monitor speakers

[savage_g]

Was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations for reasonably cheap active monitors?
Been rocking Alesis M1 Active MK2s for a couple of years, and the power supply's given up in one of them. (the price alesis have given me for a replacement ps is about half the price of a new pair of M1s!)
This is apparently a common problem for the M1s - so don't really want to get another pair of them.
Been looking at tannoy reveals, rockits etc but dunno what to get as there can be a big quality difference in speakers at that price range (£200/$400).
Any ideas?

 

[konceptG]

M-Audio and Behringer makes excellent monitors in that price range. Head to your nearest shop and have a listen to them.

 

[The Arkitekt]

i heard m-audio's monitors really suck and are built poorly, and dont get the lower price m-audio's if your getting m-audio, theyre more listening speakers than reference monitors

 

[daproduct]

if you've got $400 to spend cop an amp and some passive monitors. it'll save you from having the hassle of buying a whole new pair if one little thing fucks up, plus a nice clean amp has more than one practical application. for near field monitoring a 100-200 watt amp should have you covered, i might recommend the Samson Servo 200 for a starter. as for the passive monitors id opt for a set of jbl control5's. either anyway good luck getting yourself setup!

 

[Shonsteez]

Savage,

Ive had KRK RP-5s for the last 4 or 5 years and they are very pleasant on the ears. Little to no fatigue after long hours of use and they give a very good response closet to flat that your going to get in that price range. I paid 300 even for mine back when I purchased them 4 or 5 years ago. Theyre still kicking ass and I use them all the time.

Tannoys would prob be even a better choice but your going to have pay a whole lot more for what you get. I have a few friends that use Tannoys tho and can highly recommend them as well.

I believe that KRK has released an updated version of the rockit series now with even better imaging due to their updated drivers and new cabinet's and at the same price point as their old predecessor so i would def look into that.

Oh and if I were you Id stay away from M-Audios and Behringer's. Both brands make very low grade consumer quality monitors....
Theres a simple rule of thumb here: You get what you pay for, especially when it comes to monitors.

M-Audio's are all very bass heavy and far from flat and the Behringer's, well, id just stay away from those in general. Thats on you tho.

 

[The Arkitekt]

steez, you use a sub with your rp5's? cuz the response only goes down to like 50hz or something

 

[Shonsteez]

Yeah, thats the one thing I forgot to mention in my last comment. The drivers on the 5's dont reinforce the bass tremendously so I would opt to cop the 8s if you can scrape together the dough. Those are the ones i wanted, just didnt have the money. The 5's are still surprisingly better then you would expect tho.
The Sub would be nice but I actually dont feel its necessary. If i had money to blow tho I prob would cop one along with the newer VXT 8's. Still priced well but excellent monitors.

 

[Relic]

I have Haflers, they sound good to me!

 

[savage_g]

big up for all the advice people.

Shonsteez - the KRK RP5s were the main ones I was considering - you think it would worth putting the money aside for the RP8s? Just as I've found the main problem with the Alesis's I was rocking was distortion on low end bass (and they've got a bigger woofer than the RP5s).

Heard off a lot of people that the Tannoys can be quite fatiguing on the ears? Anything in that?

Would never fuck with Behringer products as a general rule - never heard anything good about that company.

To be honest, pissed that I can't keep using the Alesis's any more - would seriously rate them at that price; nice flat balanced sound. Just ain't buying them simply for the unreliability.

 

[Shonsteez]

Yeah dude, Alesis is cool for certain things but that brand usually makes so-so equipment.

In regards to your questions:
Yeah, if you can I would hold out the RP8s. You'll just get a better low end representation then the 5s. But the 5s are surprisingly good for their size. Plus if your mixing your joints to the extent that your drivers start distorting then you need to turn them down anyways, thats waaaay too loud.

There are those times where you need to crank it up though and hear it loud for a little bit and in that respect the RP8s will obviously shine a bit more, but the 5s are still a great deal.

As far as ear fatigue from the Tannoys, ive never heard that from anybody I know that uses them yet.

 

[StressWon]

I got these for 140. I love em.

