Studio Monitors

[Synergy]

Recently went to GC to look at monitors, was in a rush but I was checking out all the speakers.


One of the guys there told me that KRK's tend to color the bottom end, idk if this is true. I then proceeded to ask him which brand would have the FLATTEST response and he pointed me to some Yamaha HS50M's. Anyone know anything about these? Do KRK's tend to color sound? Anyone know anything abut any of these speakers?


Thanks in advance!

[thehadgi]

I've heard the Adam a5/a7's are notoriously flat

[Blueprint]

yeah, everything so far is true, the Adams are the best of the mentioned. Yamaha's next and the KRKs are bassy so it's harder to translate the bass.

[Synergy]

thanks for the info, are the prices for the adams around the same? i guess i should go google huh? lol

[thehadgi]

^^I'm thinking probably. I was looking around, and I remember skeyelab mentioning that the behringer 2031a's were pretty darn good, esp for the price. Just in case you wanted to check those out. Got some good reviews from what I've seen

[aleksvanrohrer]

Buy a pair of KRKs (VXT series) and a pair of Yamaha HS 80M. Doesn't hurt to have two pairs of speakers to reference on, then take track to car stereo and listen on your laptop with built in speakers as well to see how mix sounds.

[Blueprint]

I reference like this:
1 - mix on yamaha hs80ms.
2 - take a break and bounce and put on my iphone and listen to it on my car stereo, noting changes.
3 - put on my cheap ass default apple earbuds and note changes.
4 - go back to the studio and decide on final mix changes.

i figure that a tune has to kinda sound equally good across those three (studio, car, and the most used headphones), also, I have ALL reference speakers/headphones/source set to 0, with no extra emphasis on mids, hi's or lows.

[Synergy]

awesome thanks!! looks like i have more research to do!

[Brian Sang Han]

just bought a pair of pioneer sdj05 at gc. they price matched sam ash current sale price at 450 so i decided to try em out. i liked the idea of switching easily between my computer, controller, and other interfaces with 1 pair of speakers and a button. i would put them above the krks

[1point5]

Genelecs all the way if you can afford them!

Otherwise I've heard great things about the Adams for the price. My 8" KRKs sound great but are not very bassy at all, although they definitely do colour the sound a bit when compared with the Genelecs I use at uni. My friend has some M-Audio BX8s which have a huge amount of bass compared to mine.

[Pinx]

Also check out Fostex PM1 Mk2, i use them and i think they give a great uncoloured sound :)

[Synergy]

awesome, im looking for the flattest sound. i want TRUE representation when i play it back. I can then put the sound through my mixer to my pa system and listen. I just want flat sound for the best mix down i can do.

[mostapha]

Then, for near fields, you want Genelec. Adams and Dynaudios are supposed to be good as well, but Genelcs are the most impressively flat that I've heard.

KRK, Yamaha, Mackie, M-Audio, Behringer, etc. don't cut it.

[login]

As with anything audio you get what you pay for. I would suggest you listen to all the monitors with in your budget. Take a cd of your own stuff and some of the music you like(different genres if you can) to the store to play it back with some of the monitors.

There is always gonnna be better equipment that what you can pay for, but it's possible to work with low end stuff, many people does it, look for example at pics of studios of famous EDM producers, you will see mid-end to low high end stuff, nothing crazy, Yamaha, genelecs, adam's, dynaudio's, mackie's. What is important is to learn to use the equipment, know its limitations and shortcomings.

For example Yamaha's NS10 are famous as studio monitors, and they weren't even designed as studio monitors.

[mostapha]

They were famous because they sound like crap…they have a really harsh bump at 2kHz and a weird rolloff. The point was that getting something to sound good on them at low volumes meant that the same mix would sound awesome on a real system at full volume. If you want that, the HS50M and 80M have switches on the back that get fairly close.

If you can't afford things that flat…just listen in as many places as you can…good, flat monitors just make things easier.

[Synergy]

awesome, thanks for all the input guys. i really appreciate it!!

Got some listening to do and then decision time.

[thehadgi]

KRK, Yamaha, Mackie, M-Audio, Behringer, etc. don't cut it.

These would suffice a person in the OP's position. If the OP is in a position where these would not be good enough, other factors would be coming into play such audio interfaces, converters, acoustic treatment of the room. For the purposes of this thread those above would suffice, and A/B'ing the OP's mixes with released recordings would be better practice than spending the extra money on top shelf monitors at this stage.

But yeah, the genelecs are a good choice for high end studios

[Manu]

One of the guys there told me that KRK's tend to color the bottom end, idk if this is true.

yup, they color the bottom mids. Get some yamahas, genelecs or adams if you want some true flat response. The yamahas are good in the sense that if you get your mix to sound right on them, it will sound awesome on any other system.

[mostapha]

@Alan, acoustic treatment (and the room) make the biggest difference. The difference between converters is there, and it's audible…but it's tiny. The difference between an NI Audio 2 and a Metric Halo ULN8 is smaller than the difference between a naked room and a room with basic sound treatment. The difference between what he has and monitors might be even bigger.

Sorry…I assumed that anyone who was in the market for Genelecs would have done some kind of acoustic treatments.

[thehadgi]

Yeah, true there.

Can't wait till I get out of crappy apt and get a space I can actually treat for music. Should prob start savin now for one of those sets above :eek:

[mostapha]

You can do a lot without too much money. Draperies and bookshelves in the right places go a long way. After that, it's just bass traps, making sure there's room b/t the back of your nearfields and the wall, and killing specific, problematic reflections.

