Ableton Forum

Tone Deft wrote:
I went from some mediocre Event PS5s to Adam A7s a year ago, it was amazing. half my stuff sounded better, half sounded worse. that still kills me... not everything sounded better. they're lots of fun to work with, I used to listen to monitors, now I work with them.

Another vote for Adams here. I had Genelecs before (the older 1030 model). Never got along with them. Sold them, got Adams and couldn't be happier.

Tone Deft wrote:I'm not familiar with them, but if they've worked so far, stick with them.

btw Tone, the 7506's are Sony headphones.

Tone Deft wrote: I went from some mediocre Event PS5s to Adam A7s a year ago, it was amazing. half my stuff sounded better, half sounded worse. that still kills me... not everything sounded better.

Yes, that is a good tip. Better monitors are not meant to make things sound better necessarily, the are meant to let you hear more of what is going on - for better or worse

Da hand wrote:

Tone Deft wrote:I'm not familiar with them, but if they've worked so far, stick with them.

btw Tone, the 7506's are Sony headphones.

Tone Deft wrote: I went from some mediocre Event PS5s to Adam A7s a year ago, it was amazing. half my stuff sounded better, half sounded worse. that still kills me... not everything sounded better.

Yes, that is a good tip. Better monitors are not meant to make things sound better necessarily, the are meant to let you hear more of what is going on - for better or worse

+1

a real good monitor is about revealing what's there and what's not,
not about 'sounding good'

Don't know where you live but this is one of those times where Craig's List can be your friend. You may be able to save about 20%-30%. In addition, you need to listen to a few sets to see what's gonna work for you. Dynaudio's are not everyone's cup-of-tea but they are good monitors and you can find them on craig's or ebay, used, for a lot less than a grand for a pair. Regardless, all of the brands mentioned so far, even the upscale KRK's, will get you to where you want to be. Just save up a little bit more...

studio monitors, it's a big world with lots of brands and lots of choices.
I'll say first, it's about where you're going to work.

small room , you need 5'' (under 20m2), and for big you need 8''.
Also, if your room is small and not well isolated, don't try to add a sub otherwise there will be too much uncontroled low freq.

Also, one advice that keeps coming back : don't spend $3000 on monitors if your roor is not a proper studio. The orgaination and sound isolation of a studio is much more usefull and important compared to the quality of monitors. So you better mix with cheap monitors in a nice studio than with $15k genelec in your student room.

Moreover, it's not about how good it sound, but how much "secrets" the monitors will show you.
When you are recording/writting, you want something neutral or good.
When you are mixing, you want monitors that gives lots of details but do not make things sound good.
When you are mastering I think you want something more neutral again.

Finally, my personnal experience :
I recently bought Yamaha HS50 and they fit exactly what I was looking for : I work in a room that is not corectly isolated, smaller than 20m2.
So those monitors are 5'', they are "cheap" but not shit as well. They sound "harch" but it's actually quite good to mix with them. Because they are screaming if there is something wrong, you can very quickly set EQs, you can tell if you put too much compression, setting levels is easy. And the best part is when you finish you mixr and listen it on different audio systems you basically don't have anything to change, the mix translate correctly.

So I'm definitly happy with them, they were cheap and do the job for my situation.
THey lack a bit of low freq though but there is not solution for that. Only go for 8'' but they in my room that would not be possible.

try the Mackie HR824's.
they sound really good when music is mixed and mastered good,but scream your head off when something is wrong.
and in my experience they transfer to other systems perfectly,from ultra-cheap to ultra-expensive.
i would instantly buy them again if the ones i have now for 6 years stopped working.

i tried and tested so many monitors,the first time i heard the Mackie's i knew i had to have them.
if these didn't exist i would most probably have bought the Dynaudio bm15a's.

krk is pretty good,but sucks balls in the low end,even with a sub.

my room is about 12m2,acoustically treated.

33tetragammon wrote:try the Mackie HR824's.
they sound really good when music is mixed and mastered good,but scream your head off when something is wrong.
and in my experience they transfer to other systems perfectly,from ultra-cheap to ultra-expensive.
i would instantly buy them again if the ones i have now for 6 years stopped working.

i tried and tested so many monitors,the first time i heard the Mackie's i knew i had to have them.
if these didn't exist i would most probably have bought the Dynaudio bm15a's.

krk is pretty good,but sucks balls in the low end,even with a sub.

my room is about 12m2,acoustically treated.

yeah, definitely try on your own and make your own decision!

to me for example the mackies followed by yamaha are the worse monitors ever made, i would not even use them if someone would give a pair for free... i would obviously take them at first and then sell them on e-bay... (i am dead serious!)

just saying, that you realize how much opinions can differ...