning on using them for is also important?