Monitor Speaker Recommendations
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
Yorkville YSM-1 has worked really well and translated well to the big screen. Other folks who have been by have really liked them also. Sort of under the radar and not pricey. Also the Event 20/20's I have heard very good things about from friends who have them. Both of the above also come in self powered versions if you don't have an amp. Some people really like Mackie's but others find them hyped and some say harsh. I don't have enough time on them to have an opinion one way or the other. I have not liked KROK speakers , but it might not be their fault. Where I had to use them they were underpowered and that might be why they seemed very muddy. Don't like NS-10's, bright and nasty - but they became a standard in TV land for awhile. Everything else I have much time with is not close to "inexpensive", but also many of the expensive speakers need a pretty good sized room. Meyers HD-1's are great but you really need to get them 10 -15 feet away from you, and most edit rooms aren't that big.
John Willett
Veteran
Expensive is a relative term - what's the budget?
I consider any monitor under £1,000 cheap - but others consider £1,000 expensive - so, please - how much do you want to spend?
get a pair of ns10's 
Ive had several never led me down.
Got a set of refference Active Tannoy's they got a few.
I do music on em as well.
noiz2, ns10s sound bad? clean your ears fella! there is a reason why they are respected assets in every single studio + worlds pick on best studio monitor..years in a row.
Get a pair of decent headpohones as well for refference.
Can never get to few refference speakers.
And in the end any set will do you good, remember nitpicking on brands and models wont make you a better musician/audio fella!
Ive had several never led me down.
Got a set of refference Active Tannoy's they got a few.
I do music on em as well.
noiz2, ns10s sound bad? clean your ears fella! there is a reason why they are respected assets in every single studio
+ worlds pick on best studio monitor..years in a row.Get a pair of decent headpohones as well for refference.
Can never get to few refference speakers.
And in the end any set will do you good, remember nitpicking on brands and models wont make you a better musician/audio fella!
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10s
Veteran
I have NS -10s & yes they are kind of nasty but useful for mixes; they replaced the Auratones sitting on the meter bridge back in the late 80s everyone used for getting car radio mixes. I also have Mackies, HR824, I use as a near field & I like them because, to me, they deliver a fairly faithful & accurate acoustic reproduction [depending upon the room/tuning]. I also have Tannoy DMT12s which are nice Mid fields with a very nice sound.
My advice is to get a decent pair of speakers, Mackie, KRK, JBL, Yamaha, Tannoy, etc, set up the speakers correcly, equi-distant, ear level, iso pads, ... and tune the room: dampening reflections... and then become really familiar with the sound you're getting by playing back all sorts of music and sound tracks. Once you know your speakers & room then you'll be in a better position to mix more accurately so your mixes will play on all sorts of systems. The idea behind good speakers & a good room is that they reproduce sound that is true, i.e., it neither emphasizes nor diminishes frequencies & overtones, and other electro-audio goodies.
Headphones; a mid level $250 Grado pair of phones SR225, or for $50 Yamaha RH-5Ma work for me. This model of Yamaha beats the Sony 7506 hands down.
My advice is to get a decent pair of speakers, Mackie, KRK, JBL, Yamaha, Tannoy, etc, set up the speakers correcly, equi-distant, ear level, iso pads, ... and tune the room: dampening reflections... and then become really familiar with the sound you're getting by playing back all sorts of music and sound tracks. Once you know your speakers & room then you'll be in a better position to mix more accurately so your mixes will play on all sorts of systems. The idea behind good speakers & a good room is that they reproduce sound that is true, i.e., it neither emphasizes nor diminishes frequencies & overtones, and other electro-audio goodies.
Headphones; a mid level $250 Grado pair of phones SR225, or for $50 Yamaha RH-5Ma work for me. This model of Yamaha beats the Sony 7506 hands down.
Doc Bernard
Indie Arms Member
You really want to get at least two pair of monitors. This comes from years of experience in the audio world.
Your first pair should be a set of flat monitors. Event 20/20's were brought up as were the 824's, which are nice. Even though they are considered "lower end", I like the M-Audio BX-8's (Try to find 8's not 8a's). But use them for overall mixing of your sound.
Your second pair should be your "lowest denominator" speakers. Meaning, use them to focus on the meat and potatoes of the mix (mids). NS-10's were mentioned as well as Auratones, both great choices. But check these out: Avantone MixCubes I have a set here for more focused mids. Auratones, good luck finding any under for 500.00 a set. And parts, forget about it, blow a driver and you're hurting. NS-10's are also still a bit pricey.
The Mixcubes are unbelievable, especially for the price (229.00 list a pair). And they have a five-year warranty.
