Picking monitors

[tgs]

Yes I know I know, listen and pick for yourself, hehe. The thing is that I haven't found any proper stores in Lisbon (Portugal) to do just that (tips on that are welcome!), but I've seen some models at least that look interesting. I'd like to know if any of you have any opinions, or maybe have ideas for other things I could check out instead.

I plan on using these as my main monitors in my "spartan" mixing/mastering suite that I'm throwing together in Portugal. In my main studio (in Sweden) I'm using Event TR5 and Alesis Monitor One, just so you know kind of where I'm coming from...

So, here's what I've been looking at:

Genelec 8020 (top of my list right now)
Adam A7
Event TR8 or TR8XL
Bluesky Mediadesk 2.1

Ok, vomit your opinions all over me, hehe!

 

[26]

just so you know kind of where I'm coming from...

Yes ....must be Sweden.

I was too lazy to check out all the products in this price range and just took Kazrog´s trusty advice on the M-Audio Bx8a´s.
Today they arrived and I´m happy.

 

[Kazrog]

I'd avoid the small, overpriced speakers from the top-notch names like Genelec and Adam. I've had Events in the past and honestly I prefer my M-Audio BX8as massively. You won't find a better value for the money. Don't get small speakers, 8" woofers are the way to go for mixing with near fields.

 

[JonWormwood]

I'd avoid the small, overpriced speakers from the top-notch names like Genelec and Adam. I've had Events in the past and honestly I prefer my M-Audio BX8as massively. You won't find a better value for the money. Don't get small speakers, 8" woofers are the way to go for mixing with near fields.

+1

I've got the 6 3/4" Behringer Truths and despite most people being uke: over Behringer, they are extremely clear and flat and sound great imo but I just can't hear half the low end. But that's also due to my extreme lack of room treatment.

But I will be getting the Behringer sub to go a long with the set so I can have a complete full spectrum of sound no matter what kind of music I'm mixing, making or just listening to.

 

[cobrahead1030]

i suppose my experience was a strange one when it comes to speaker size...i had some wharfdale 8.2a's with a 5.5" woofer, and they had TOO MUCH low end IMO...even with the low end cut switch engaged

any actual CD i played thru them even at really low volumes sounded like there was enough low end to rattle the speakers off (well that's a bit exaggerated...but it was more than it should've been) and of course any mix i did with them sounded like it was missing a lot of lows...eventually i set the eq for my sound card to compensate and learned to work around it alright

 

[Aaron Smith]

I'm still pretty happy with my KRK RP-8s, and they're pretty affordable...about $250 each, even cheaper used. I FINALLY got my NS-10s up and running not too long ago though, and although I would not say that I'm incredibly familiar with them yet, if I listen to them a bit and then switch back to the KRKs, there is definitely a lot of detail I can hear on the NS-10s that I can't on the KRKs. The KRKs give me a consumer Sony stereo kind of feel when I listen to them right after the NS-10s...

"FINALLY got my NS-10s up and running", meaning the eBay prick from Canada listed them as MINT CONDITION, but when I got them, neither of the tweeters made any noise whatsoever. The first time I hooked them up, I listened for a few seconds and I was like "Uhmm...well I know they aren't supposed to sound good, but I don't think they're supposed to sound like that...", haha!
New tweeters from Yamaha = $120 each

 

[cobrahead1030]

New tweeters from Yamaha = $120 each

ouch...did the guy from ebay help pay for any of that?

 

[broken81]

i suppose my experience was a strange one when it comes to speaker size...i had some wharfdale 8.2a's with a 5.5" woofer, and they had TOO MUCH low end IMO...even with the low end cut switch engaged

any actual CD i played thru them even at really low volumes sounded like there was enough low end to rattle the speakers off (well that's a bit exaggerated...but it was more than it should've been) and of course any mix i did with them sounded like it was missing a lot of lows...eventually i set the eq for my sound card to compensate and learned to work around it alright

Yea i have tried everything with these wharfdale 8.2a to get bass right but its always just not there for me. All my mixes come out way bass heavy. I have treated my room with 703 traps got monitor stand and auralex mopads and all made a little difference but I'm still doing guess work with my low end. I'm thinking my room still is part of the problem but I'm just not liking these speakers anymore and need an upgrade bad.


I'm thinking the M-audio bx8a might be in my future soon!!

Anyone want to buy some wharfdale 8.2a's?

