Studio monitors?

darkstar · Post by **darkstar** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:31 pm

Hello guys,
I have luna 2,and I want to buy monitor speakers for my home studio in 400$ price range.I was thinking about buying Alesis M1 Active mk2 Biamp Monitors,anybody uses-heard about them?Other speakers?

Thanks,
Best regards

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:38 pm

I can not tell you, but I recomend that you specify wether those 400$ are for the pair or for each speaker.

darkstar · Post by **darkstar** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:41 pm

Sorry,$400 pair

scary808 · Post by **scary808** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:51 pm

KRK has some new 8inch monitors. They're called the Rockit8. They sell for around $250 US each(I think). Very good monitors for that price. If I had the means, I would get them.

darkstar · Post by **darkstar** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:58 pm

The real problem is that I have no chance to actually hear those speakers,because our local dealers only have events that are expensive to me,yamaha msp5 and 10,that are not flat for my taste,and behringer truths.
So,I must use net,it is my only chance for buying right monitors.

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:53 pm

I'm using event passive 20/20 v2, they're great,and in your price range

just googled them - < $150 US in places.

Post by **garyb** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:06 pm

i'm sure the alesis are acceptable.
i'd throw in my second for the krks, they are an excellent value. another speaker that gets almost no press but is surprisingly good for the $ is the yorkville ysm1p, a very nice accurate all around reference monitor.

valis · Post by **valis** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:49 pm

I can 2nd a vote for that yorkville (helped a friend get a pair). Imo they're a bit more balanced-sounding than events (bass is less hyped in the 80hz region). The Alesis are fine for doing a lot of acoustic work but the pair I used to have was lacking in the lower hz a bit for my tastes...

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:05 am

On 2004-09-17 00:49, valis wrote:
bass is less hyped in the 80hz region

hehe, true, but that is probably the region where i'm a bit deaf (bass player)

steffensen · Post by **steffensen** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:54 am

i have a pair of M-audio SP-5B, i guess they are in the same range as those Events, the difference is the bass i suppose..but i dont use that low bass anyway, so for me it's quite Ok.

medusa13 · Post by **medusa13** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:17 am

I have the M1 actives and I've been very pleased so far. Way better than NS10s, but don't expect them to sound as if they were Genelcs or Mackies. But for the money, I think they are great.
Of course, It all comes down to taste and/or the material you'll be playing through them and/or your room acustics and/or placement. If you can, try out different models before you buy something.
Martin

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:32 am

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/L ... -main.html

I have heard very good things about these monitors, (mixes I have heard done on them played back very well on different systems) and the cool thing is that later on you can easily add three speakers and have surround!

Also they sell direct, I think.

R

darkstar · Post by **darkstar** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:53 pm

Hello guys,and thanks for the replies,
I heard events,but,they cost about 800 euros(event 20/20 bas),so they are way out of my range.I know that I can't compare Alesis with Mackie hr824,but from reviews and posts I saw,Alesis looks good.I heard good opinions about yorkvilles,but nobody I know have those monitors.I never heard Alesis,too,but friend of mine told me that he heard them,and that they sound great for the money.So,I will do some research about krk's and yorkvilles.Oh,I heard events...hmmmmm....project studio 5,or 6,I don't know,and they were bad for my taste,muddy bass,their price was about 600 euro for pair.

Can somebody compare behringer truths and Alesis?Because I saw many complaints about Behringer,but some people are telling that they are great,too.

Thanks

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:58 pm

i have the truths, and i must say that i have been very happy with them.

they definitley accent the high end a little, but this is easily compensated for by trimming the highs back to -4db.

other than that, they are pretty damn flat and i have been able to get some great mixes out of them.

it's all about knowing the acoustics of not only the speakers, but the room they are in. i have found that the controls on the back of the truths allow me to adjust for placement and room acoustics, at least enough for me to understand how my tracks will come out in the end.

i have had them for about a year or so now, and they have held up extremely well to my abuse...

and they are cheap!!! if they break, i'll just buy some more...

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:30 pm

One thing no one has asked or has not been mentioned yet is room dimensions, depending on the size of your room 8's might be too large and create additional bass freq's that are undesired.

I have used Event 6's that sounded pretty damn great, they were powered and not overly expensive, I use Mackie HR624s in my project studio and for my room the size and sound does well since I am so used to them at this point.

