Studio Monitors or headphones?

Sora01

Sora01

how do mix ¯\(°_o)/¯
Oct 7, 2008
363
0
16
Aberdeen
Hey guys,

Having a bit of trouble deciding here, im needing something better to mix with since my £20 crappy headphones just arent doing the job and niether is my misleading speaker system

Now ive heard that acoustics can make a huge difference on monitors, im in quite a small room, bout litrally 2x2 meters square, not sure if thats good or bad, im new to this whole mixing thing.

basic question is, should i splash out between £300 and £400 on some studio monitors or £200 or so on some decent studio headphones? Also how exactly would the monitors fit into my setup? and maybe some suggestions as to which make or model would be awesome too :)

thanks in advance :worship:
 
I would definitely go for monitors over headphones (well, both, ideally ;)), cuz I find mixing or listening for awhile with headphones just gets fatiguing and annoying. The real evil when it comes to needing room treatment in excessive bass, so a less bassy set of high quality monitors would be ideal, and it doesn't get any better (for the price) than the Tannoy Reveal 5A's (I just got a pair and love 'em, here's my "review"). If you can't afford those, the only other option I think is the Yamaha HS50s, which are good but nowhere near in the same league (the other favorites in the price range, the Yamaha HS80s and M-Audio BX8a's, are gonna have WAY more bass than your little room can handle, especially with no treatment). As for cans, it really depends on your budget and needs; semi-open backed 'phones are supposed to be more accurate for mixing, but provide A LOT less sound isolation than closed backed models; I have a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50's that I love (fully closed back), they're the best bang-for-the-buck in the headphone world IMO.
 
And to be clear, the Tannoys aren't horribly lacking in bass, they just don't sound like having a built-in sub like the BX8a's and HS80s do, which for me was a good thing because of neighbors :erk:
 
Awesome, thanks for the help, the tannoys are in my budget for sure, im still not sure how theyd fit into my setup though,

Would i need some sort of decent soundcard with the right outputs or is there a simpiler way? im currently running my pre amp into an audiophile 2469. dont know if that has the right outputs or not.

Thanks again for the help :headbang:
 
No problem man! The 2496 I assume has just RCA outputs, which would work (you'd use an unbalanced cable for each monitor with a 1/4" to RCA adapter on one end), though having an interface with balanced TRS outputs (or XLR, but TRS are more common) would be better cuz the signal would be less prone to noise (and you'd be able to control the volume from the interface, rather than adjusting it on the M Audio driver utility). Firewire is the best bet for an interface, though you'll need to get a FW PCI card that has a TI chipset for best performance (google something like "PCI Firewire card TI chipset" to find one), and as for interfaces, I LOVE my Mackie Onyx Satellite, it's rock-solid at low-latency settings, has great preamps, and is dirt cheap these days (though it can only have two simultaneous inputs, whereas the pricier Presonus Firebox can have 4 analog and 2 digital SPDIF, for 6 total - this is the only department where the Presonus beats the Onyx, though).
 
Thanks!

Ah yeah i was checking out Firewire interfaces before,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260258146093&cguid=7a994a0811e0a0e203b4a104ffe19351


Thatd be the right firewire card right? and as for onyx, its £99, and as the tannoys are £200 under my budget, i may seriously consider getting that setup

Would the cable connecting the onyx to the monitors be

http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/shop/view_product.php?product=hostrs203
?

sorry for being a total noob haha, id like to order it all at once if i decide as final to get this, itd be annoying if i got the wrong cable or something, then id feel like a right retard :erk:

Thankyou for your help :)
 
Haha, no prob. man - that FW PCI card look PERFECT (lost_within, hopefully you've stumbled across this thread and have taken note :D), but you'd need a different cable (both type and brand, Hosa is GARBAGE :ill: ) - basically, you'll need two balanced cables (one for each monitor), with either TRS-XLR (male) or TRS-TRS connectors (the Tannoys have a combo jack). To get the best quality cables/connectors and save the most money, you'll wanna solder your own with Neutrik connectors and Cordial cable (which I've never heard of, but apparently is quite good, and is readily available at Thomann - I always use Mogami, which is pretty much considered the best, though if you can't find it in Europe, I'm sure Cordial would be fine).
 