 

[jesterroot4]

lol i wanna get myself some NS10's big time! there the industry standard and they dont make them any more

i know some one who wants £300... is it worth it? i dunno the actual price for them...

i'm about to buy some KRK pr6 monitors in about an hour! lol and i'm looking forward to them coming

people have said, if your spending less than £1,000 on monitors, go for KRK's

 

[Aaron Smith]

lol i wanna get myself some NS10's big time!
i know some one who wants £300... is it worth it? have said, if your spending less than £1,000 on monitors, go for KRK's

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, I've seen them go for more than that on eBay.

ouch...did the guy from ebay help pay for any of that?

Nope, he was a prick. I went through the whole Paypal complaint process or whatever it's called, and I kept an extremely kind but honest demeanor about the whole thing, first asking that he pay for repairs, and even eventually offering to pay for half of the repairs if he would cover the other half, and he would just be like "NOT INTERESTED". The best he ended up offering was a return of my money if I shipped them back to him, but I would have to cover the $60+ shipping charges, which would have been an absolute waste. I decided I'd rather invest that money into the repairs, you know?

Anyway, the only "good" part about the story I guess, is that I won the auction for $470 I think, so even with the repair costs added, it all worked out to be about an average price for NS-10s. It could have been worse.

Anyway, I've been mixing some more today and I really like the NS-10s quite a lot!

 

[Soundlurker]

Yea i have tried everything with these wharfdale 8.2a to get bass right but its always just not there for me. All my mixes come out way bass heavy. I have treated my room with 703 traps got monitor stand and auralex mopads and all made a little difference but I'm still doing guess work with my low end. I'm thinking my room still is part of the problem but I'm just not liking these speakers anymore and need an upgrade bad.


I'm thinking the M-audio bx8a might be in my future soon!!

Anyone want to buy some wharfdale 8.2a's?

I have a pair of the same Wharfedale, only the 6.5" version and they don't seem bass heavy to me, not at all really. And if they have too much bass your mixes would probably sound thin not bass heavy.

 

[broken81]

I have a pair of the same Wharfedale, only the 6.5" version and they don't seem bass heavy to me, not at all really. And if they have too much bass your mixes would probably sound thin not bass heavy.

Mine monitors are far from bass heavy they lack low end! Im gonna move up to 8" and i was debating between the krk and m-audio.

 

[cobrahead1030]

Mine monitors are far from bass heavy they lack low end! Im gonna move up to 8" and i was debating between the krk and m-audio.

mine were extremely bass heavy!

i just got some cheap m audio studio pro 4's, they seem decent for the money so far...i'll get something nicer in the future and keep those around as an extra set

 

[CJWall]

mine were extremely bass heavy!

i just got some cheap m audio studio pro 4's, they seem decent for the money so far...i'll get something nicer in the future and keep those around as an extra set

that was probably due more to 1.) where you had them in your space and 2.) the inherent modal problems within it.

just guessing tho....

 

[cobrahead1030]

that was probably due more to 1.) where you had them in your space and 2.) the inherent modal problems within it.

just guessing tho....

no idea...we moved our recording rig to 3 different places tho, and it was the same in all of them

i would mix something to where it sounded pretty good, then i'd play something from the new arch enemy to compare...the arch enemy sounded more clear and detailed across the mids and highs of course, but the low end sounded like it was gonna make the speakers explode; it was around 30-120 hz that was just ridiculous, it was fine after i set the soundcard eq to compensate for it tho

the new ones arrived last night, so far so good...they're not great sounding anything but they seem like they'll get the job done, definitely a lot better than the hi fi stereo i've been using

 

[tgs]

Maybe a bit late to bring this thread up again, but what the hell!

I just got a pair of monitors now and I ended up with the Genelec 8020. I was seriously looking into the BX8a monitors after what you guys said about them, but I went for the Genelecs because the room I'm working in here is quite small, and since those speakers in themselves are quite big, I don't even know how I would even be able to PHYSICALLY fit them properly even, hehe.

Well anyway, I still haven't HEARD the BX8a though and I will certainly keep them in mind in the future, especially for the studio in Sweden or if we move and I will have some more space to work in. I am very curious to hear what they sound like, that's for sure.

The verdict about the 8020's then... I listened to a lot of different things on them to determine if it was what I was after and I am VERY satisfied. I am actually amazed with the bass response in these little suckers, and in general the sound is clear and crisp with all the details clearly audible. I'm listening right now to OK Computer and I'm hearing things I never even heard before, despite listening to the album probably 100 times before. My girlfriend even came in a few minutes ago and asked what "that weird sound" was, haha.

As for being overprices, well... I don't know, they weren't exactly free but not really that expensive either, and they are the best ones I've heard in this price range so far, although I haven't listened to THAT many to be perfectly honest. And having something with this sound, which are also quite portable, just fit this setup perfectly.

The thing I'll do now is to look for a decent subwoofer. I use that in my regular studio but mainly only for reference now and then, so I want to have something similar here.