Cheap Studio Monitors?

[Chris No.1]

I'm looking for cheap monitors for a very basic and amateur studio compared to top of the line gear. I don't know where to start but are there any under £300 per pair that are well trusted?

[coojuice]

Hi chris, I cant recommend any but I can give you a few names to help out get started:

M-Audio BX8A
Tapco S5 or S8
Behringer B2031A Truth
Alesis M1

Hope this helps

[Streety]

for under £100 i hear the Fostex PM-04 are very good

[Hol]

Event ALP 5's, about 200 quid, very clear, and the mixes travel well to different systems. Almost painfully....

[Paul Soundscape]

yamaha HS80's or HS50's are pretty good

[Zukan]

Chris..........

Welcome to Sos.

[Chris No.1]

Hi chris, I cant recommend any but I can give you a few names to help out get started:

M-Audio BX8A
Tapco S5 or S8
Behringer B2031A Truth
Alesis M1

Hope this helps

Thanks

the M-audio and Alesis look pretty similar in all sorts of ways and hopefully price

[Ed_J90]

alesis M1's but studiospares have copy NS10's im interested on how they sound if ya buy um

[B_d_v_n]

Please Help Me Out!! ..Anybody!

I am thinking of buying the HS7 next week. But the problem is that I have tiny tiny room(7ftx7ft).
Can I 'cut off' the low frequencies on these monitors so i can mix better .. I heard small rooms cannot handle low frequencies well.

I have no other space than my small room for now but i might move to a larger space in the coming years therefore, i want to get a 7 inch instead of a 5 inch.
So, does it help if i cut off the low frequencies on monitors?

[bill555]

Right on the edge of your price requirements, but the JBL 305s are consistently regarded very highly by whoever I see speaking of them (reviews, msg boards, etc). In fact, I'm surprised they weren't mentioned already.

[Mike Stranks]

Please Help Me Out!! ..Anybody!

I am thinking of buying the HS7 next week. But the problem is that I have tiny tiny room(7ftx7ft).
Can I 'cut off' the low frequencies on these monitors so i can mix better .. I heard small rooms cannot handle low frequencies well.

I have no other space than my small room for now but i might move to a larger space in the coming years therefore, i want to get a 7 inch instead of a 5 inch.
So, does it help if i cut off the low frequencies on monitors?

Welcome!

Two things....

If your room isn't treated acoustically, you'll get very much less than optimal sound - ie uneven frequency response at the ear - from whatever you buy. You'll have an almost perfect cube... very difficult even if you put treatment in there.

Rather than try and fudge things for now, why not get a decent set of headphones for now and buy monitors when you have a more suitable space? The headphones won't be wasted as you'll always need a pair of good ones.

[ellisberg]

JBL LSR305s are awesome near-field monitors for around 300 USD.

[Glenn D]

+ 1 For the Alesis M1s
I've had a set for years and find mixes on them translate well. I take the manuals advice and plug the (sensibly front facing) ports according to the space I'm using - old school but effective.
Also +1 for acoustic treatment at your mirror points. Better if it's fibreglass or similar rather than foam.
And a very happy +1 for having good headphones with Sonarworks calibration software.
None of the above costs the earth and can be purchased piece by piece, and with the usual caveats of testing recordings in several playback situations I also follow Paul White's very useful (and cost free!) advice to listen to mixes outside the room with the door closed - remarkably revealing.

[Drew Stephenson]

What Mike said, a decent set of headphones and potentially some correction software (such as Sonarworks reference 3) would appear to be the way to go.

[James Perrett]

Unlike almost everyone else, my personal preference is to use speakers in a well treated room. While I can get 80% of the way there on headphones, I find tweaking the final product on speakers produces the best results for me.

However, I would suggest that you use speakers with a well controlled bottom end which means that highly tuned reflex designs should be avoided (but well damped reflex speakers or sealed designs would be fine).

[Drew Stephenson]

Unlike almost everyone else, my personal preference is to use speakers in a well treated room.

To be fair, I think most of us would prefer that, but if you were to properly treat a 7' by 7' room there wouldn't be a great deal or working space left

[Martin Walker]

Unlike almost everyone else, my personal preference is to use speakers in a well treated room.

To be fair, I think most of us would prefer that, but if you were to properly treat a 7' by 7' room there wouldn't be a great deal or working space left

Sad but true

To B_d_v_n - if you're in the UK, scan.co.uk have some great offers on headphones at the moment, as we discussed a few days ago in another thread here:

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewt ... 17&t=58519

Martin

[SeanKillsTime]

This recommendation may seem like a joke, but it's not: Monoprice 8-inch Powered Monitors https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=605800. I have them and they sound great to me, but I have nothing to compare them to as these are my first studio monitors. They have many positive reviews.

Apparently, they are rebranded M-Audios. It's amazing the quality of these monitors at such a low price. They're on sale right now for $199.

[John Egan]

I'm looking for cheap monitors for a very basic and amateur studio compared to top of the line gear. I don't know where to start but are there any under £300 per pair that are well trusted?

Chris,
A few years ago I bought a pair of Seiwin monitors from Studiospares. I find them pretty revealing, if a bit brutal.
Also, I bought pair of their M2000 (?) closed back headphones for vocal tracking and they are also very good value. However, for mixing I am very pleased with my open backed Beyers.
Regards, John