Studio Monitors Anyone?

[Muusers]

I'm looking for a set of studio monitors for a small home studio with a small price. Hooking them up to my ASUS Xonar D2X/XDT soundcard. Also. What's the difference between active and passive monitors?

[Charling]

active's have an in-built amp and need mains power, passive's need a seperate amp.

there are loads out there, may people would consider £500 a small price for monitors so what is your actual budget?

[fretlessrock]

I'm still rocking a set of Samson Rubicon R5a that have done a decent job, don't have any problem zones, give enough detail to fix problem areas, especially in the mids, and and produce a decent stereo image even if the monitoring position is compromised.

The real issue is the space you put them in. Most setups end up facing a close wall, and have a parallel wall behind the monitoring position. That makes for comb filtering, bass weirdness, and phase problems (not being able to accurately fix phase issues). Even if they don't the room will have hot spots and dead spots. So I'd take a lower priced monitor and put the rest of the money into fixing the room, if that was an option.

[Muusers]

Some 150 euros for a set of 2. Doesn't have to be anything special, as long as they work.

[Kipaste]

Define "work." For that money, you can get a pair of active monitors that produce sound, but if you have a good stereo system, chances are that the monitors won't do a better job. Most of those monitors in that price class have been labeled "for desktop and video work"

Here's thomann.de list of active monitors in rising price order. The pages are set finnish and too lazy to change it, but the product descriptions are in english. http://www.thomann.de/fi/cat.html?gf...nitorit&oa=pra

If I was you, I'd just use your current stereo set (or if you don't have one, scavenge flea markets for a used one) and invest that 150 euros into headphones. 150 euros will buy you a nice set of headphones and help you hear those little errors and mistakes quite well. Of course they won't help you solve all the problems, but if you're a beginner with home studios I think a decent set of headphones could be a better investment at this point.

[Charling]

Originally Posted by Kipaste

Define "work." For that money, you can get a pair of active monitors that produce sound, but if you have a good stereo system, chances are that the monitors won't do a better job. Most of those monitors in that price class have been labeled "for desktop and video work"

Here's thomann.de list of active monitors in rising price order. The pages are set finnish and too lazy to change it, but the product descriptions are in english. http://www.thomann.de/fi/cat.html?gf...nitorit&oa=pra

If I was you, I'd just use your current stereo set (or if you don't have one, scavenge flea markets for a used one) and invest that 150 euros into headphones. 150 euros will buy you a nice set of headphones and help you hear those little errors and mistakes quite well. Of course they won't help you solve all the problems, but if you're a beginner with home studios I think a decent set of headphones could be a better investment at this point.

yeah, monitors for around that price are rarely actual 'monitors' but you could get some good hi fi speakers for that price.

Acoustic research speakers are astoundingly cheap on ebay, I've seen a pair go for £10! a cheap old amp may cost you £30 or £40. this is not the most usual way to go but older hi fi speakers tended to be very natural compared to modern ones, and some of the AR's when new in the 70's were very pricey! they have just gone out of fashion.

I recently purchased a pair of AR18's for when I have to mix at home, ad even through a rubbish kenwood amp they sound great and are VERY useable as monitors (so much so that my previous, much more expensive home monitors are never really used!).

I got my ar's and super cheap amp for about your budget, with view of getting a better amp later, but AR18's because of there 'fame' as studio monitors (of ref. speakers) are normally fairly pricey when in good condition. A lot of the other models are SUPER cheap.

thats what I would do, I wouldn't necessarily advise hadphones myself, but it may work for you! for your purposes I'm sure you will get what you need from either.

[Muusers]

http://www.thomann.de/nl/behringer_m...utsprecher.htm

Maybe something like that?

[Charling]

Originally Posted by Muusers

http://www.thomann.de/nl/behringer_m...utsprecher.htm

Maybe something like that?

I would DEFINITELY go with something along the lines of what I suggested above rater than go for that! Or headphones for that matter.

[aproud1]

I've used these for the past 2 or 3 years.

http://www.allprosound.com/catalog/p...20RESOLV%2065A

Sound great. My nephew (I think) recently pushed in the dome on on the tweeters recently.

I thought about going the hifi speakers with my Arcam Alpha 9 but decided to go for true nearfield stereo monitors.

[Muusers]

Originally Posted by Charling

I would DEFINITELY go with something along the lines of what I suggested above rater than go for that! Or headphones for that matter.

Well I haven't got the faintest clue what good speakers/monitors/'tever are for my price range, so how the hell am I gonna find a good 2nd hand set without knowing anything? Besides. I don't want this insane amount of speakers in my room, just 2 that do the job. They don't have to wake up the neighbours as long as they give a clear sound. AND, I live in the Netherlands, so basically I can't find any decent 2nd hand studio-esque speakers.

[acubass]

KRK's aren't bad monitors. The RP 5's or 6's would do .

[Charling]

Originally Posted by Muusers

Well I haven't got the faintest clue what good speakers/monitors/'tever are for my price range, so how the hell am I gonna find a good 2nd hand set without knowing anything? Besides. I don't want this insane amount of speakers in my room, just 2 that do the job. They don't have to wake up the neighbours as long as they give a clear sound. AND, I live in the Netherlands, so basically I can't find any decent 2nd hand studio-esque speakers.

OK, well the reason I say is that behringer does not have the best reputation around their gear, some people swear by it, a lot swear at it.

I'm not sure who has suggested that you get a large number of speakers! so far all the suggestions have been 2 speaker set ups!

You don't need to know anything to get a good second hand set, well, no more than you need to know to get a good new set. All you need to do is google the name of a speaker followed by 'review' or similar and you will get pages of opinions. Its how you learn!

And I suggested a company, AR (acoustic research), that made great speakers that can be found for very cheap. Ebay has all you need. pretty much every speaker by AR is great and at £10 a pair you cannot go wrong! There are many other similar companies thats why I didn't give you an exhaustive list, but I suggested a make to you that make great speakers!

If you have ebay then you can get these speakers, most of the time I have seen 'will post worldwide' on the ebay listings. If you can't find any in the netherlands ebay just go to ebay.co.uk and search there.

KRK indeed make great monitors, the more expensive stuff is great, but the little ones are good too. a little out of the OP's budget though.

[0--+LoveBass]

Headphones don't work as well and cannot mix correctly. I suggest the M audio BX8a's!


THEY ARE THE BEST FOR CHEAP

[Kipaste]

Originally Posted by Charling

thats what I would do, I wouldn't necessarily advise hadphones myself, but it may work for you! for your purposes I'm sure you will get what you need from either.

Aah, so it's about mixing. I didn't think this trough, as I only thought about hearing the little things while you record instruments as I wouldn't dream about mixing with the monitors I currently own. Sorry, my bad.