Buying my first pair of studio monitors!

steffeeh

New member
Intro
Finally I have the money to buy my first pair of studio monitors.
I produce some kind of Electro, House, Minimal House, Deep House, Prog. House, etc that I'm too lazy to care to exactly specify, but i hope this helps with what speakers i should choose in your opinion.
With these speakers I'm planning on buying a Focusrite 2i4 audio interface.
In the end I'll go to a music store and try the speakers out myself, but your input is still very helpful.


My room
My room is roughly 4x6 meter in area, and probably 2,5 meters in hight. What's a little different now is that the walls are tilted (the roof) on the sides as I live on the second floor, with some flat space in the top that is the room's roof. The walls on the shortsides of the room has regular walls, though they're occupied with windows and doors etc, so not much space to place room treatment.
Right now i have no acoustic treatment in my room, though this is something that I'll look into the future when I have cash for it, I'll probably build some bass traps and buy some pieces.
When I have my new speakers set up I'll have my desk facing the windows on one of the shortsides since I believe I'll hear less phasing then than if I were to keep my desk in front of one of the tilted walls as I do right now. This means that I have 2 windows behind my desk, which makes it difficult for placing room treatment behind the speakers. Though I'll have the speakers on speaker stands a little bit away for the wall/windows.
But... I might move to a new place within a year, so don't rely too much on this info.


How I will use my speakers
I work as a sounddesigner, so the speakers will be used for fine sample editing and preset creation.
More than this I make my own music (in FL Studio 12 if that helps), that I mix and master myself as well.
Lastly, I'll use these speakers in my spare time when I just relax and listen to music, sometimes loud.


What I look for in the speakers
I'm not too concerned with speakers that has some tonal oddities, like if they are muddy in the midrange, or too bassy, too sharp, or too tinny in the highend. Because I'm well used to speaker correction EQing and I know what I'm doing in this area.
What I more look for is how accurate and naked the speakers produces the sound so I easily can find issues to correct, as well as how deep down in the frequency spectrum they reach in a treated room, as I sometimes need to work with really low bass (sometimes all the way down to 30 Hz).
I really really really want 8 inch bass cones, not 6 inch. I find 8-inch speakers mostly respond more even and natural in the lowend compared with 6-inch speakers, just my experience.


The contestants
- KRK Rokit RP8 G3
- Yamaha HS8
- JBL LSR308
- Pioneer S-DJ80X


The Rokits seem to be speakers that you either love or hate. Some people seem to love their sound and think they're very accurate, while other complain that they seem to be unaccurate and even fall apart as time goes (is this true?).
The Yamahas I've heard in action before myself, and they sound sooo smooth, like silk - but... almost too smooth, as if they color the sound. On the other hand I've read that people like how low they reach frequencywise.


I can't go higher in price range than this.
Hope you have all the info you need :)
 
better rep, more likely to be flatter in reality, used in more pro and semi-pro facilities than the others - unfortunately there is no way to objectively compare these units as only Yamaha publish a nominal frequency response graph. All the others supply a frequency range which needs to be read carefully as being the the frequencies at either end of reproduction that are 3dB down on the main part of the response (but reveals absolutely nothing about the response across the rest of the range

the yamaha graph indicates that the hs8 's are relatively flat between 60Hx and 11kHz. Everything above 11kHz dies off very quickly. the others just do not give you sufficient information to make an informed decision

if you can't spring for equivalent Genelecs have you considered equivalent Tannoys Reveal 802 - Rock-solid bass Studio Monitors | Tannoy Studio ca. $560 pair at amazon?
 
better rep, more likely to be flatter in reality, used in more pro and semi-pro facilities than the others - unfortunately there is no way to objectively compare these units as only Yamaha publish a nominal frequency response graph. All the others supply a frequency range which needs to be read carefully as being the the frequencies at either end of reproduction that are 3dB down on the main part of the response (but reveals absolutely nothing about the response across the rest of the range

the yamaha graph indicates that the hs8 's are relatively flat between 60Hx and 11kHz. Everything above 11kHz dies off very quickly. the others just do not give you sufficient information to make an informed decision

if you can't spring for equivalent Genelecs have you considered equivalent Tannoys Reveal 802 - Rock-solid bass Studio Monitors | Tannoy Studio ca. $560 pair at amazon?

I did take a look at the Tannoy Reveal 802, but are they within the same price/quality range as the other ones I've outlined?

Any others with ideas and suggestions?
 
tannoy was the name in speakers at one point in time - to put something over the tannoy means to make an announcement on the pa system

as far as quality goes same level as the others you have cited

price range at amazon was US$560 the pair don't know how that stacks up against the others, though I did see the other units priced as singles at about ahlf that value (US$240 -US$270)
 
Jumping on this thread because I think I'm in a very similar situation- I'm thinking getting 8 inch speakers second hand would be better than new 6 inch ones.

BC, is there a good reason the rokits are so popular? Are the smaller entry level speakers better in their field than the larger 8 inch model? It's so so so difficult to find decent reviews on the internet, but most of the serious ones I've seen so far do praise them.
 
most probably their price point and the profit margins available to dealers

- sad to say but some push certain brands because the margins they have are much higher and so it is easier to give "discounts" when pushed for a cash price

when most folks who have used the low price point monitors get to hear good quality gear they suddenly understand why their gear was so cheap

I prefer far field for serious work and near field for spot checks (mostly because I do not want to end up with comb filtering artefacts from reflections off of surfaces in the near field between me and the monitors)
 
I own the Yamaha's in your list and they've been nothing short of badass.

I've read the description for these speakers and everything they say is true. They give a flat response and can play all the frequencies you need to hear very well.

What I do not know about these speakers (YET) is what sort of crossover mechanism is inside of it.

I'm dying to know but I've searched and haven't found anything. Once I find out I'll edit my post with new info about it.
 
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