Best Very-Nearfield monitor for bedroom mixing

[thelochias]

Hello everyone!

I'm in a bit of a predicament, I already mix/sound-design in headphones most of the time, but I would like some new monitors that are as good as they can be for a tiny bedroom setup. I already own some Kali-LP 6 V1's, but they are just too large for me to get accurate monitoring. The furthest distance back I can put a set of monitors is 2-3 feet from my listening position (right up against a wall). My setup is also underneath a lofted bed, and I also use a 34" ultra-wide monitor (on an arm) which makes the spacing of the speakers even more difficult.

I'm willing to buy a new monitor arm/speaker stands to get additional space underneath my monitor, but I'm not sure if there's anything else I can really do about the lack of space.

I have been looking at Kali-UNF, Kali-INF, iLoud MTM/Micro, and the Adam T5V monitors. Is there anything else I should consider? Which one should I buy?

 

[sweetchaos]

Budget?

 

[thelochias]

Budget?

500-700 USD for the pair would be ideal, but I'm not opposed to saving a bit more if the sound quality is worth it long term.

 

[dfuller]

LP-6s should be fine for that.

 

[sweetchaos]

Kali LPv2 or IN series should work.

 

[TylerR]

If you want something smaller, the 305p's wouldn't be a bad option while still having solid bass extension. That + room correction could get you a really solid sounding system for not much money, and even leave room for a sub down the line if you use free room correction software.

 

[ZolaIII]

Neumann KH80 if you must and try to find good price.

 

[Ron Texas]

Bedrooms are for things done in bed.

 

[thelochias]

Bedrooms are for things done in bed.

I get your sentiment, but for right now I don't have a better option other than headphones.

 

[Ellebob]

The KH80 is a great suggestion but pricey. We install many of these at work. my opinions on these.

Adam T5V you either love it or you don't. Not my personal favorite but many people love the ribbon tweeter. YMMV.
iLoud MTM larger than you think and height is close to the LP6. About 2 inches narrower and not as deep but its shape keeps it from appearing as big as they are.
Iloud Micro is a good choice for small monitors
IN-UNF I have on my desk and love the midrange of that coax driver. Really nice imaging and soundstage. Bass can be a little tough to get positioned well. On my desk I found it works better with the bass module upright. When placed on the desk with monitor on top It was al ittle too bassy. YMMV.
LP-UNF We are due to get a shipment in the next week. I will be comparing them the the Kef LSX II and the IN-UNF both of which I have in my house. I have a feeling these will be a tremendous value for the price as are most of Kali's products. I'm curious to see if they beat the LSX II for sound. It might seem a price mismatch but the Kef has adavantages of being more feature rich.
LSR-305 A good speaker not as nice as the LP-6 for sound but still very good for the price and not as big as the LP6
IN5 - Definitely a step up from the LP-6 but not quite as wide but is taller and deeper so might be more intrusive for your setup.

 

[thelochias]

The KH80 is a great suggestion but pricey. We install many of these at work. my opinions on these.

Adam T5V you either love it or you don't. Not my personal favorite but many people love the ribbon tweeter. YMMV.
iLoud MTM larger than you think and height is close to the LP6. About 2 inches narrower and not as deep but its shape keeps it from appearing as big as they are.
Iloud Micro is a good choice for small monitors
IN-UNF I have on my desk and love the midrange of that coax driver. Really nice imaging and soundstage. Bass can be a little tough to get positioned well. On my desk I found it works better with the bass module upright. When placed on the desk with monitor on top It was al ittle too bassy. YMMV.
LP-UNF We are due to get a shipment in the next week. I will be comparing them the the Kef LSX II and the IN-UNF both of which I have in my house. I have a feeling these will be a tremendous value for the price as are most of Kali's products. I'm curious to see if they beat the LSX II for sound. It might seem a price mismatch but the Kef has adavantages of being more feature rich.
LSR-305 A good speaker not as nice as the LP-6 for sound but still very good for the price and not as big as the LP6
IN5 - Definitely a step up from the LP-6 but not quite as wide but is taller and deeper so might be more intrusive for your setup.

I am very interested in the IN-UNF, the form factor seems to be absolutely perfect for my use case. Have you had issues with the perception of sound coming from underneath like Erin has had?

 

[thelochias]

LP-6s should be fine for that.

Kali LPv2 or IN series should work.

Knowing that my current monitors could be good enough with some tweaking is reassuring. I will try to mess around with my monitor arm spacing to see if it will help with the spacing, I am struggling to get that to work on my 50+ inch desk. However, I am considering an upgrade to the V2's or IN-5's due to the self noise of my LP-6 being kind of high.

 

[Ellebob]

I am very interested in the IN-UNF, the form factor seems to be absolutely perfect for my use case. Have you had issues with the perception of sound coming from underneath like Erin has had?

I haven't had that problem but I imagine it is a correlation between head height and desk height.

 

[thewas]

I already own some Kali-LP 6 V1's, but they are just too large for me to get accurate monitoring.

LP-6s should be fine for that.

Kali LPv2 or IN series should work.

Don't people read what others ask before replying?

Would say then the usual 4-5" compact candidates, Neumann KH80 (used), Genelec 8x20-8x30 (used), JBL 305, plus the ones you mentioned are all decent neutral monitors, the more expensive ones (Genelec and Neumann) are a tad more neutral and better build quality. But as correctly written above especially in such small spaces room correction brings a big improvement so get also measurement microphone and free REW and Equalizer APO software if you use Windows.

 

[thelochias]

Don't people read what others ask before replying?

