Quote:
Originally Posted by brandondrury  I've been pumping the new home recording gear review section of Recording Review with products today. I came across the studio monitor section and I have to say that I was very surprised to see just how many budget studio monitors are out there!
Now the big question:
Is anyone actually using studio monitors in the under $500 range and feel confident that there mixes translate well to the outside world?
Brandon |
I got a pair of KRK RP5s 2 years ago. I did an A/B comparison in the GC using a couple of CDs I brought with me. The KRKs won out over the M-Audio in the same size and price range and one other pair, but clearly were not as good as the KRK RP8s. I was trying to keep down the size and the $ spent, so I went with these. My mixes done on these tend to sound boomy in my truck or in another car's CD player. They also don't seem to have a lot of highs to them when I am listening to a reference CD in the room. I think they are not as flat as the pair of JBL 4301s I had back in the 80's (why did I ever let those go????)
Having said that, I am confident that the bigger limiting factor than these monitors is:
1. My engineering skills, even after 30 years of doing it as a hobby
2. The room is not treated
I bet that Brandon or any real engineer could use these monitors for a few months and be able to work with them to turn out solid mixes. Everone acknowledges that the NS10s were not really flat monitors, but lots of good mixes were done using them in spite of that fact.
It's the ear, not the gear
bilco