Studio Monitors
I’m looking for a good, but affordable pair of studio monitors. I know about what to look for in specs and what not but I was wondering if anyone has a pair they prefer to use? Which ones should I stay away from? Any input would be great. Thanks!
KRK is usually pretty good bang for your bucks. Look into the RP6 G2’s.
I have a slight preference for the Mackie MR-5 when comparing to the KRKs.
Liking the soundquality and the build quality better on Mackie.
i really like the yamaha’s. I have a pair of HS-80M’s probably some of the best sounding monitors ive heard so far apart from genelecs or ADAM’s which would be WAAY out of your price range (over a grand per monitor, some even go up to 7 or 8 grand per monitor). We also used to have a pair of HS-80M’s and a few other pairs of monitors at the recording studio i worked at, so i can compare them to other monitors pretty well. they might be a bit out of your pricerange though (700-800 per monitor) so check out the HS-50M’s, theyre smaller, and dont seem to have as deep a bass, but the mids and highs are identicall to the 80’s and theyre still very good bass wise when you compare them to other monitors in their size range. KRK’s are nice too. Mackies i like aswel, we had a pair of those exact monitors in the studio aswel, used them for the close range monitors. Very crisp, allmost too crisp though if i had to say something about them. Otherwise, good bang for buck are the Maudio monitors… the 8 inch ones… great bass response, mids and highs are very clear also, Not quite as good as some other monitors of that size but theyre the only descent monitors with an 8 inch driver i know of in a low to mid pricerange (i think there about 300-350 per monitor which is good for 8 inch monitors of that quality). Basswise they would definatly destroy any 5 or 6 inch monitors. Personally i preffer having larger (8 inch) monitors, rather than small monitors and a sub. I tend to find subs often overcompensate unless you spend hours getting all your levels right and using correct placement and audio acoustic treatment. But i doubt you will be setting up a professional recording studio, so you most likely wont be doing any of that.
Im pretty anal about everything soundwise though, real nit picky. Guess i kind of picked that up at audio engineering college and in the studio.
If you want good, (fairly) cheap, quality bass, mids/highs, check out the M-audios i think its the bx8a’s or something like that. If you can afford them, check out the Yamaha’s both HS-50M and HS-80M, or any of the KRK’s or Mackies are pretty good. Id personally stick to those brands, as most of the other brands dont tend to make very good monitors, or if they do, theyre ridiculously expensive like genelecs or ADAMs
Thanks for all the advice! Looking to get a pair in the next week now.
Whats the consesus of the behringer truths? I heard they are pretty good and well-priced
Im looking for a monitor now as well
berhinger truths tend to lie… lol, theyre probably one of the least flat set of monitors available on the market. dont get me wrong, they sound descent, but more like a descent pair of hi-fi speakers. they lack a lot of dynamic depth, and tend to cut some elements out of the mix, which is kind of the opposite of the point of monitors.
save up some money and get a descent pair, you wont regret it. yamaha’s, KRK’s or Mackies are all good mid priced options, and M-audio make some great monitors for the price, and tend to be cheaper, but dont sacrifice on quality too much.
Berhinger = good, cheap midi controllers & audio units for beginners
Berhinger = BAD monitors, analogue mixers, and DJ mixers (accept the ddm4000)
I love JBL.
unbelievable accurate highs and decent mids. really tight and accurate bass response as well. mackies seemed to be bass heavy and the krks are just a bit muddy at the mid and high end…I know im being picky ( i would have picked up the krk’s had I not got such a great discount on the JBL LSR-2300s)
my humble opinion of course.
omg totally forgot about JBL, i used to have a pair of JBL’s before my yamahas. yeah, JBL are great… tried and tested
they make great PA speakers aswel
ive got a set of tannoy reval 5a’s and love them it was one of the first things i did when i got reason a few years back was to make sure i had these. Sonically they are excellent unless your looking for them to be a subwoofer as well other than that you cant go wrong.
Well, I did hear loadsa producers use the older Truths to mimic the club sound at home. Maybe they use 'em as extra reference?
(Don’t know if it’s true, but too many are saying this to ignore it.)