My project rooms dimensions are roughly W9'xL13'xH9', I dont remember the site I had been to when deciding on monitor sizes and who I spoke to on the phone but it was reccomended that 8" reference moniotors might be too much for the room.

The reason I say this is because the size of the speaker is clearly going to refelect the price point of the moniots you are looking at.

Also if at all possible try and get a pair of monitors that are powered so that way you dont have to fiddle around trying to match an amp which these days seems a bit more difficult that older times.

The only other monitors I have experience with are Tannoys and for me personally I did not like the sound, I have a pair in a closet that gets no use heh.

As for thr Alesis, I have heard decent things about these aswell, I also hear they are a tad heavy on the bass response and great monitors for producing hip-hop music.

There are also a set of Event monitors that are priced less due to the power of the amps not being as strong, great sound but the amps are a little weak, if you prefer low monitoring this of course is not an issue but when you drive them, you notice some high volume issues, otherwise they are great.

The regular powered event 6's though I thought sounded pretty awesome, but thats just one mans opinion.

Cheers!

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:45 pm

Just a quick note -- I'm using older Alesis Monitor Ones (passive) and they really suck for anything below maybe 300 Hz or so. I jury-rigged a subwoofer (15" Yamaha P.A. speaker I had lying around) and it gives a great balance.

The M1s are nearfields, so they should be fine in small rooms. When I had a studio in Vancouver I think the front-to-back distance was 14 feet. A subwoofer is less manageable than the M1s in that kind of (small room) scenario.

I don't know how different the modern Alesis monitors are though. IIRC correctly my older models are only 4" or 5" woofers, not the Mk II 6.5" ones. That would make a huge difference and possibly give you the "too much bass" Basic Pitch mentions.

It does scare me that they don't have a frequency response graph for their speakers! +/- 3 db is potentially a huge variation, depending on where those dips and peaks are and how wide they are etc...

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:03 pm

On 2004-09-17 13:53, darkstar wrote:
...Can somebody compare behringer truths and Alesis?Because I saw many complaints about Behringer,but some people are telling that they are great,too.

I have neither of them myself, but I remember the dissing of the Behringers in a monitor shoot-out of a German mag pretty well.
They do sound great, in fact (according to the review) too great. They complained that everything just sounded good on the Behringers, so it was difficult to reveal weak points in the mix.
They fully recommended them as a great powered hifi speaker, though

Since Alesis themselves targets the M1 as a N10 replacement (or follow-up) and considering BlazesBoylan's comment, the two brands probably have nothing at all in common, soundwise.

I'm very sceptic about the reasoning of the original diss (in that review) and in fact the only thing that has kept me from the Behringers is their close relation to a certain kind of mass-production I don't wanna support.

cheers, Tom

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:04 pm

I've read a lot of rave about the Mackie Tapco S8 ... sounds like a bargain ... around 600 for the pair.
Check the net.

Post by **garyb** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:05 pm

the tapco is made by phonic as is the behringer. the difference is that the behringer is as close a copy to the mackie as would be legal and affordable. the tapco is just a less expensive design altogether.

that said the tapco are probably quite functional in the hubird sense

.(just make some music)

i still strongly suggest the yorkville as a very sensible combination of performance vs. price.(for what is a true REFERENCE monitor) also, they are made in canada and not china('though the chinese are cool) with good parts.

ANY of the speakers in this thread are more than capable of allowing a skilled engineer make a good mix. none will make a bad engineer a good engineer and all will require a period of learning the strengths and weaknesses of that speaker.

if you can check any of these speaks against the others with a piece of music you know and see which show you more and less and where, you could make a better decision, but a lot if that is subjective so if you can't check them all, you can only make a decision.

darkstar · Post by **darkstar** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:56 pm

Hello,
I am making rock and instrumental music,and I am learning things about music production all the time.So,I think I am ready to make some (ofcourse,not professional quality)mixes,and this will be my first monitors.As I understand from you guys,it is not so important that monitor will I choose in this price range,important thing is to learn where are bad points in my monitors,and to learn to avoid them(for example,learn that bass is not well translated,or mid's,and to avoid that by increasing bass and mids on monitors).So,I think I will choose Alesis.
My room is "ordinary",so can somebody give me some links to learn about acoustic-treatment for rooms,because I don't know anything about that.

Thanks,
Best regards