Yamaha HS80M vs KRK RP 8 G2 vs Mackie MR 8

Question

Hey everybody,

I went to the local music shop and asked for a monitor solution for a small room (with a budget around 400 - 500 Euro, i know - that´s not really a budget but I cannot afford more) and these are the monitors that were shown to me:

Mackie MR 8

Yamaha HS80M

KRK RP 8 G2

I really liked the transparency of the Yamahas but missed some of the bass... The MR8 sounded ok but less transparent. KRK... dunno... I would go for the HS80M.

What do you think? Do you have any experience with these speakers? Any recommendations?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I'd say it depends on what you will do with it. MR8 are pretty famous for electronic music producers. I don't know much about KRK.

I'm working as a sound designer for Ubisoft (France) we use Genelec and I have a pair of HS80M at home they sound different but you can correctly work on it without having big surprises when you get back to work with better monitoring speakers.

Answer 2

I went in to buy the Mackies, but decided to listen to all. I left with Adam A7s (paid a bit less too). What they miss in the bass they make up for with really crisp highs. They compared pretty favorably to some expensive Genelecs. Had them for a year now. still happy.

Answer 3

I have a pair of MR8's and have been pretty happy with them. There is a lack of transperency compared to some monitors, and sometimes I have problems with the higher frequencies. I thought the low end wasn't bad for their size. But they are cheep 450USD

That said, one thing I am happy about when working with them is how my mixes translate. I've found when listening to my mixes through my home theatre (onkyo), my laptop, and through an iPad and even my car system, that everything I placed in the mix stayed there. The sounds that needed to pop did so, and the subtle sounds stayed subtle and didn't disapear.

Also, I supplement them with a JBL LSR2300

A buddy of mine had the KRKs and he said he liked them when tracking but didn't wasn't thrilled with mixing on them. I never had a chance to mix on them myself.

Good luck researching.

Answer 4

When talking about monitors you'll get reviews/opinions for every possible taste... I think you should really see what suits you better.

From the official manuals you can see that Yamaha HS80M have a frequency response from 42Hz to 20 KHz within 10 dB range, and KRK RP8 have a frequency response from 45 Hz to 20 KHz within 1.5 dB range. The 10 dB range stated by Yamaha is not a very useful metric and can mislead the consumer (maybe it was the real intention of Yamaha to do that?), but by analyzing this graph (don't know the testbench used) you can see that HS80M only have a +/-3 db precision for the ~55Hz-20KHz range.

I have listened to both of them in different conditions so I can't fairly compare them, but based on the facts I stated above I think I will buy the KRK.

Mackie MR8 MK2 have more power (100 W + 50 W) but have a worse linearity within their frequency response when compared with the KRK (just 40 Hz - 20 KHz with +/- 3 db).

Answer 5

You said that you wanted monitors for a small room right? Then why go for 8" monitors?

You need a big room to support big monitors else you will have many static waves around in your room with 8" monitors, you can avoid it though with some (a lot) of bass traps around. Or go with it and use monitors only for the high end and mix low ends with headphones...

KRKs are very fine monitors, I own Rokit8 and I use them all day/everyday for around 3 years now. They deliver a more "normal" hifi sound and I like them cause its much closer to the sound you will hear from normal systems.

The HS80s are very sharp but have exceptional clarity with high frequencies (that makes them a little hard for your ears after long exposure though)

Mackies are not so good really they are like better PC speakers, the HR624 and HR824 are way way better but more expensive an any case.

My suggestions is you keep as much money as you can and buy the best monitors you can afford. The best advice on monitors though is to test them and decide wich one sounds better to your ears, monitors are a totally personal thing!

Another great thing to do is to buy some cheap monitors like KRK 6" for example or Yamahas and a good pair of headphones for cross referencing (especially the low end).

Cheers and good luck

Answer 6

I am a Genelec fan, if you are lucky you can pick up a second hand pair of 1029a's for €500.

But it really doesn't matter what you buy as long as learn how the loudspeakers sound in your room and compensate accordingly.

Even if you spend double the money, the speakers still might not sound good due to where you place them in your room.

Answer 7

krk rokit8, good for recording-bad for mixing (exept hip-hop). the midrange of guitars, hamond, vocals...is not real. they are just for r&b or hip hop.

Answer 8

Hi. . I went into my local ' DigitalVillage Cambridge ' today. . Ive just come out their shop after demo'ing the HS80's next to MR8 MK2's. .

HS80's hold their mid-frequencies alot more than the Mackies although the bottom end on the Mackies were really warm. I liked them both for different reasons. .

I'm more in favour of the Yamaha's at the moment but keep finding myself cross examine the two !!

If anyone is still live on this forum or the host of this topic is here, I would like to hear what you eventually went for ?!

Regards

C

Answer 9

i have had resolv 80a and esi 05, searching the net for a few days, i'm gonna order and try the behringer b3031a

my reasons:

b3031a

pros

+ribbon tweater is not that harsh or hard, won't fatigue

+effective built-in eq'ing, mr8 can't reduce the the lf, hs80m was tested by "audio professional" and the tester said the eq doesn't have enaugh effect

+two people reporting something like "no background noise at all"

+the lf goes about as deep as the hs80m

+wide sweet spot

cons

-the behringers are probably overall a little bit muddy, bad impulse response, at least no one seems to report very crisp sound

-built quality might be good, but i expect it to be worse than of yamaha and mackie

Answer 10

I recently went for the HS80s because I thought they would give a true picture of the mix.

After about two months of use I find mixes translate well to other playback system. The stereo image is rock solid. The highs and mids are very clear and accurate.

The low end is acurate but always feels on the light side unless there is a lot of high frequencies in the bass sound - then the bass can sound quite strong. This is probably a good thing as a lot of the punch comes from the upper frequency content anyway.

The monitors are more tiring on the ears and you need more breaks - but to be honest this is a good thing as being stuck too long in front of near fields just messes up your judgement anyway.

I have bass traps up in the normal places to stop standing waves, but I find I can hear the bass more accurately if I stand at lead six feet away from the speakers. I find this is more the case when dealing with a mix rather than a single channel.

As with any speakers, referencing to CDs helps make judgements about the speakers and the mix.

Answer 11

I have a pair of m-audio bx8a deluxes. Personally, I am happy with them, but I didn't wind up doing a lot of ear-testing.

(Where do they stand in comparison to the other monitors on this list?)