Most accurate monitors under £700

[richardstringer1993]

What are the most accurate monitors under £700 a pair? I don't mind what the sound like because my ears will get used to the sound.

[Sam Spoons]

Buy a pair of Neumann KH80s. Job done...

And don't argue about the budget

[Bob Bickerton]

100% agree. For only 100 quid over your budget, you'll actually get a pair of professional monitors.

Buy cheap and upgrade later will cost way more than 100 quid in depreciated value.

Bob

[ef37a]

What are the most accurate monitors under £700 a pair? I don't mind what the sound like because my ears will get used to the sound.

Just a cotton pickin' minute there Richard! If monitors are "accurate" they should not HAVE "a sound" and all reproduce all things at the same fidelity.

The only differences being frequency response extremes, especially LF and maximum SPL.

Now, where's me Kevlar hat?

Dave.

[Wonks]

Now ask the question as to how accurate a listening room can I make with a similar amount of money?

It doesn't matter how flat a response your speakers have if your listening environment is doing its best to make the response full of dips and peaks.

[Arpangel]

These days £700 will get you sod all, just buy something you like that sounds alright in your room. I spent £300 on "monitors" (?) they do the job, ie, I can hear music through them, and no one complains about the sound quality of my music. You have to keep all this in perspective, and not read too much advertising blurb.
IMO, unless you’ve got upwards of 5k to spend you won’t be sitting there in front of a speaker that is actually a "true monitoring tool" that takes a good stab at a vaguely transparent and neutral type of sound.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Even with inflation £700.00 should buy you some decent monitors. Especially compared with 15-20 years ago.

They will be active for a start which means a better cross over generally, electronic and not passive.

I have no specific recommendations though. It is very highly subjective, possibly depends on what genre of music.

I am impressed with Presonus Studio 8 for hobby music making (older model equivalent) for their value vs sound and they are still working after 9 years. (I nearly wrote 5 and could barely believe the time passed checking my emails) They are totally useable (now updated), in a good room I could do fine on those alone if I really had no choice.

They could create a fair amount of unwanted boom in a room. I port bung mine and listen close in at fairly low volume levels. Neither generally recommended but somehow it works for my serious hobby music making. (Though I finalize things in a very good room, that is a caveat.)

The obligatory "treat your room" with the remaining money. Not foam though, do some DIY with Rockwool or the Knauf fibreglass stuff with cotton sheet coverering. You should be able to DIY 4 corner bass traps and some side wall panels and maybe even a cloud of some sorts.

I agree room treatment is the lions share of the job to rid yourself of "tail chasing", knowledge impeding, skill slowing, frustrating, time wasting innacuracy.

Mixing is still a skilled task though, but sorting the room out makes learning greatly smoother and faster.

We all have a preference for type of monitor, 5 - 6.5 - 8inch. I would feel rather lacking if I used anything less than a 6.5inch for even partly serious hobby music making, personally.

It comes down to your level of seriousness and expectation, not so serious then don't worry get something budget £300.00 / £400.00 and DIY treat your room asap but do not expect consistent results until you do.

Some manage but they are the exception, not the rule. Mere mortals need a 1/2 decent room to work in. (99pct of people)

If you are expecting to produce great mix after great mix, with consistency the room must come first in an ideal world and then virtually any studio monitor speakers will punch 10 x above their weight.

[Sam Spoons]

This ^^^

Above I gave a snappy direct answer to the question but the room makes a bigger difference than the monitors so to rephrase my answer :-

"Use the money to fix your room acoustics and manage with your current monitors until you have saved up enough to buy a pair of KH80s"

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Just doing whatever you can fit in to the space will help. Simple rigid rockwool panels. I have one corner not treated here because of the door* but I do have a ceiling cloud and the bicorners are covered. It is a vast improvement. Well worth doing. You can always do more later.

*Actually I have a narrow panel on that wall so the door just about opens fully i.e. 90 degrees.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Just doing whatever you can fit in to the space will help. Simple rigid rockwool panels. I have one corner not treated here because of the door* but I do have a ceiling cloud and the bicorners are covered. It is a vast improvement. Well worth doing. You can always do more later.