Would say then the usual 4-5" compact candidates, Neumann KH80 (used), Genelec 8x20-8x30 (used), JBL 305, plus the ones you mentioned are all decent neutral monitors, the more expensive ones (Genelec and Neumann) are a tad more neutral and better build quality. But as correctly written above especially in such small spaces room correction brings a big improvement so get also measurement microphone and free REW and Equalizer APO software if you use Windows.

All of this is wonderful advice, thank you! I will keep an eye out for good deals on those speakers, but for now I think I will try as hard as possible to get the alignment right on the LP-6s and room correct them once my setup is finalized.

 

[Berwhale]

If space is an issue, like it is for me, then I think the iLoud MTM is going to be hard to beat. Here's mine on mic stands either side of my 34" UWQHD monitor...

My MTMs are augmented with a Presonus Sub8 under the desk (crossed at 80Hz using filters on both the Sub8 and the MTMs)

 

[thelochias]

If space is an issue, like it is for me, then I think the iLoud MTM is going to be hard to beat. Here's mine on mic stands either side of my 34" UWQHD monitor...

View attachment 349525

My MTMs are augmented with a Presonus Sub8 under the desk (crossed at 80Hz using filters on both the Sub8 and the MTMs)

Very nice! I will consider this but one question: How far back is your listening position currently, and how wide is your desktop? It would seem like my desk doesn't protrude out of the wall as much as yours does, but I would just want to double check.

 

[Berwhale]

My desk is made from a 720mm (28") deep solid beech worktop attached to the front and side walls - its 275cm (9') long, but my main desk position is at one end of it (there's another desk position at the other end). The tweeters on the MTMs are about 100cm (39") apart and they are the same distance from my ears.

The MTMs have rear ports, so need some space behind them, the centre of my stands are 17cm (7") in from the front wall. I'm also using a sub, so the MTM don't have to play down low which I think helps as well.

 

[Ciavatta]

I was in a similar situation: really liked the LP-6 V2, but I had to sell them for something smaller due to lack of space on the desk.

I considered:

IN-UNF - seems really a grest system, but with a bunch of synths/drum machines/sequencer on the desk, could be challenging to correctly position them. If I had only a laptop and a midi controller these would have been a no brainer

Kh80 - perfect for my use case but expensive. I can use a "leftover" HIFI subwoofer with every pair of monitors, but for the KH80 would be so much better to acquire the Kh750 too, given the room correction you gain with it, so again even more expensive in the long run, so to speak.

8030C - kh80 alternative, I'd rather go with the Neumanns for the KH750/Room correction path (not using a PC with a DAW makes a self contained room correction vital, as I can't use Sonarworks or similar)

Iloud micromonitor - really great performance/price ratio, but too much on the mediaspeaker side to me.

Iloud MTM - good balance of sound quality, features (audio settings and room correction), footprint and price. Lack of headroom/volume.

I bought the MTM because I found them on sale when I was in the market, but as far as I'm - quite - happy with them, I'm still looking around for something with better headroom.
I'm really curious to see a review of the new little Kalis (LP-UNF) and although they seems to be a lesser tier (on paper) vs the MTM, they could give me what I'm looking for in a pair of monitors for jamming/light music production

 

[thelochias]

I was in a similar situation: really liked the LP-6 V2, but I had to sell them for something smaller due to lack of space on the desk.

I considered:

IN-UNF - seems really a grest system, but with a bunch of synths/drum machines/sequencer on the desk, could be challenging to correctly position them. If I had only a laptop and a midi controller these would have been a no brainer

Kh80 - perfect for my use case but expensive. I can use a "leftover" HIFI subwoofer with every pair of monitors, but for the KH80 would be so much better to acquire the Kh750 too, given the room correction you gain with it, so again even more expensive in the long run, so to speak.

8030C - kh80 alternative, I'd rather go with the Neumanns for the KH750/Room correction path (not using a PC with a DAW makes a self contained room correction vital, as I can't use Sonarworks or similar)

Iloud micromonitor - really great performance/price ratio, but too much on the mediaspeaker side to me.

Iloud MTM - good balance of sound quality, features (audio settings and room correction), footprint and price. Lack of headroom/volume.

I bought the MTM because I found them on sale when I was in the market, but as far as I'm - quite - happy with them, I'm still looking around for something with better headroom.
I'm really curious to see a review of the new little Kalis (LP-UNF) and although they seems to be a lesser tier (on paper) vs the MTM, they could give me what I'm looking for in a pair of monitors for jamming/light music production

Yeah I would definitely want room correction, and while I'm not opposed to doing it myself, I would love to eventually be able to afford the Neumann solution. In terms of the IN-UNF, the only things I have on my desk are a mechanical keyboard, DAC + AMP + Audio Interface stack, and maybe a smaller synth eventually. This makes me lean a lot more towards that.

My desk is made from a 720mm (28") deep solid beech worktop attached to the front and side walls - its 275cm (9') long, but my main desk position is at one end of it (there's another desk position at the other end). The tweeters on the MTMs are about 100cm (39") apart and they are the same distance from my ears.

The MTMs have rear ports, so need some space behind them, the centre of my stands are 17cm (7") in from the front wall. I'm also using a sub, so the MTM don't have to play down low which I think helps as well.

I would also like the ability to have a sub due to my sound design work anyway, so that's useful to know. For now, I don't have that much money so I will consider the MTM and the IN-UNF. I tried making the measurements work with my kalis and just couldn't do it unless I eliminated 1 foot behind my desk and bought monitor stands.