And I heared great things about the ‘new’ Truths, being that they seem to be knockoffs of the Mackie HR series.
If this is true, then I know what I’ll be saving up for next. 
dont get me wrong, theyre great speakers… but not really accurate as monitors. they sound great, but theyre far from flat. it would still be possible to make great sounding tracks on them, you may just have to compensate in certain areas of your mix to get it right. theyre exelent for listening and “monitoring” your home DJ sets. but as for “accurate production monitors” … no. theyre frequency response curve is just too coloured and FAR from anything flat. like you said, they allmost mimmic the club sound, but a club doesnt, and shouldnt sound anything like a recording studio.
if you compare the curves…
Berhinger Truth B2030A monitors
Yamaha HS-80M
although neither are “truly” flat the HS80m’s are probably some of the closest your going to get.
sure they both fluctuate. but the 80’s have very minimal fluctuation whereas the berhingers have big chunks of fluctuation particularly in the low and mid. maybe thats why they sound so simmilar to the “club sound”???
anyway… the truths… theyre good speakers, but not very accurate for detailed production monitoring
Yeah, by judging from the graphs you’re more than right!
Though the specs in this pdf are great, when considering the new B1030A:
http://www.behringerdownload.de/_Brochures/B1030A_WeBrochure.pdf
Than again, I’m a big fan of the Mackies. 
ive considered buying a pair of the berhingers, just as a cheaper “second reference” because, as awesome as my yamaha monitors are, they hardly reflect the “real world” standards of everyday people. most people have a fairly average audio system.
so i figured, if my tracks sound good on…
if the track sounds good on all of those, i know ive mixed and mastered the track well.
it definately allways helps to have a second, third and fourth point of reference. the more points of reference you have, the better id say.
True that man!
Still need to get me some more space, so I will be able to purchase and place active near fields as well.
For now I have to make do with a small surround set and a Peavey PA set. LoLz.
Usually when I get round to finding suitable nearfields, I tend to get back to Mackies, Fostex and Yamaha.
p.s. tekki, check ur e-mail 
Reading and trying to give answers on my part so far. ;D
Thanks man!
And reply is in your mailbox.
So for home studio monitors I’m looking at the mackie MR5’s, the behringer B1030A’s and the yamaha HS80’s even though they are a little more expensive.. based on the graphs it seems like the yamaha’s give the most accurate response at the different frequencies.
But if I can save and just mimick that club sound without necessarily having to compensate, could the B1030A’s be enough?
you could probably get away with the berhingers, but you will have to compensate in your head for certain frequency areas which can get a little frustrating. I remember having to do this at one point when i had no room for my yamahas and had to set up a pair of tiny shitty old monitors i had, and i allways ended up overcompensating for the bass… lol. Another work around would be to have really good, flat set of cans for production, i highly reccomend any of the AKG, slightly higher end stuff, K171 (i think) K240s, and all the “studio” pairs they make. If you have a good set of cans, hopefully you can pick up on certain things you wouldnt with your monitors if they lack a little in certain areas.
The reason for this, is because the frequency response isnt quite as flat on the berhingers, you wont accurately hear certain frequency ranges as well as other monitors, so youll have to keep in mind that “around these frequencies, my monitors are a little low, so they should sound a bit higher normally” or “this area is a little boosted on my monitors, so it should sound a bit lower normally”. it can do your head in though
Personally, id save a little more and go for the mackies or yamahas, because i can guarantee you wont be disapointed. That said, you wont be disapointed by the berhingers either, but only because they will be your only point of reference. If you had a pair of yamahas or mackies, and then went to the berhingers, you would notice the difference straight away. If you get a chance to listen to them side by side, do it and see what you think, and weigh up if the extra clarity/depth is worth the extra cash.
Try go to a guitar centre or shop that sells all these monitors (if you have the chance), and test them all out individually and side by side if possible, i also highly reccomend bringing one of your favourite all time tracks that you know back to front and listened to a million times, because then, you should know exactly what the track should sound like, and its much easier to pick out the key differences between monitors, then going of a track that they play there for you at the shop. Then its up to you to weigh up the differences between quality/cost.