*Actually I have a narrow panel on that wall so the door just about opens fully i.e. 90 degrees.

If so, superb.

It still is difficult to categorically suggest what the most accurate monitors for the budget are. Flat ? Time domain ?

My own slightly unusual approach was to get fairly big driver (8inch) and port bung them to likely improve bass accuracy and time domain response (smoother LF roll off but an 8 inch still gives a little more bass output than a smaller driver). I monitor fairly low when making music and close in (not usually recommended as drivers may not be acoustically integrated at 350mm) I like the intimacy of that and that I can be very close in to the speakers, not needing much volume at all.

Reliability is rather unknowable, even relatively expensive brands can and do fail. You need only have the crossover electronics, or 1 of 4 drivers and 1 of 4 amps fail and you probably have unusable monitors. The downside of actives I would say but most are these days.

The market is deeply saturated and we will just express our direct experience of any of 50 probably perfectly usable/competent studio monitors.

Unless you are going to listen in person which I appreciate is difficult it is really difficult to know what you are buying with certainty so all we can do is share actual experiences the best we can. We do what we can.

[Drew Stephenson]

Not sure you guys have been keeping up with the prices recently. The only place I can see doing KH80s for near £700 are Bax - who have gone bust.

A couple of thoughts.
First: +1 for room treatment. If you haven't done it already, try and factor that in. If that's not an option (renting or space or whatever) then accept that there will be an extra layer of compromise in whatever you hear.
If you can't treat your room, I would seriously consider investing in a really nice set of headphones and a cheaper set of monitors (Adam T5V or similar) to use as a stereo and reverb check (and to ease fatigue), but do all the serious stuff on the headphones.

Second: if you have already treated your room, or have a separate budget for that. Less than £1k isn't going to get you anything that does a decent bottom end. So make sure you've got at least £100 for a good set of headphones because you'll be needing them to check the low stuff.

Third: I'm going to take the risk of disagreeing with Safe and Sound here. If you were to go for something like a pair of KH80s or Adam A4V or Genelec 8020, they all give you the option of adding an integrated sub further down the line (when budget and room treatment allows). They also have room correction software options that can further improve the sound. I'm a KH80 + KH750 user and can vouch for both the combo and the improvement when the room correction software is used.

Fourth: We're very good at spending other people's money here and ignoring their budgets. If £700 is it, and you want a one-off purchase of something that's going to allow you to get on with it and make your music, have a listen to a set of Kali IN-8s.

[Bob Bickerton]

Agreed about treating the room, but the OP was looking at doing that earlier this year. Assuming it’s been done, I’d still support the KH80s for ‘roundabout’ the budget quoted.

Bob

[SafeandSound Mastering]

RW3 is only £38.00 inc vat, you may find it cheaper (4 batts 100mm x 1200mm x 600mm) you could close to 2 floor to ceiling corner straddles DIY for that. Be ingenious about mounting and much can be done for very little. If you have the time, energy, domestic scenario etc.

https://www.insulationhub.co.uk/product ... nsulation/

Might be min order + delivery fees.

Wear mask, gloves, eye protection, use precautions etc. etc.

Cheap cotton sheets with spray on fire retardent.

Just do it safely all round.

It'll make a worthy dent for cheap with smallish nearfields. Definitely better than almost pointless thin foam.

Disagree all you like Drew, just a friendly discussion, so many possibilities and options, much will depend on individual circumstances.

[R_A]

NS-10MX + amp

Should come in on budget.

[James Perrett]

NS-10MX + amp

Should come in on budget.

And is about as far away from being an accurate monitor as you can get.

Personally, I'd maybe look for some used KH80s if money is tight. The Neumann range all have a fairly similar sound which is also close to other accurate monitors that I have used.

I'd also be interested to hear the newer Adam monitors to see how they compare to the Neumanns.

[R_A]

NS-10MX + amp

Should come in on budget.

And is about as far away from being an accurate monitor as you can get.

I suppose it really depends on how one defines accurate. I don't reckon it can be beaten at this price point.