Your first pair should be a set of flat monitors. Event 20/20's were brought up as were the 824's, which are nice. Even though they are considered "lower end", I like the M-Audio BX-8's (Try to find 8's not 8a's). But use them for overall mixing of your sound.
Your second pair should be your "lowest denominator" speakers. Meaning, use them to focus on the meat and potatoes of the mix (mids). NS-10's were mentioned as well as Auratones, both great choices. But check these out: Avantone MixCubes I have a set here for more focused mids. Auratones, good luck finding any under for 500.00 a set. And parts, forget about it, blow a driver and you're hurting. NS-10's are also still a bit pricey.
The Mixcubes are unbelievable, especially for the price (229.00 list a pair). And they have a five-year warranty.
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
...
noiz2, ns10s sound bad? clean your ears fella! there is a reason why they are respected assets in every single studio
...
They are "respected assets" for doing "cheap speaker" tests yo see if you mix will hold up on someone's car FM or TV set. It's not just my opinion type NS-10 into Google and you will have ton's for posts ragging on them. You will also find an article talking about the little scandal that sort of created their own myth around the NS-10's being popular by giving away tons of them to name recording studios and then talking about all those studios using them. And I believe I also say there were people who swear by them. But you won't find many in audio post for films. The "logic" of using them usually ends up with a variation of "if your mix sounds good on NS-10's it will sound good everywhere". That doesn't work for films, though you could argue the point for video only home playback maybe. In film work your not playing back on "any" system your playing back on a very specific system (collection of systems but with common specs) and the user can't adjust things to their preferences. That semi applies to video also since most folks don't have easy access to much more than volume. NS-10's have a pumped up upper mid and almost no bass. So that big bassy mix with the clear dialog (on your NS-10's) comes out SUPER bassy with almost unintelligible dialog.
I and many other people find them hyped in the highs and very fatiguing to work with. Opinions aside they are nowhere close to the wide flat response one should be looking for for mixing films.
A good site, that likes NS-10's BTW, gives a lot of history, the reasons they were/ are liked for music.
Doc Bernard
Indie Arms Member
GK, that's the whole point about the NS-10's. They are not full range flat monitors. Noiz is absolutely right. Sit them side by side with flat reference monitors and you will hear a profound difference. I personally don't care for them for exactly what Noiz said, they have a definite bump in the 12-15K range, which is outside the mids where I want to have them "focus". I found my mixes didn't translate well because I eq'd that freq range down to compensate, which made my mixes sound dull.
But you can learn them, and what they are actually doing. They are sworn by by many good and talented audio recording engineers/mixers. They just weren't my cup of tea at my old studio.
But you can learn them, and what they are actually doing. They are sworn by by many good and talented audio recording engineers/mixers. They just weren't my cup of tea at my old studio.
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Andrew Stone
Veteran
NS-10s revolutionized mixing with the concept of "Near Field Monitoriing" back in the early 1980s. Hundreds of monitors have come out since including computer aided design has improved the sonics of speakers dramatically. I have a pair of NS-10s and they sit unused because of the ear fatigue problem they induce. This has been a well documented issue with them since their introduction over 20 years ago.
Yorkville as mentioned has a couple of good offerrings in the less expensive side of the mix, but there are also Dynaudio and Adams to look at. Yamaha has some nice inexpensive powered speakers as well. If you are feeling a bit more flush then look at the Genelecs. Might want to look at the Mackies or KRKs. I think that covers the mainline current offerrings for near to mid-field monitors. Any of these manufacturers make monitors that will work well with music and video sound mixing.
Also have "lousy" TV quality speakers, as mentioned, for A/Bing the sound is a very good idea as well.
BTW I settled on Adam A7s but the Dynaudio's were a close second insofar as complimenting the way I listen to sound when mixing but everyone is predisposed to a particular kind of sound so you should use your ears and try ignore the pressuring sales reps when you are previewing the monitors in music stores.
Good luck.
John Willett
Veteran
When it comes to monitors, my short-list is: ATC, Harbeth, Klein + Hummel and PMC - probably add Digidesihn as well as their monitors are made by PMC.
My own monitors are Harbeh Monitor 30A and the babies are Klein + Hummel O 110D.
These are accurate and trustworthy monitors that tell you what you are doing.
My own monitors are Harbeh Monitor 30A and the babies are Klein + Hummel O 110D.
These are accurate and trustworthy monitors that tell you what you are doing.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
I used to own an audio post facility back in the late 90s. Totally agree with all of the higher end monitor recommendations. I am sorry guys but monitors like KRKs, Events, low end JBLs, Mackies are not accurate and are not uncolored sound and are therefore close to useless for doing final audio mixes. They are fine for editing but for mixing, what good can it be to mix on speakers that "enhance" the sound and artificially color the sound to sound "good"?
