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Need some help picking a new set of Studio Monitors!

xxcholo

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Hello!

Posted a similar thread in the Audio Interface department where I'm at a budget at max 1900$~ for an Audio Interface
and I'm in the same situation regarding Studio Monitors

My budget on Studio Monitors for now is around 2000$~ +/- for a pair.
Most people on Gearspace are VERY Neumann bais and this is almost the only option I have gotten as a suggestion.
I want to get ATC25 or 45 in the future, for for the next couple of years I have to make do with these

What am I going to do?
I'm a musician, I produce my own music (Pop/Edm/Lofi/hiphop/trap) in that order. And I sing my own vocals on my songs and play guitar on them aswell, rest Is programmed in Ableton.
And I want to start selling my beats and uploading finished songs to my Youtube page

My room is 4x4 meter and is treated pretty well and ready for a set of monitors.

So I have a couple of questions:
1) My gut instict tells me to avoid Sub and try to get a higher quality monitors that reaches low enough, but is that really enough and do you really need a sub?
2 ) Is a 3way speaker always better than a 2way speaker for Mastering your tracks?

What do I want from my speakers?
I guess simply that for the mentioned budget I want as honest speakers as possible. They do not have to sound exiting, transparant and honest is more important.
That they translate well to other devices/other listeners is the absolute most important part

Here Is what I have been looking at so far (But I'm open to more suggestions)

Dynaudio LYD-48 (3-Way)
Neumann 120 + Sub
Adam A7V
Eve Aduio 208 and 305
Focal Shape Twin
Genelec 8040
Quested S7R Mk3

Well yeah thats about It!
Thanks for all inputs and ideas. As Mentioned, how they translate to the outer world is priority #1

Cheers!
 
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twsecrest

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My two cents, a sub-woofer will take a little bit of the workload off the studio monitor's woofer.
 

HeadDoc12

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If you search this site for forums about those specific speakers, you will learn a lot. For example: There is a sizable portion of people here who consider Genelec to be the most accurate speakers in the world, for the money (with the best being "The Ones," that is: models ending in the number one). Many people here will tell you to get the biggest Genelec Ones you can currently afford, and plan to add subs in the future, to minimize buyer's remorse (or budget for Ones and one or two subs now). They are EXTREMELY friendly to EQ, so can be adjusted for your space, and are built like tanks.
 
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xxcholo

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If you search this site for forums about those specific speakers, you will learn a lot. For example: There is a sizable portion of people here who consider Genelec to be the most accurate speakers in the world, for the money (with the best being "The Ones," that is: models ending in the number one). Many people here will tell you to get the biggest Genelec Ones you can currently afford, and plan to add subs in the future, to minimize buyer's remorse (or budget for Ones and one or two subs now). They are EXTREMELY friendly to EQ, so can be adjusted for your space, and are built like tanks.
Kinda wierd advice since My budget atm is around 2k. and the smallest ones are 8331 which is double my budget. The ones are end-game monitors, and my endgame monitors are going to be ATC45's. the 2K~ monitors im looking for now is what i need to carry me from now to then
 

Rednaxela

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No expert but have you seen this discussion? From page 2 on I thought things got pretty interesting.

 

dfuller

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I want to get ATC25 or 45 in the future, for for the next couple of years I have to make do with these
If I'm honest, if you want ATCs you're better off either jumping up to the SCM50s or getting the SCM20 actives and adding a couple of subs. The 25 and 45 are pretty messy sounding speakers.

1) My gut instict tells me to avoid Sub and try to get a higher quality monitors that reaches low enough, but is that really enough and do you really need a sub?
Depends on the speaker. Nothing you're looking at is big enough that it can get away from needing a sub (that's Neumann KH420 or Genelec 8361 territory).

Dynaudio LYD-48 (3-Way)
Thoroughly "meh".
Neumann 120 + Sub
My friend mixes stuff that has gotten Grammy nominations on this setup (see: Terrace Martin, "Drones"). This is what I'd do.

Adam A7V
Eve Aduio 208 and 305
Skip 'em. Neither company is particularly competent when it comes to speaker design. If you want something with an AMT tweeter, look at Hedd.

Focal Shape Twin
Fine, but really nothing special.

Genelec 8040
These are very love/hate. Either you're going to find them extremely easy to mix on or damn near impossible.
 

teashea

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Hello!

Posted a similar thread in the Audio Interface department where I'm at a budget at max 1900$~ for an Audio Interface
and I'm in the same situation regarding Studio Monitors

My budget on Studio Monitors for now is around 2000$~ +/- for a pair.
Most people on Gearspace are VERY Neumann bais and this is almost the only option I have gotten as a suggestion.
I want to get ATC25 or 45 in the future, for for the next couple of years I have to make do with these

What am I going to do?
I'm a musician, I produce my own music (Pop/Edm/Lofi/hiphop/trap) in that order. And I sing my own vocals on my songs and play guitar on them aswell, rest Is programmed in Ableton.
And I want to start selling my beats and uploading finished songs to my Youtube page

My room is 4x4 meter and is treated pretty well and ready for a set of monitors.