OP might be interested in:

https://dt7v1i9vyp3mf.cloudfront.net/as ... fwq9mLf1t0

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-ns10-story

If you've got more money ATC are good.

[James Perrett]

The problem is that you have to learn how to use NS10s if you don't want to end up with bass heavy and midrange light mixes. Their stereo imaging is also the worst I've heard from something that has pretensions of being a monitor. Good monitors give you a sense of soundstage depth but the NS10 cannot even accurately position a source across the width in my experience.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

It still is difficult to categorically suggest what the most accurate monitors for the budget are. Flat ? Time domain ?

Not sure if that is a question or a statement, but since you quoted me I will respond. Yes it is, for the reasons you've outlined. I think the OP's caveat was sensible. From my own experience I think it is very surprising how well a mix can translate when care is taken, even with NS10M. Which I hated mixing on, but those mixes translated because the room was treated and I spent a lot of time listening to good music on them. I am not advocating their purchase. Technology has moved on!

[Philbo King]

If you haven't yet decided on monitors, here is a web database of various types whose results can be filtered to display the ones suited to your needs. It's a slow loading page, so give it a little time.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/foru ... rTestData/

+10 on the room acoustics treatment. It is the most cost effective thing I ever did to improve my studio sound.

[Drew Stephenson]

If you haven't yet decided on monitors, here is a web database of various types whose results can be filtered to display the ones suited to your needs. It's a slow loading page, so give it a little time.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/foru ... rTestData/

Interestingly, if you set the max price to $500 then the top scoring product, with or without sub, is the KH80.

[Arpangel]

If you've got more money ATC are good.

Ha Ha! that's like saying a McLaren 750 is just "OK"
If I ever do get around to having a momentary lapse of consciousness bad enough to spend that sort of money, I'd get a pair of ATC's of some sort, probably SCM25's,ATC just sound right to me, very well balanced and not hyped.
Other than those I think PMC are good, if a little more "exciting" to listen to.

[R_A]

Ha Ha! that's like saying a McLaren 750 is just "OK"

Ha indeed! NS10s, ATCs and an Avantone / Auratone are the ones I run into most frequently and like.

I very seldom see PMC monitors & have never been in a room with KH monitors. Sometimes run into Amphion in pop / rock studios + Barefoot & Adams (especially the A77X) in dance studios.

[Arpangel]

Ha Ha! that's like saying a McLaren 750 is just "OK"

Ha indeed! NS10s, ATCs and an Avantone / Auratone are the ones I run into most frequently and like.

I very seldom see PMC monitors & have never been in a room with KH monitors. Sometimes run into Amphion in pop / rock studios + Barefoot & Adams (especially the A77X) in dance studios.

I think you’re spot on, I liked NS10’s and always thought they sounded fine, I have this view that sealed box designs are more tolerant of imperfect rooms, and give a much more controlled bass response which results in more clarity overall.
So many small ported speakers sound muddy and congested, Nuemann are well respected, but to me, they sound much like a lot of similar designs, the 310's being an exception, the smaller ones I wouldn’t consider.
I can understand why dance people like Adams, and Barefoot, they go deep and sound exciting, but are very hyped IMO.

[Aled Hughes]

Ha Ha! that's like saying a McLaren 750 is just "OK"

Ha indeed! NS10s, ATCs and an Avantone / Auratone are the ones I run into most frequently and like.

I very seldom see PMC monitors & have never been in a room with KH monitors. Sometimes run into Amphion in pop / rock studios + Barefoot & Adams (especially the A77X) in dance studios.

We have big ATC SCM100s at the main studio, and they are indeed great.

However, at home I have Neumann KH150, and to be honest I don't feel I'm missing out that much... I'm certainly not quite hearing the £13k difference!

I might feel different if I compared them side by side in the same room, but I don't think I'll bother!

[R_A]

We have big ATC SCM100s at the main studio, and they are indeed great.

However, at home I have Neumann KH150, and to be honest I don't feel I'm missing out that much... I'm certainly not quite hearing the £13k difference!

I might feel different if I compared them side by side in the same room, but I don't think I'll bother!

Thank you for posting - it's very interesting to hear somebody’s perspective who is intimate with both speakers.