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1811

 

[savage_g]

Don't really monitor at a high volume; just the real sub bass frequencies a lot of monitors can't handle (using them for a lot of drum n bass and dubstep tracks as well) so think think the RP8s are the way to go. Just have to gp through another couple of months of headphone mixing until I can afford them...

thanks for the advice though man.

 

[Shonsteez]

Word, i totally know what you mean about the drivers not handling that kind of low freq information....Guess all i can say is you just gotta be careful and know the limitations of your monitors...I mean, even with the RP8s, youll obviously have a lot more leeway with turning your gain up on a song thats producing low sub harmonics but still those can blow too if your not careful....

The RP8s are a good choice though. Those are the ones I would go with too.

 

[Rackoon]

I have the KRK Rp5 and rp10 sub combo....They sound great but I would definitely go for a 8 inch version, because of the fact that there is no calibration needed.

If your room is already treated and well balanced, go for the sub...

By the way the RP10 plays extremely loud, I have it barely "on" and it still manages to massage my whole house..I would use it for a 5.1 home system and its cheaper that most subs sold at Best Buy etc....

I have a Klipsch 10inch home sub that doenst even come close to the Rp10.

Hope this helps

 

[elementsrtyte]

i would get the krk5s and the rp10s sub. the sub makes all the difference for hip hop. i heard the 8s and ya they had a bit more low end, but they still didn't do the trick. i just decided to get the 5s and the sub, and no complaining here one bit.

 

[Shonsteez]

When your mixing, I agree you do need a bit more reinforcement in the low end...But with a sub that can make mixing a little more difficult on occasion. Its good to check how deep your bass and kick and whatever other low end information is sounding like on occasion, but personally i wouldn't want to mix like that on a regular basis.
I think a good set of reference monitors is all you need. Adding a sub is better for simply enjoying music in a different context rather then mixing.

The reason I say this is because you want your mixes to translate to all systems the same way as much as possible and the sub can be misleading since it often reinforces the bass a little too much, so as a result you end up mixing as if theres more bass presence then there really is and then your song doesn't hit the same in every respectable stereo system other then maybe a car stereo with subs or a club downtown. Thats not to say you cant still mix a good track with a sub, but these are factors to consider when doing so.

 

[Sucio]

I usually work from my mdr-7506 headphones. They work pretty well...

A sub is cool but only if it's set up so it's not overpowering. I personally wouldn't go the sub route...

Headphones work pretty well, mainly because all the sound is isolated and concentrated. It seems like you could hear more on the headphones.

 

[Kontents]

When your mixing, I agree you do need a bit more reinforcement in the low end...But with a sub that can make mixing a little more difficult on occasion. Its good to check how deep your bass and kick and whatever other low end information is sounding like on occasion, but personally i wouldn't want to mix like that on a regular basis.
I think a good set of reference monitors is all you need. Adding a sub is better for simply enjoying music in a different context rather then mixing.

The reason I say this is because you want your mixes to translate to all systems the same way as much as possible and the sub can be misleading since it often reinforces the bass a little too much, so as a result you end up mixing as if theres more bass presence then there really is and then your song doesn't hit the same in every respectable stereo system other then maybe a car stereo with subs or a club downtown. Thats not to say you cant still mix a good track with a sub, but these are factors to consider when doing so.

This was a clean explination about what subs are used for. Great Post ShonSteez

 

[elementsrtyte]

regardless of whether you have a sub or not, the bottom line is knowing your speakers. there's no speaker that is really better than one or the other. its just knowing yor setup throroughly and knowing how the sound will translate to other systems. think about it, the people that are actually going to be listening to your mixes are not going to have nice monitor speakers, they're just going to be using a typical boombox. so why not, go ahead and use a boombox to mix. in peoples cars, everyones got the bass cranked to 11.

i'm not saying monitors won't help your mix, but i'm saying just get to know your system really well, and listen to what your mixes sound like on a variety of different speakers to know whats up.

 

[elementsrtyte]

oh and to shonsteez, what if you wanted to eq a bass line that intertwined with 3 different types of kicks. that running at like 50hz, your not even going to be able to pick up the small noise differences with just the two regular cabinets. so in the long run, it will help knowing what your bottom end will sound like with the assistance of a sub.