The other factor is correcting the room deficiencies using acoustic foam and tuning the system using a white noise generator, spectrum analyzer and graphic equalizer. Very few video editors will take the time, effort and expense to create an acoustically neutral environment but it is really the only way to mix sound accurately. You can buy the best monitors money can buy but if you plop them into a typical edit bay, they are not accurate and they are not neutral because the room is not neutral. Therefore, buying Klein + Hummel, Genelec or Dynaudios for a typical acoustically troubled room is somewhat of a waste. You should be able to treat and neutralize a typical edit bay acoustically for under $1,000.00 in foam treatments. A spectrum analyzer and a graphic EQ of decent, not great quality, can be bought for another $500.00 to $700.00. How many amateurs and editors are willing to drop $1,700.00 PLUS monitors to end up with accurate sound? Few.
There are some new "self-tuning" monitor systems from Genelec and others that promise to mitigate some of the deficiencies of a non-tuned room but I have yet to test them.
Headphones are useless for mixing unless you are mixing for headphone playback. They are very useful for dialog editing, but as any sound mixer knows, headphones will reveal too much detail that will never be heard through even the best speakers so you end up editing and noise reducing a lot of material you will never hear on speakers and your music levels will be too low since much more of the music is revealed through headphones than through speakers.
The other factor is correcting the room deficiencies using acoustic foam and tuning the system using a white noise generator, spectrum analyzer and graphic equalizer. Very few video editors will take the time, effort and expense to create an acoustically neutral environment but it is really the only way to mix sound accurately. You can buy the best monitors money can buy but if you plop them into a typical edit bay, they are not accurate and they are not neutral because the room is not neutral. Therefore, buying Klein + Hummel, Genelec or Dynaudios for a typical acoustically troubled room is somewhat of a waste. You should be able to treat and neutralize a typical edit bay acoustically for under $1,000.00 in foam treatments. A spectrum analyzer and a graphic EQ of decent, not great quality, can be bought for another $500.00 to $700.00. How many amateurs and editors are willing to drop $1,700.00 PLUS monitors to end up with accurate sound? Few.
There are some new "self-tuning" monitor systems from Genelec and others that promise to mitigate some of the deficiencies of a non-tuned room but I have yet to test them.
Headphones are useless for mixing unless you are mixing for headphone playback. They are very useful for dialog editing, but as any sound mixer knows, headphones will reveal too much detail that will never be heard through even the best speakers so you end up editing and noise reducing a lot of material you will never hear on speakers and your music levels will be too low since much more of the music is revealed through headphones than through speakers.
Sound Chaser
Active member
Just my opinion, but I have a pair of YSM-1's and don't like them. They are a smiling face monitor and don't sound bad for listening but, they have quite a hump at 10K.
I believe that monitors are a matter of getting used to and once you are familiar with how they translate outside, you can use pretty much anything. If you have a studio that other engineers work out of then that's quite another situation. I am a huge JBL fan and, dumped them for a pair of Tannoy System 12 DMT's which to me are neutral and boring. But, they translate great outside and any engineer could walk into my facility and attain a consistent product.
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Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I think you meant pink noise generator.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
Haven't noticed the hump but very true about knowing your system, also I don't have to deal with outside mixers so that isn't an issue. Having pre mixed a number of projects that were then finaled in a proper mix stage and also mixed a few projects that went to the big screen, I have found that my mixes transferred very well. But as you say whether that is me knowing the speakers or the speakers being representative????
I don't get the ear fatigue with them that I have gotten at some spaces with "higher end" JBL's and Tannoy's. Actually the Tannoy's were more muddy that fatiguing, but most edit rooms are not treated worth a damn so it's probably unfair to lay too much on the speakers.
20-20's made my ears and wallet happy! I had however to replace the cones which were severely damaged during shipping.
The most affordable you should consider are the 20/20p with a single amp. The ones with one amp per cabinet can go a little louder but there isn't the need for that. Get the foam to isolate them from your table, they will turn your whole table into a speaker if you don't
The most affordable you should consider are the 20/20p with a single amp. The ones with one amp per cabinet can go a little louder but there isn't the need for that. Get the foam to isolate them from your table, they will turn your whole table into a speaker if you don't
puredrifting
Major Contributor
puredrifting
Major Contributor
I was very involved with JBL pro gear back in the early nineties when they were really pushing aluminum tweeters in their pro line monitors. Some of the worst sounding, yet popular and highly rated speakers I have heard. They gave you extreme ear fatigue after less then two minutes. I don't care what anyone says, aluminum is a lousy material for tweeters. I think it is a fine material for woofer cones like the Hartkes, but for high end? Ouch.
Dan