The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I am looking at getting some nearfield monitors on a limited budget. Right now I am leaning towards the Wharfedale Diamond 8.1 pro 5 in.

http://www.academyofsound.com/aosdevsho ... ductID=917

Also Looking at the Behringer monitor for the same price. Any opinions on these or others are welcome.

Also, an interesting article on monitors from Sound on Sound.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Jun02/a ... nitors.asp

Edit - changed the title to nearfield, one word

If possible get self-powered monitors so you don't have to worry about matching power amplifier and speakers, active crossovers and all that nonsense. There will be less wiring as well.

I have a set of MA-50s, and I have to say that they're great value for the money. The dual digital inputs, and analog inputs really help out in getting the sound there as clean as possible, m and allow me to run direct digital from my PC, or my SI-24. They're fantastically loud for 50W nearfields, and at $500 a pair, they pretty much sit at a good price point. I've hear the MA-30s, and found them to be very similar, if not as loud or bass-y, but much cheaper.

--
Sleazy D

Bigger than my screen?

OWNED

Hope the speakers are shielded, or you'll mess up your CRT.
And those nearfields are way too close to each other dude.

and they are way too low. They should be at the same height as your ears.

I've got Event 20/20ps. Sam picked up a pair recently for like $250 used.

Ken

Actually I got them for $200. I think Ken's suggestion about elevating the speakers is a good one, from what I've heard at his house, where he has them about 8-10" above his desk, on isolating foam, angled down a bit.

Yeah, this is a very temporary situation. I'm doing research on furniture that will accomodate all my shit, including the motif.

This looks pretty good:

http://www.raxxess.com/product.asp?ID=553

Ooooh Sober those are very nice. Any ideas how pricey they are?

Hilarious.

I had forgotton about this thread. FWIW I ended up getting some KRK Rokit 5s http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_krk_rokit_rp/, which fit into my budget nicely, though they are not bigger than my screen.

After hearing them on the monitors I am now in the process of trying to unsuck some old songs, which is quite a undertaking.

stueym wrote:Ooooh Sober those are very nice. Any ideas how pricey they are?

Stue, I've been checking out those monitors as I research an upgrade of my own. Their either these or these. Judging by how they dwarf the monitor, I'm thinking the latter. They run about $500. The 5 inch woofer model will run you $300.

They're made by Mackie and look pretty impressive but I would really love to hear Sober's take on them.

These are indeed the s8's, and most retailers will indeed sell them for around $499. Don't bother trying to grind them down on price, because these things really have no room to move.

I've heard the s5's, and they sound good, at a much more reasonable size/weight. You obviously do lose some bass, but I think that for the money, it's really hard to beat that set. I tested them against event electronics and a couple other brands in that price bracket, and the mackies blew them away.

Another thing I like is that they're priced and shipped as a pair, where as many monitors are priced and shipped individually. I don't know why I like that, I just do.

But yeah, these speakers are nuts.

Well I finally made my decision and purchase and ended up buying a pair of these. Bought from the same website shown. The deal breaker for me was they accepted my negotiated price! I got them for $300 for the pair plus shipping. I couldn't believe that they accepted my offer. I just ordered them today so I'll have wait to let you know how the final deal went e.g. condition of the units, shipping and the like. But so far I'm pumped!

UPDATE: I got the KRK's today. I've only had a little bit of time with them, but I definitely see and hear a difference between these and what I was using (Yamaha bookshelf speakers). Those worked fine but compared to the KRK's, what I noticed first was how much I was pumping the low end and probably over EQ'ing in general. This is my intitial assessment bear in mind, it will take a while for me to really guage the difference when I record a whole song front to back using these monitors.

Overall the transaction went as smooth as anything else I've ever bought online through Musician's Friend or American Musical Supply and the like. I still can't believe the negotiated price I got, I should have tried $250. Oh well, at the $330 I paid with shipping, I'm really happy with the quality of the product, the transaction, and the shipping. (They were double boxed, individually, gotta love that)

If you folks are interested, you can enter in a code to get a $20 discount on a purchase from this place (I get one too of course, although I don't think I need to buy anything else at the moment) so PM me if you're interested. I should end this before I become a spammer, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well this whole transaction went.

I bought a Hafler TA1600 power amp to use with my Yamaha NS-10's. It SUCKS. It broke after a couple years. Now I only get sound out of one channel. DO NOT buy one. The Yamaha's are great, but the Hafler sucks so much, I wish I'd gotten powered monitors.

c hack wrote:The Yamaha's are great, but the Hafler sucks so much, I wish I'd gotten powered monitors.

Buy thisto go with those bad-ass NS 10's. The sound you'll get will probably rattle whatever isn't working in the Hafler back into working shape long enough to sell it.

I'm in the middle of moving, and I just unpacked and set-up my monitors and power amp (Alesis RA-100) and... nothing. No sound, no power light, amp doesn't turn on. The fuses are intact, and when I power it up it has that distinct hum of electricity, but no sound.

I'm taking it apart tomorrow, and in the mean time I'm scoping out prices on a replacement. Boo.

You do get sound signal out of your soundcard, right?

Yes, thank god. No, something is certainly wrong with the amp, as the power light no longer lights. I have a sneaky suspicion that I will be doing headphones-only mixes for the next little while.

Yorkville YSM-1s. Are they any good?

Calfborg wrote:Yorkville YSM-1s. Are they any good?

They seem to like them over here

Anybody got any recommendations for good monitor stands?