Thoughts on these (cheap) DJ/studio monitors please
Last year I bought a hercules 2.1 speaker set for €25. They were good to say the least. But the last few weeks they have the occasional crack and pop. And today I was at a rather large multimedia store and they had these on sale for €119. The hercules xps 2.0 80 dj monitor.
I still don’t have dedicated DJ speakers, I plug my 2.1 system in the laptop and the mixer so that is quite a hassle all the time. And my early production attempts have also been on the little 2.1 system. Is it time for a set of new speakers ? My goodwill shop has some home stereo speakers but the connections are just cables that are stripped at the end. So that sucks. And these are a quarter of the price of KRKs, what is on my wishlist when I take producing to new level.
Anyways, I think these hercules monitors are marketed to the beginner controller DJ that aspires to be the next David Guetta and they look cool and sound alright but that they are not a smart buy.
What do you think oh wise men of DJTT ?
there was an earlier thread that someone else started that pointed to some monitors that are in that range by either Alesis or M-Audio…try the search function…
I’ve seen quite a few pairs of Yamaha NS20’s on ebay for around $100 which are pretty nice speakers - Bose 201’s can be had pretty reasonable as well and either would sound 100% better/louder than the Hercules/Behringer/M-audio route IMHO.
… sure you’ll need an Amp, for bedroom use You could go with the lil “Lepai t-amp” a try for $25 .. they are freaking awesome sounding lil units with tons of praise from audiophiles worldwide and ripe for modding!
I used yo have a sonic impact - same chips as the lepai (2020) I got for $18 with my old Control5’s it was defineltly loud enough for bedroom/small party use - and I do regret selling it - sounded awesome, unfortunately the sonic impact is quadruple the price now.
As a working engineer I’ll tell you this on monitors…
Find a place to listen to them, and make sure you can listen to your music on them. Take CDs of the music you listen to everyday, the stuff you’ve heard on dozens of different sound systems, and just listen to them on the monitors you’re thinking of buying. If you like it, then think about getting them.
The key is here, not the actual response of any certain speakers being better over the rest, but these are the speaker’s you are going to DJ/Produce on nearly everyday. These are the speakers you are basically going to have to become more intimate with then any others. This is one of the keys to monitor selection most people don’t really think about in the right way. I’ve been using a pair of M-Audio BX8s, the first model, for about 4 years now, and they aren’t the best by any means, but I know them in and out. I can put them in a good or bad environment, and I know how they are going the react, I’m very happy with the way they sound, and have mixed many great tracks on them for myself and many others.
Basically it boils down to this. Don’t believe any hype you hear on speakers. This is music… Believe in your ears. If in doubt, just put on your favorite track, close your eyes, and listen… The answers right there.
If you’re going out of your way to buy “cheap” monitors dont look for monitors look for speakers. monitors are for referring against to check your production mixes. speakers are to make music sound good. dont buy monitors if you aren’t going to drop a fair bit of cash because you will be wasting you money. heck I started using my laptop speakers to my inbuilt TV speakers and from there I jumped straight to Dynaudio BM5A’s cause I saved up my money and knew what I wanted. buy cheap you get cheap, drop cash and you’ll have it forever
I know nothing about those speakers in the OP, but I’d bet they kinda suck.
What kind of a budget are we talking, and what does your room sound like? The best monitors in the world are worth nothing if your room sounds like shit.
I’d suggest saving up and buying more mid-range monitors, (I have M-Audios that are fantastic), however, remember, monitors are designed to output a “flat response” What you hear is what you get. Anything that sounds clear across all frequencies is fine, including the hercules ones, build quality is the main difference in monitors.