Portable Studio Monitors: Recommendations Wanted

[Scenatic]

Good evening, everyone.

I’m new to the world of studio monitors. I’ve always made music with headphones, but now I’ve decided to explore something new. Currently, I have Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X headphones, but I’m considering upgrading to the DT 1770 Pro. Headphones are great because they’re portable, and you can make music anywhere. However, I’m tired of the pressure they put on my head—I want to feel comfortable working all day without experiencing headaches.

That said, there are a few challenges I face when it comes to studio monitors:

1. Weight. When traveling by air, there’s often an 8kg weight limit before you have to pay extra. This is what I know so far, but I’m always open to learning more about traveling with gear.

2. Low frequencies. Small studio monitors usually lack bass response below 40 Hz. Of course, I could pair them with a subwoofer, but if I want to travel with my setup, things get tricky. So, I’m considering two options:

• Use the monitors with a subwoofer at home and travel with just the monitors.

• Stick to using the monitors exclusively at home. In this case, I’d need to choose between full-sized monitors or compact ones paired with a subwoofer.

It’s also tough to decide what I want from monitors. Deep bass is a core element of the music I create (dnb, trance, techno, trap), so I’d love to hear it accurately. At the same time, I value great sound quality for mixing, but I also want monitors that are enjoyable to listen to. It’s a difficult balance to strike.

My budget is 2,000 euros, though spending less is always preferable.

When I listened to the IK Multimedia iLoud MTM MK2, I fell in love with them. I’m planning to buy them when I visit Germany. However, I’ve also read a lot about the Neumann KH 80, some Genelec models, and the new Adam D3V. And that’s just the small models—I haven’t even started on the larger ones, which makes the choice even harder. If I go for smaller monitors, I’ll definitely need a subwoofer, which adds another layer of complexity to the decision.

I’m also open to recommendations beyond the brands and models I’ve mentioned. If you’ve had great experiences with other monitors, I’d love to hear about them!

I’m open to hearing about other people’s experiences with monitors. I’ll share this post with some active forum users and hope it reaches the right audience.

Thank you for reading!

P.S. English isn’t my first language, so if I made any mistakes, please let me know. Thanks again!

 

[kyuu]

Welcome to ASR. Your English is excellent, so no worries there.

You've touched on pretty much all the recommendations I might make: iLoud MTM, Adam D3V, and entry-level Genelecs. If the iLoud or Adam work for you, I'd go there just because the Genelecs, while excellent, are quite pricey and you'll bump into your budget limit quite quickly if you're wanting to get a subwoofer to pair the monitors with while at home.

 

[DVDdoug]

I can't make a recommendation...

Most monitors don't have grills which makes them vulnerable to damage when moving/handling/transporting.

Maybe just get some more comfortable headphones (without worrying too much about the sound). You can switch to your Beyerdynamics (which you are familiar with) when you get to the critical part of your mixing.

Similarly, the headphones may be good for checking the bass if you decide to get monitors without a subwoofer. Bass in a room is tricky, it depends on the room, and it's going to be trickier if you're not always in the same space.

Here is an except that I saved from Recording Magazine:

Can I mix on headphones?

No. But in all seriousness, headphones can be a secret weapon and it really doesn’t matter what they sound like…

Over time, after constantly listening back to my work from different studios on those headphones I really started to learn them. They became sort of a compass. Wherever I went… It became a pattern for me to reference these headphones to see if what I was hearing was “right”…

I learned them, I knew them, I trusted them. It didn’t matter whether or not I loved them…

So, can you mix on headphones? Probably. I just think you really need to put some time into learning them first…

...I have a handful of other excerpts from Recording Magazine and other sources, all recommending against using headphones as monitors but you've been doing it so I won't include those.

It’s also tough to decide what I want from monitors. Deep bass is a core element of the music I create (dnb, trance, techno, trap), so I’d love to hear it accurately. At the same time, I value great sound quality for mixing, but I also want monitors that are enjoyable to listen to. It’s a difficult balance to strike.

That shouldn't be a trade-off. You should be making a mix that sounds good and is "enjoyable" on good-accurate monitors and/or good-accurate hi-fi speakers. Speakers and monitors both do the same job and they are mostly interchangeable when it comes to "sound quality".

 

[rirelien]

You might be interested in the Abacus Electronics C-Box 3 or 4. The latter probably, as they can go louder with deep bass, surprisingly deep for such small speakers. I own a pair of both. But they’re a small manufacturer so you need to work harder to find them or hear them, unless you live in the EU.

 

[Berwhale]

FWIW - I run the MK1 iLoud MTMs with a Presonus Eris Sub 8 (old non-BT version) as a desktop system for music enjoyment. The Sub 8 is in-line between my Topping DAC and the MTMs, so the MTMs are highpass filtered by the Sub 8 as well as having their own lowpass filter (both set to 80Hz). I'm not sure I would class the Sub 8 as portable (Presonus list the weight of the Sub 8bt 7.38 kg in the manual), but it is fairly compact for a studio sub.

You can see the Sub8 under my desk in this post... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...esktop-audio-setup.12057/page-23#post-1996715

(Note the Sub 8 is sitting on a wheeled PC dolly in this photo)

There's nicer picture further down the thread showing the finished setup above the desk..