At least, that's what I've observed from some pretty good sounding rooms.

Or…you can just build a sound proof, anechoic space……that'd be awesome. Unfortunately, it's also really expensive.

[Scrap McNapps]

I find the Focal CMS series to be very good monitors. Stuff that I made with them translated very well.

[djKlassiC ®]

I've heard nothing but good things about the Adam A7's

[djKlassiC ®]

just bought a pair of pioneer sdj05 at gc.

How are you liking those pioneer monitors?

I was looking at those but haven't seen to many reviews on them.

[RaphaelJohn]

I recently just bought the M-Audio BX8A monitors. Haven't set them up yet, but my friend has em in his studio and they are really good. I like the sound better than the KRK 8's. And they're on sale at guitar center, normally $499 for the pair, but there's a $125 instant rebate which is good until the end of the month.

[Karl Dali]

Genelecs all the way if you can afford them!

Otherwise I've heard great things about the Adams for the price. My 8" KRKs sound great but are not very bassy at all, although they definitely do colour the sound a bit when compared with the Genelecs I use at uni. My friend has some M-Audio BX8s which have a huge amount of bass compared to mine.

Yeah wish i would have brought genelecs, instead of my krk's

[mostapha]

I've recently discovered that Dynaudio, in addition to having a good reputation, makes at least a few nearfields that don't have volume controls…just an input sensitivity (-10, 0, +4) that you set based on the output they're connected to.

Yeah…they'll be my next set because of that.

I'm so effing sick of ghosts bumping the volume controls on my Rokits. I'm very close to breaking the dame knobs off. I have them set…I never want them to move again.

[thehadgi]

Bout 3 weeks or so into my yamaha hs50m's. sound really great so far, very pleased

[Celestial]

I was never a big fan of KRK's, didn't like the sound they would put out. Went with JBL's when I was monitor shopping back in a day

[Wakka]

HS80M's are great, never heard the 50s but ive heard they sound similar to the NS10m's, which are legendary in the production world.

[punky]

I couldn't afford Genelecs, but I'm pretty happy with my KRKs.

[mostapha]

Yeah…I'm convinced my KRKs sound just fine for my purposes. I do need to invest in bass traps whenever I can afford it at the very least. And I'd love to get something on my ceiling. I will be upgrading to Dynaudio at some point…but that's just a convenience issue. The only reason I'm posting is that the ghosts in my bedroom turned down one of my Rokits again and it took me like 10 minutes to figure out why things sounded so weird…I checked my panning settings, the sound card's levels, etc.…then remembered the ghosts.

Why do monitors have volume knobs? Fucking annoying.

[login]

Why do monitors have volume knobs? Fucking annoying.

cause they are not sold as matched pairs...

[mostapha]

I'd say that was legit except for two things: the click'd gain adjustments are too big to ever matter for differences that small; and they're Rokit 5s……if you care about having a matched pair of monitors, you're going to buy better monitors anyway.

I'm never going to bother selling them…I'm very close to just breaking the volume knobs off.

[login]

The yamaha's and other's, have also some controls for dealing with room conditions

http://www.moozek.com/postsfiles/hs50m/hs50m-back.jpg

I also find the volume knob to be usefull for "limiting" when my GF or any friend at my house want to turn the volume up in the computer, they never think there is such volume control in the back XD

[jmack953]

Adam Audio is one of the best ones you can get (in my own opionion of course). Now whether you go with AA, KRK, Yamaha, basically any of them, you will get the "ear fatigue" going on if you have long listen back sessions. I've heard the Yamaha HS50M's, and they aren't too bad. Really nice actually, but I still prefer adams over all. As for the ear fatigue thing... BLUEPRINT has the right idea, the best way to remedy that is to bounce back and forth between your listening sources. Ear fatigue can play some nasty tricks on you if you get too carried away in front of the same set of speakers over an extended amount of time (things will start to sound different though no actual change may be taking place)
The KRK VXT series is supposed to have worked on solutions to eliminating this, but I can't be the one to say if they truly work that way or not as I have only heard them for a short amount of time (5 minutes) and haven't worked first hand with the VXT's. I have the KRK Rokits, but, as mentioned, ear fatigue will happen.

[Atomisk]

Funny that these two speakers are in question... I use the KRK 8's and my roommate uses the Yamaha Yamaha HS50Ms. That being said, The KRKs color the bass insanely. The bass is overwhelmed. I actually plugged the bass ports in my speakers to reduce the bass a bit. The Yamahas are really nice, I love them, but they have almost no bass. The reference mode feature is really nice. If you're looking for a more accurate studio monitor, get the Yamahas.

[Celestial]

i find taking a break is a great way to get over ear fatigue :)

[disparate]

For what it's worth I'm quite happy with my Behringer B2031As. They're definitely not the weakest link in my chain, that would be my room... I've had them for 3 or 4 years and I do intend to get better monitors eventually, but only either once these die or I get a better (or at least a dedicated) studio room, not sure what you guys thoughts are on this but I'm not sure if I see the point in getting a nice pair of Dynaudios or Adams or something then just shoving them in my living room or bedroom.

I mostly bought the Behringers on the recommendations of Eric Skyelab who generally knows his shit, has he been back here since the DJF hiatus?

[mostapha]

I don't think there's any point in putting good speakers in a crappy room. There's a point in getting "not crap" speakers. But not good ones.