Which reference monitors should I buy for my home studio?

Question

I am in the market for reference monitors for my home studio. I will be mixing both instrumentals and vocals. I am not concerned about using these speakers in any live scenarios.

I am primarily considering three options that were recommended to me:

• M-Audio Studiophile BX8a

• Yamaha HS80M

• KRK RP8G2 Rokit G2

I heard the smaller KRK RP6G2 in Best Buy and I thought the quality sounded pretty good. The other two were recommended by a musician I know who spends a lot of time designing speakers. I am open to other options, but I need to know the reason why these or other options are going to be the best choice.

I would like to spend under $1000, and get the best possible value for my money. I particularly appreciate any answers that directly compare these monitors. Also, if you recommend the more expensive option, it would be helpful to explain why it is a superior choice.

Answer 1

I think I was reasonably lucky when I bought my Mackie HR624 speakers - I just trawled the net and these seemed to be recommended the most (for my budget back in 2009 of about £500 a pair).

Now I know what to look for because what follows was the first (and most important) lesson I learnt when I plugged them in: -

So, I plugged them in and went straight away to the music I had created - I didn't know what to expect but what I heard was a pathetic, weak and badly eq'd pile of sh*t. First thought "I've just spent £500 on something that sounds crap".

After about ten minutes it dawned on me what was happening - the Mackie's were actually telling me the truth. My hi-fi lied to me, my previous speakers lied to me, my friends hi-fi lied to me and my car stereo lied to me.

Why did they lie? This was the 2nd realization - of course they'll lie - they'll take in whatever music source they have and do their very best to represent it full-bodied to the listener - they don't want crap sounds coming outta their speakers - if that happened then nobody on earth is going to buy them - they are in the market to sell sound and they rise and fall on that listener experience to make new sales.

The Mackies just told me the truth and the truth was - fix up your music to get a thicker sound and re eq stuff here and there.

$1000 should get you something reasonably decent and I would always buy mackies but my advice would be, save for another year and buy something for $2000 (or get a bank loan).

Hope this has been helpful - my experience was a total eye opener for me!!

Answer 2

It depends on multiple things. What genre do you mix? will you need a lot of bass?

I have a pair of HS80M's and i love them. i like the bass, it goes very low. 32hz is still nice and smooth. (not that loud though. but in general they are loud enough.)

I heard that the KRK's have a bass boost and that's not what you're looking for in reference monitors. they need to be flat but that depends on your acoustics too.

If i were you, i would go to music store to have a listen to all of them, that's what i did.

I also think the Adam A7X could be very good but it's slightly over your budget. maybe it's worth it, just go have a listen and decide for yourself.

i also bought a pair of these 'mopads' http://www.amazon.com/Auralex-Monitor-Isolation-Speakers-Charcoal/dp/B0002D0B4K/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_sp_2_1_8W0B?ie=UTF8&refRID=0GJA9XYSY1BJ4PVW8W0B so my desk doesn't resonate.

Answer 3

I think the bass boost on the KRKs is optional but I could be wrong? I've used KRKs Rokit 6s before, still do at home sometimes and they've always been good to me but haven't tried out the rest of the series. If theres one thing thats worth investing in at this stage its a good set of monitors, that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive although you do get what you pay for. Like the previous poster (sorry don't know the name) said, try them out, see how they feel to you before you buy Neil