Best Studio Monitors

[Musicmaker]

Hello everybody! I just want to ask your opinion what is the best studio monitors for mixing and mastering? I found few that i can afford, but i need you opinion on them.

1. Avantone CLA-10A
2. Yamaha HS 8
3. Dynaudio BM5 MKIII
4. KRK Rokit 5

If there is something else that would be perfect, please let me know.

Thank you for your help.

[RichardT]

Welcome to the forum!

You have a very wide price range there! If you can reach to the Avantones then there are a lot of good choices.

Some popular ones are

Neumann KH120 or KH80
APS Klasik 2020
Focal Shape 65

And there are also good monitors by Dynaudio and Genelec in that price range. And lots of others too.

I haven’t heard the Avantones, but they look to be almost an active recreation of Yamaha NS10s. These speakers had a very particular sound and I wouldn’t recommend them as your main monitors.

[Sam Spoons]

What genres will you be mixing and how big and well treated is your room? I know that good monitors will be petty much genre agnostic but budget/mid range monitors will be compromised in some way and knowing more about the genre and room will help matching those compromises.

[Mike Stranks]

Welcome!

You'll get many opinions as to which are 'best'...

... but as Sam Spoons has said, acoustically treating your room to reduce echo, reverberation etc is really important. Spend some money on that - if you haven't already - and the sound of the most modest speakers will be greatly improved.

[Arpangel]

Please, you’ll get so many opinions, I’m not recommending anything, you’ll end up even more confused than ever, just go and have a listen, and once you’ve narrowed it down a bit, get the ones you chooses on sale or return, you have to listen to them in your own place.

[jimjazzdad]

Some might quibble that "the best studio monitors for mixing and mastering" is a bit broad - even an oxymoron - as mastering engineers generally have pretty esoteric (and expensive!) speakers in their very well-treated studios. I guess the real answer is: audition several different monitors and buy the best you can afford. For under $2K you have a range of good monitors, including the Neumanns and the Dynaudios mentioned. For real mastering monitors, you will find yourself starting at ~$10K and going up into the stratosphere.

[RichardT]

Some might quibble that "the best studio monitors for mixing and mastering" is a bit broad - even an oxymoron - as mastering engineers generally have pretty esoteric (and expensive!) speakers in their very well-treated studios. I guess the real answer is: audition several different monitors and buy the best you can afford. For under $2K you have a range of good monitors, including the Neumanns and the Dynaudios mentioned. For real mastering monitors, you will find yourself starting at ~$10K and going up into the stratosphere.

This is why professional mastering is such a good idea if you don’t have a very high quality monitoring chain in your own studio!

[Musicmaker]

acoustically treating your room to reduce echo, reverberation etc is really important. Spend some money on that - if you haven't already - and the sound of the most modest speakers will be greatly improved.

Will room diagram help to advice where to put acoustic foam panel? or acoustic foam panel is not the case?

[Martin Walker]

Will room diagram help to advice where to put acoustic foam panel? or acoustic foam panel is not the case?

Yes, it will, but 60Kg/m3 density DIY Rockwool bass traps will be hugely more effective than 'acoustic foam'.

Here's an introductory article from the SOS archives that should help you get your head around acoustic treatment and where to put it:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... -treatment

Oh, and welcome to the SOS Forums Musicmaker!

Martin

[Arpangel]

Some might quibble that "the best studio monitors for mixing and mastering" is a bit broad - even an oxymoron - as mastering engineers generally have pretty esoteric (and expensive!) speakers in their very well-treated studios. I guess the real answer is: audition several different monitors and buy the best you can afford. For under $2K you have a range of good monitors, including the Neumanns and the Dynaudios mentioned. For real mastering monitors, you will find yourself starting at ~$10K and going up into the stratosphere.

This is why professional mastering is such a good idea if you don’t have a very high quality monitoring chain in your own studio!

How many people are going to be listening on mastering grade payback systems? You could say, that it’s a good idea to listen on more modest equipment, things that are closest to your normal listeners situation.
Great if you can afford all that stuff, but is it really necessary? in most cases?

[Hugh Robjohns]

How many people are going to be listening on mastering grade payback systems?

Very few... but the whole point of 'mastering grade' monitoring is to hear everything as it really is, so that it can be made to sound the best it possibly can -- without sonic issues that the mix engineer couldn't hear -- or, worse, tonal compensations the mix engineer dialed in to correct for on -- the inadequacies of their own sub-par 'monitoring' system.

Only by mastering through an truely accurate full range monitoring system in a neutral acoustic environment can you be sure that the music will sound the best it possibly can on the widest range of typical punter systems.

You could say, that it’s a good idea to listen on more modest equipment, things that are closest to your normal listeners situation.

You could say it, but that doesn't make it true...

[RichardT]

Some might quibble that "the best studio monitors for mixing and mastering" is a bit broad - even an oxymoron - as mastering engineers generally have pretty esoteric (and expensive!) speakers in their very well-treated studios. I guess the real answer is: audition several different monitors and buy the best you can afford. For under $2K you have a range of good monitors, including the Neumanns and the Dynaudios mentioned. For real mastering monitors, you will find yourself starting at ~$10K and going up into the stratosphere.

This is why professional mastering is such a good idea if you don’t have a very high quality monitoring chain in your own studio!

How many people are going to be listening on mastering grade payback systems? You could say, that it’s a good idea to listen on more modest equipment, things that are closest to your normal listeners situation.
Great if you can afford all that stuff, but is it really necessary? in most cases?

Very few indeed! But if you want the best results, it helps if somebody listens to your mixes on a top flight system, gives you feedback and when you’ve corrected the faults, optimises the mix. For me, it’s an important validation step as much as anything.