John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

I am new to recording, and just picked up a digital 8 track recorder. The tracks I record are good, but I dont think I am getting enough out of my EQ abilities with the junk speakers I am using as monitors.

I have about 500 dollars that I can spend on close field monitors, but have a tough time picking them out as I dont really know what I'm looking for. I realize my budget isnt the greatest, but it will have to do.

I basically dont want to get a pair of monitors and find out later that I could have gotten something twice as good for a couple more bucks.

Any help is much appreciated.

Jeremy.

have a look at the Fostex PM 05.
they are cheap, but considered to be quite accurate which is not so common within this price range.

if you can afford go for the bigger model (think 08) for more bassperformance.

most of the dealers will give you a pair to check in your own room. i would definitly do that!!!

cheers

I don't think you could possibly go wrong with a pair of NHT Super One's, maybe used, and a good, smaller amp. Skip the alesis/sampson crowd; I would recommend a 60-100w/side Adcom (535), Hafler (P1000, P1500, maybe one of the older DH200 or 220's), Rotel and Parasound are all good names.

Paradigm Mini Mk3's are a good bet as well, in the home audio market, and you can look at some of the less expensive B&W's, although I have a lot less experience with them.

For music store stuff, it's tough to beat the unpowered (red) Tannoy Reveals for the money, although I'd stay away from the (under)powered blue version, personally. Or a used pair of Tannoy PBM 6.5's, or even some of the smaller Tannoy dual concentrics, if you can get them in your budget.

Speakers are speakers, though, and don't get locked into the "I've got to have 'studio monitors'" mindset. The better home manufacturers probably have some economies of scale working for them that let them bring you maybe better speakers for less money.

You *have* to go listen to everything with some music you're familiar with- you're probably going to hate some monitors that your friends like, and vice versa, and that is completely normal. Get something that sounds balanced to you, and ideally something that makes the best sounding of your favorite albums even better, and the mediocre to not so good sounding ones worse.

This is a fairly diy forum, though, so you may want to look at North Creek's little 5" 2-way bookshelf if you want to build them from a kit as well. Thomas has recommended them in general.

If you absolutely think you need powered monitors, I believe your choices get smaller. Maybe a used pair of the little silver JBL's.

the dreamer wrote:have a look at the Fostex PM 05.
they are cheap, but considered to be quite accurate which is not so common within this price range.

if you can afford go for the bigger model (think 08) for more bassperformance.

most of the dealers will give you a pair to check in your own room. i would definitly do that!!!

cheers

Thanks for your help guys. I'll take a look at those mentioned.

I've Listened to a ton of speakers recently, and have settled on the Tannoy reveals. I've listened to a bunch of differnt makes and I like these the best for what I can afford.

Now onto the amplifier situation. Again, I come up lost in this field.

Will differnt amps make the monitors sound differnt? Do I have to match the wattage and ohms? What are a few good examples that I can look at / hook up to and have a listen?

Again, all help and responses are much appreciated.

For my home studio i ran a Marantz 74pM66/158B special edition amplifier and thats v. nice with spirit absolute zero 1's. That system is well old but works well for me. People always comment on the look of the speakers as they look a bit like a baboons arse making them quite possibly subliminally sexually attractive.

The Yamaha 200w Natural Sound amplifier is different from the Marantz being less warm and more well digital sounding. I'd probably get some Yamaha MSP3 Monitors (under 200 uk quid) as they were highly rated and apparently the new equivilent of the old classic NS10's.

Just dont forget to go direct and don't turn up the bass or treble on the amp.

tannoy pbm 6.5's...yeah they still make replacement drivers ..i just replaced mine