So I have a couple of questions:
1) My gut instict tells me to avoid Sub and try to get a higher quality monitors that reaches low enough, but is that really enough and do you really need a sub?
2 ) Is a 3way speaker always better than a 2way speaker for Mastering your tracks?

What do I want from my speakers?
I guess simply that for the mentioned budget I want as honest speakers as possible. They do not have to sound exiting, transparant and honest is more important.
That they translate well to other devices/other listeners is the absolute most important part

Here Is what I have been looking at so far (But I'm open to more suggestions)

Dynaudio LYD-48 (3-Way)
Neumann 120 + Sub
Adam A7V
Eve Aduio 208 and 305
Focal Shape Twin
Genelec 8040
Quested S7R Mk3

Well yeah thats about It!
Thanks for all inputs and ideas. As Mentioned, how they translate to the outer world is priority #1

Cheers!
I upgraded my studio monitors a few months ago. I now have a pair of KH120's with a KH750 and a pair of KH310's. (I am in the process of purchasing a pair of KH150's also). So you can tell that I am impressed with the sound and quality of Neumann speakers.

Why? Because of their neutral, uncolored sound. As you know, it is crtitical for monitors in your application to be nice and boring, flat, neutral and with low distortion. I want honest speakers. Neumann has that philosophy. (I have the same phisosophy with all my studio gear).

I can, in sum, highly recommend the 120's with the 750.
1226221251_Burst01.jpg

1024221446.jpg
 
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xxcholo

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If I'm honest, if you want ATCs you're better off either jumping up to the SCM50s or getting the SCM20 actives and adding a couple of subs. The 25 and 45 are pretty messy sounding speakers.


Depends on the speaker. Nothing you're looking at is big enough that it can get away from needing a sub (that's Neumann KH420 or Genelec 8361 territory).


Thoroughly "meh".

My friend mixes stuff that has gotten Grammy nominations on this setup (see: Terrace Martin, "Drones"). This is what I'd do.


Skip 'em. Neither company is particularly competent when it comes to speaker design. If you want something with an AMT tweeter, look at Hedd.


Fine, but really nothing special.


These are very love/hate. Either you're going to find them extremely easy to mix on or damn near impossible.

^
Thank you for taking your time to actually go through my thread and not just ignoring it all and posting what speakers you use.
I was actually leaning mostly towards Neumann, the people at thoman (europes answer to sweetwater) and people at my local musicshop here in sweden and they all favored neumann.

So I've finally decided what route to go:

Neumann 120 + Sub
RME Fireface UFX II (Unless they release something newer during first couple of months of next year)

I guess that will keep me floating for a while

Cheers guys!
 
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xxcholo

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I upgraded my studio monitors a few months ago. I now have a pair of KH120's with a KH750 and a pair of KH310's. (I am in the process of purchasing a pair of KH150's also). So you can tell that I am impressed with the sound and quality of Neumann speakers.

Why? Because of their neutral, uncolored sound. As you know, it is crtitical for monitors in your application to be nice and boring, flat, neutral and with low distortion. I want honest speakers. Neumann has that philosophy. (I have the same phisosophy with all my studio gear).

I can, in sum, highly recommend the 120's with the 750.
View attachment 253374
View attachment 253373
Looks awesome! Where Is the treatment tho?! :O
 

dominikz

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Neumann 120 + Sub
RME Fireface UFX II (Unless they release something newer during first couple of months of next year)
That will be an amazing setup IMHO, congrats!

I use something similar (KH120 + small sub + RME Babyface) and I'd suggest to try and use the RME TotalMix FX 3-band EQ to tame room resonances/peaks in the bass based on moving mic measurements (MMM) and filters calculated with REW.
Having only 3 bands is not ideal but usually works well enough (and is very handy to use).

Which sub did you go for?

EDIT: Perhaps you will also find the MMM measurement and REW room EQ instructions I posted here useful. If you measure both channels at once (L+R+sub) and enable only 3-bands of EQ in REW EQ window (with the "Allow narrow filters below 200Hz" option unchecked/deselected) you can generate filters that are compatible with RME 3-band EQ.
 
Last edited:

Pearljam5000

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I upgraded my studio monitors a few months ago. I now have a pair of KH120's with a KH750 and a pair of KH310's. (I am in the process of purchasing a pair of KH150's also). So you can tell that I am impressed with the sound and quality of Neumann speakers.

Why? Because of their neutral, uncolored sound. As you know, it is crtitical for monitors in your application to be nice and boring, flat, neutral and with low distortion. I want honest speakers. Neumann has that philosophy. (I have the same phisosophy with all my studio gear).

I can, in sum, highly recommend the 120's with the 750.
View attachment 253374
View attachment 253373
I agree with everything except the boring part
Unfortunately i found the KH120 a little too boring and sold them.
I find Genelecs to be nice and flat, neutral and with low distortion but exciting to listen to
 

Flaesh

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Jun 13, 2021
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low enough
Nice question!) Enough for what?.. Yesterday I listened to some technohouse (conditional name; I'm not a connoisseur of such genres) from a forum member, 40-50 hertz +15 dB bass is somewhat monotonous and boring IMHO. But music with really low bass always pleases\amuses me, because the bass of my system is flat to ~14 hertz.
 
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