Guitar Gear Forum

Hey guys, I am planning on going to audition some monitors today and was hoping that you could give me some tips.

I know that the environment that I will be listening to them in will be significantly different than in my home, so I know to account for some loss of bass. Can you inform about the things I should be listening for?

I am use to listening to a certain coloration of my music and so what I probably enjoy hearing is desensitized to that rather than hearing accuracy. I have put together a small sample of music on a CD to listen to and I have been listening to them all morning to really hear them.

How do I approach this decision in the store? I have narrowed my list down to a select few and really need some more insight on how to differentiate good from bad.

Thanks!

Cole

Buy what sounds best to you. You will be sitting in front of your monitors for hours so it's important to get something that sounds good and won't cause ear fatigue.

As for coloration, that's is always going be an issue, not only because of the monitors but also because of your room, monitors position etc...

Do several mixes with your monitors and listen to them in your car, iPod, boombox etc and eventually you will train your ears on how your monitors translate frequencies compared to other sources. Once you learn that, you're good to go.

guitarbilly74 wrote:Buy what sounds best to you. You will be sitting in front of your monitors for hours so it's important to get something that sounds good and won't cause ear fatigue.

As for coloration, that's is always going be an issue, not only because of the monitors but also because of your room, monitors position etc...

Do several mixes with your monitors and listen to them in your car, iPod, boombox etc and eventually you will train your ears on how your monitors translate frequencies compared to other sources. Once you learn that, you're good to go.

Thanks!

I am going to check out the M-Audio BX5D2s, as long as my Guitar Center has them. Them among a couple others. I am really interested in the those as well as the Yamaha HS50M, PreSonus Eris E5, Alesis M1 Active MKII, and the Behringer Truth 2030A and 3030A.

Is there a particular frequency/range that smaller speakers (5" - 6.75") tend to foul up or present in a way that I should watch out for?

Cole

Yeah, kinda what Billy said. I dont think it matters too much about how the monitors sound in the store. Buy something quality that fits the room you'll be monitoring in. Get something that is considered to reproduce whats on tape as accurately as possible. Eventually, your ears will get used to them and you'll be able to tweak your recordings to sound good through other systems. But as long as you get something accurate and quality and an appropriate size, you should be good.

Take some music with you that you know how it sounds on other systems. Listen for a good separation between instruments. Listen how tight and clear is the low end? Don't necessarily go for the one that sounds "best" but for the one that sounds the clearest and most flat.

Listen. Just get Equator D5's. They're cheap and amazing.

I ended up getting a pair of Maudio AV40s for 100 bucks. IMMEDIATELY noticed improved on mixes and sitting a guitar tone properly in them.

NinjaRaf wrote:I ended up getting a pair of Maudio AV40s for 100 bucks. IMMEDIATELY noticed improved on mixes and sitting a guitar tone properly in them.

I went and listened to some yesterday. I didn't get to try the the AV40s, but I did listen to the PreSonus Eris E5, Yamaha HS50M, Mackie MR5MK2, Yamaha HS80M sets. The PreSonus sounded hollow in the mids and a bit congested in the lows (though the trebles and upper mids sounded clear), the MR5s sounded really hyped in the lows and a bit woofy. I was also surprised at how large the the MR5s were; they were significantly larger than the other 5" monitors. I was really drawn towards the HS50Ms, even over the HS80Ms that everyone says to get. I really just liked that clarity of the HS50M set. The bass wasn't over hyped on them and I especially liked the detail throughout. So for me, I decided that the HS50M are what I want.

I was planning on ordering them from Loop after listening to them, but I will be damned, I actually got great help from the guy at my Guitar Center. I let him know that this was my first venture into studio monitors. He took the time to hook up the stuff for me and pointed out things that he personally heard that he thought was good and not so good. He told me that he just bought a set of the HS50M monitors as a second reference monitor to his Mackie HR824Mk2 set. He said he really like his Mackie set, but sometimes they sounded too good and didn't always translate that way on his car stereo or other listening sources. He told me that after adding the HS50M set he was able to get better mixes for other listening sources more consistently. I really appreciated the time he spent with me, so I felt compelled to give him my business; he earned it. So I opted to put them on lay-a-way to let me think about them just a bit more (also to help with buyer's remorse - which I get from time to time).

Anyway, I really appreciate all your help! I know without a doubt that the added clarity I will be getting from these monitors will help me out to appropriately eq my stuff and balance everything!

Cole

I went and picked up the monitors tonight... Now I am just waiting on my TRS cables to be delivered...

I cannot wait to get these guys up and running!

Cole

A good way to get a rough idea of the problem spots in your room when you're fine tuning the positioning of the monitors when you get them running, is to run test tones (like 70Hz, 1kHz, 10kHz) and sweeps and walk around the room and listen for dead spots and standing waves.

http://onlinetonegenerator.com/

nakedzen wrote:A good way to get a rough idea of the problem spots in your room when you're fine tuning the positioning of the monitors when you get them running, is to run test tones (like 70Hz, 1kHz, 10kHz) and walk around the room and listen for dead spots and standing waves.

http://onlinetonegenerator.com/

Thanks a lot! I will check this out!!!

Cole

Run some sweeps as well, since pure sine waves give you only the room response to that exact frequency you're running. 1000 Hz and 1010 Hz will give you different results.