Yep, Microphone cable is what you'd want, and while the TRS connector looks good, I'd go for this XLR connector instead, cuz this newer design by Neutrik makes it easier to get at the terminals for soldering while still being really stable when you put 'em all together (they're what I use). Definitely go for TRS on one end and XLR on the other, though (rather than TRS-TRS), cuz soldering TRS connectors SUCKS ASS compared to XLR, so the less you have to do it the better! :ill: Also, a set of these would definitely be a good idea for your monitors!
 
I use a fairly cheap set of headphones, mainly because #1 I can't afford real monitors, #2 I can't afford room treatment, #3 I wouldn't be able to have my monitors as loud as I need them, because of other people in the house. It can get annoying but I don't really have any other option for now. I find headphones better for adjusting delays, reverbs, ambience, etc. because of the detail they have, too.
 
Yeah, I agree, I often like using my cans for the time-based effects as well as panning, but still, it should be a much lower priority finance-wise than monitors IMO (hence why I think the ATH-M50's are so great, they're an awesome value!)
 
Metaltastic said:
(lost_within, hopefully you've stumbled across this thread and have taken note :D)
Click to expand...
I am.. what's funny is I just saw this thread and wondered if it was me that started and and forgot!! Because I was discussing the exact same subject with my mate the other day.. Monitors vs Headphones, and he said monitors ftw! He has a pair of Tannoy reveals (green ones- I dunno if they're the older 5A models). But basically you just shouldn't trust the headphones for mixing. I'm gonna get the PCI firewire chipset to use with the Presonus firebox.. and hope the new imacs will still include firewire, if they don't, they can suck it quite frankly!
 
Haha, yeah, that'd be ridiculous if the new imacs didn't have FW, but who can tell if the current Macbooks don't! :Smug:

I assume your bud has these, btw?
 
I would look into trying out a pair of Yamaha HS80Ms in your room and seeing if they play nice. They have been by far the best sounding monitors I've heard in the price range. Reasonable low extension (if a little muddy - fucken ported designs) and some nice midrange clarity (albeit at the cost of an open top-end, from what I could tell). They are quite differently voiced to the HS50Ms, which are in effect more like NS-10M clones. You even get a switchable mid-bump. Regardless the HS80Ms strike me as more of a full-range and neutral monitor. I certainly wouldn't say that they have an 'in-built sub' kind of sound, as their low-end extension is lacking compared to most 3-way systems I've tried. The HS80Ms have a barely adequate low-end IMO. You still more or less lose the bottom octave, but they do well enough for simple 2-way nearfields. Maybe pair them with a set of cans that can do down to 30hz to get your low-end right.
 
As for HS80s vs. Reveal 5A's, I admit I haven't A/B'ed them, but my feeling is that the Reveals have a smaller driver (5" vs. 8" on the Yammy) and less power (40 LF, 20 HF as opposed to 75 LF, 45 HF on the Yammy), yet cost the same, so the difference seems like a "quality over quantity" thing. Of course, I'm aware there are other factors that influence price (name recognition/reputation, production sizes, etc.), but the Tannoys just struck me as the higher quality monitor (and because I couldn't have speakers as bassy as the Yamahas anyway because of neighbors, I didn't have too hard a time making up my mind! :loco: ) Check out the Sweetwater staff reviews of the Tannoys, they really sum up my impressions of them! (and one of the user reviews is mine, btw, so that's why it may sound so familiar :D)
 
By the way Ermin, those Tannoys you were talking about with concentric drivers that you hated are ancient history dude! :lol: They have an archive section of all the old speakers on their website, and all the ones with concentric drivers look like they're from the mid-80s :D

s.php
 
Haha, you could still buy the system 800 and 600 monitors at turnkey before it closed down... they looked horrible :puke: I never heard them though.

Joe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

AdamG94
Cheap Monitors or Headphones?
Replies
8
Views
755
Backline
XnaySaturo
X
Virgil.
I need your opinions... Headphones vs. Monitors (AT M50's vs. KRK 5's)
Replies
5
Views
2K
Backline
Virgil.
Virgil.
AndrewB
How to set up my monitors?
Replies
6
Views
1K
Backline
vespiz
V
Jerrick
Headphone recommendations.
Replies
21
Views
844
Backline
Jevil
J
XxSicRokerxX
rokit 5 krk studio monitors
Replies
4
Views
627
Backline
XxSicRokerxX
X
Top Bottom
Back