Studio Monitors Options

[Cosmin Lupu]

Hey guys! A little bit of advice I would ask from everyone which has experience with studio monitors - I am building up my studio and I need a pair of good monitors so I would like a good recommendation based on the following aspects:

- what would be more appropriate 5',6' or 8' speakers?
- does the size and form of the mixing room influence the monitor type I should have?
- my budget is about 400-500 euros

What other important aspects should be taken into consideration?

Looking forward to your advice mates! Thank ye!

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[Sinisa Cekic]

This is a great topic. I found this video, tell me something about this treatment..


And question: If I decide to take Krk or Alesis MKII, whether they are good for bass monitoring or I need subwoofer extra ?

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[Todd Simpson]

This is a great topic. I found this video, tell me

And question: If I decide to take Krk or Alesis MKII, whether they are good for bass monitoring or I need subwoofer extra ?

I've got both of those and they are generally considered entry level "near field" speakers meaning, you keep them pretty close to your head and they don't have much bass. They make a good starter pair though. Anything below 60hz and your guessing in the mix. So yeah, you'd do better with a sub. Once I added a sub to them I was shocked. They are accurate enough to get a decent sounding mix with but they focus on mid bass/trebl. If you get both pair and switch between them, you can see how different speakers in the same price range can sound. The KRK are more flat. The Alesis seem to have more boom and tweet. Balancing between pairs gives me a better sense of how a mix will "travel"

If you can spend up and get the 8 inch woofer version, or the new 3 way KRK, you can probably hold off on the sub for a bit. But eventually you'll probably want one either way. There is a lot happening in that range that most speakers are not great at.

I'm not sure I understand differences between passive and active monitors. Which is better? I don't understand how that works with passive. You have to get in amped? But how? I can't find good pics on the web of the differences. What does it mean to have a standard tuner/guitar amp to amplify the passive speakers? I'm confused as you can see. I want to get the MK2 speakers as Todd recommended me for the price. But I want to make the best choice. Passive or active?

Passive speakers don't have a power amp. (the bit that makes signal louder) and Active speakers do have one or more power amps. That's it

So yea, like I was saying in a previous post, if you get passive speakers you'll need an amp. You can use a home stereo/tuner amp in a pinch and here's a pic of that. It's something you probably have in your house. Do you have a home theatre? Something to watch DVD's on? If it has some speakers, there's probably an amp. Here's a pic.



Generally, ACTIVE are better as the amp is in the speaker, the signal has less distance to travel before it hits the speaker cone. But, it honestly in your case it really won't make much difference. You'll be mixing/recording in a room that will have far more impact on your overal sound than passive/active speakers. Bedrooms are usually semi cubed shaped and one of the worst places you can track/mix. That's why we keep talking about accoustical treatment. But even without any accoustical treatment, a couple of starter speakers still beats the pants off laptop speakers or earbuds which is what most folks start out with, or something similar. You are looking at just getting a pair to start out and get some experience with. So it really just comes down to budget.

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Oct 27 2011, 05:58 PM