(Not so) Studio Monitors.

[Vercingetorix]

Hey Guys,

I am about to take lessons over Skype with a guy I have been taking correspondence lessons with for quite some time, he is a truly fantastic player, the only problem is I don't wasnt him seeing my ugly mug .

Anyway, for sound I have been using just my headphones, because on the odd occassion using the amp has caused some ear splitting squeals from said amp that left me nursing sore ears for the rest of the day, and on another occassion with a metal patch the wooden floor was actually shaking, very, very scary . This house is literally falling apart bit-by-bit it doesn't need any help.

So, I was thinking about buying some really cheap Studio Monitors just for home/lesson use. I saw that someone I knew on the Internet was using Behringer Truth Monitors and saw that on specs alone they matched up well, and on some models even surpassed, the KRK Rokit 6's (especially price-wise) which I was initially interested in. Given that I have buckleys chance of ever hearing them in person do any of you forumites have any experience with these monitors? Any good? Give 'em both a miss? Or, is there some monitor out there, relatively inexpensive, that is just so much betterer, that I absolutely must have?

As always, thanks in advance!

Cheers,
V.

[promixr]

I think for the money AVID (M-Audio) monitors are very good- I would recommend them over the Behringer anyday:

http://imsproav.com/main/MAUDIO99006517500.html

I know the price on those Behringers is really tempting, but you really get what you pay for, they sound awful and you would be doing yourself a disservice by cheap-ing out on the main way you can actually hear the results of all of your creative effort. Any other gear you own playing through those terrible monitors would be useless to you...

These M-Audio monitors represent in my opinion, a very professional solution at the most reasonable price point that I know of. There are monitors for a lot more money that I could recommend, and certainly some awful ones for a lot less, but why waste your money?

This is the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth ; )

[fly_with_v]

In my opinion, the Truths B2031A are the best bang for bucket monitors available. I haven't tried any of the others. I have had mine for about 5 years and have had no problems and they continue to impress me. I have used them with the 11R, the GSP1101, Amplitube, Pod Farm, and the POD HD. They sound great with all of them. They have plenty of power for bedroom playing. As space gets bigger they tend to have less "boom". In fact, with the 8 3/4" woofer they tend to miss a bit on the low end thump. My only complaint is that they do not quite produce the thump of an amp. However compared to headphones they are right there with the best headphones I have played through. I have always wished I could find the same sound reproduction with a bit of thump and more volume for larger venues.

I do not think you would be disappointed with them at all.

[Random Dude]

I did a bunch of A/B'ing of monitors a few years ago and wasn't impressed with either the KRK or Behringer stuff that much to be honest.

But for what you are talking about just about anything that works properly can be compensated to sound good if not great IMHO. Monitors and speakers all have their own thing going on and it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. The only time you REALLY have to worry about critical listening is when you are mastering and even then it's more about monitoring on multiple speakers and systems than the most amazingly accurate system ever.

The Truths will get loud as crap and hold up from what I understand. If it was me I'd go that route.

And lots of people don't care for the monitors I chose (Yamaha HS80M's) and to be honest I don't really care.

[Vercingetorix]

Thanks for all the input guys you certainly made the decision of which way to go that much harder .

No, just kidding, thanks for taking the time to reply it is very much appreciated .

promixr - thanks for the suggestion of M-Audio that's something I need to look into.

[PatriotsBiker]

How about right-sizing a room? Say a square 12X12 room that you don't want to get so loud in. Can you get clarity and tone out of a 5" woofer'd pair and still get low end, or do you gotta go 8's? (Speaking in the confines of the sub $500 per pair price range)

[singtall]

i had so many monitors i could have opened a store to sell them all, so here is my opinion.

the behringer truth is a Genelec knockoff...but they don't sound near as accurate. they are ok for guitar and just general recording around the house, but you cannot trust them for real mixing. period! you get what you pay for here.

the yamaha hs80m's are fantastic for mixing, but take more time to learn and get used to. i settled on these and sold everything else. these are the best if you want to mix and master at home.

mackie monitors were much better than the behringers, but much more expensive. not as accurate as the yamaha's.

Maudio monitors are a poor man's mackie. better than behringer.

Adams A7 were also really nice, but the yamaha's were still more accurate. and by accurate i mean i could hear the flaws in major cd releases!

my advice? get a cheap set of Maudio speakers for jamming and you will enjoy playing pretty much as soon as you unbox them and hook them up. if you EVER want to do more than fart around at home, get the yamaha's.

[Random Dude]

Just to reiterate what singtail said about the HS80M's (I really wasn't trying to add to the selection confusion), but I thought they were the best for mixing as well because out of everything I tried what jumped out to me was the fact that every instrument stood out in the mix clearly. I heard stuff in songs that I've been listening to for 20 years that I never heard before.

But with that said I also noticed things that I really didn't want to hear as well; basically about 90% of my MP3 collection is near unlistenable with them because every single wart and defect stands out like a sore thumb.

So what I tell people is that if you are looking for a pretty flat response and no coloration they really are hard to beat. But for good old generic music listening and enjoyment they are a bit lacking because they are brutally honest. Some others say that they cause ear fatigue with long listening periods; I haven't noticed that at all personally so I put that in the subjective category.

But as for the m-Audios and even the KRK's to some extent I really thought that bass sounded a bit boxy on them. It seemed deeper than the HS80M's, but kind of boomy for some reason. Perhaps some iso pads would have helped, but I think that we tried them with and without.

I just think that for jamming you're going to want something that's forgiving and enjoyable to listen to. If you're going to do more than that then its likely to get really expensive and frustrating really fast.

And I can attest to you that having nice monitors doesn't mean that you can adjust a mix to save your life. I'm still struggling with it. And they also say that 90% of the budget for monitoring should be spent on room treatment...so if the environment isn't very good you're looking at diminishing returns really quickly.

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by singtall

.......
my advice? get a cheap set of Maudio speakers for jamming and you will enjoy playing pretty much as soon as you unbox them and hook them up. if you EVER want to do more than fart around at home, get the yamaha's.

I just looked up those Yamaha's and they were like $550 each ... .

The M-Audio's BX8A, range in price all the way up to $1,299 (pair) more than a pair of Yamaha's (), though the average seems around $700 (pair) mark, a little bit more than I was hoping to pay, but, I suppose I'll have to pony up to get a more quality.

Thanks so much for all the replies

[madgt621]

I'm a big fan of the yamaha stuff. In the states, there's an HS80m setup at the house. Here in Japan, I got a set of HS50m's. They run like 199 a piece at sweetwater. Before that I used M Audio for home recording, and I can recommend those as well.

I've never had a Behringer product that I liked, or that lasted me more than a year. that's my bias due to past experience. I find it very important to spring a little bit more on mics and monitors as opposed to really expensive guitar stuff. Blasphemy, I know. But your monitors are the medium that you will hear all your tracks on, and if your monitors suck, what's the point of having the best modeling technology?