What are some great studio monitors that wont cost you an arm for surround sound?

XTREEMMAK

XTREEMMAK

New member
I'm looking to buy some new monitors to replace my current setup. Currently I have the KRK5 Rockets and the Event 5's. I was looking at the JBL LSR 4328P speakers and at the moment I love them and they seem like they sound reliable. The price is a bit steep though ($1400 for pair) which got me wondering about when I want to expand to surround sound. To get the extra speakers would put another $1400 dent (more less)in my pocket plus I would need to kick out a little under $2000 for the sub alone! So I was wondering if anyone could recommend great stereo monitors that when the option to expand to surround sound comes along, wont be an arm and a leg to buy? I meen I was thinking about getting the LSR's for the left and right and some other speakers for the center, rear left and rear right speakers but I'm guessing that it's best to go with the same speaker on all channels.

I posted this comment on another forum and from what I gathered from them, I can actually keep the same speaker types for the L,R,C channels and different speakers for the LS and RS channels with both speakers on that channel however being identical. Someone also recommended the Blue Sky speakers, particularly the Blue Sky EXO 2.1 then get the Mediadesk 5.1 which all together would run me about a little bit under 1k, but I dont know anything or have heard the Blue Sky speakers. For the most part, I've heard JBL's, Genelec, Event, and KRK's so I don't know how they are or if they are a reputable company...
 
It depends on what you're going after to some extent -

If you're looking for a 5.1 post-pro setup, the BlueSky stuff is fine. Not what I'd want if I were mixing high-res surround projects though. Even the JBL's are a bit small and limited in scope for something along those lines.

One of the only truly outstanding 5.1 mixing rigs I ever heard was a custom job over at David Hill's studio. I know there are others - George Massenburg's is top-notch (and probably around $150,000) but I haven't been in the room with it.

In any case, the $2000 dent from upgrading your monitors to a surround rig is nothing compared to what upgrading everything else is going to cost... And surround work is such a tiny, tiny portion of the market (much of it because the added costs involved to make a decent rig)... I had a "budget-friendly" surround rig here at one point - I don't think I ever got enough surround work to make up for the $5-6000 investment before I just got tired of calibrating it all the time. I leave the surround work to the surround professionals now.
 
Hmmm

So in my case, I'm actually doing a sample pack for game developers. From reading a book, it would seem like the game industry is headed toward Surround Sound. That probably is the only reasons why I'd need a surround setup else pay someone to remix my stereo tracks down for me to surround sound which I'm peaty sure could be more expensive than just doing it myself. Also considering that I'd have to sub as a SFX guy if I want to take a job with a game company. From what I gather (based on other people's opinions), there isn't allot of money in this field as an indie recorder (though IMO you may get some income from just doing atmosphere effects and even web based sounds). Care to elaborate any on this?

Going back to the rout of Surround Sound speaker choices, I ran into the Yamaha HS80M and from what I'm hearing, it's getting some great reviews. What do you think? Also ran into the KRK VXT's. What about those?
 
Eh, gaming and other mostly post type applications, you can get away with a BlueSky or maybe 5 M-Audio BX8's (not the BX8a if you can get away with it) and be in pretty good shape.

I'd still go with a fairly nice set of stereo mains... Do the bulk of your work on those, and do the post work on the 5.1 system.
 
You want uncoloured monitors and a decent sub.

BUT most important is the room acoustics and positioning.

Otherwise the choice of monitors is a moot point.
 
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