How do I buy studio monitors?

[iLLxANT]

Hey guys,

I've looked into a decent starting pair of studio monitors. The website sells them in a pair and my question is, what else do I need to purchase with them? I'm a complete newb to studio monitors. All I have is a Presonus USB audiobox that I hook up my microphone and headphones to. Do I need cables or anything else? Will the pair of monitors be sufficient to mix alone or do I need anything else?

Also, I'm looking into getting a pair of JBL LSR305 5" - I heard a lot of good things about them for the price and that some people prefer them to the KRKs. Anything better to start with a few hundred dollars up? I have other gear I want to buy too, I just want to invest wisely and see which gear I should fork over big bucks for.

 

[Wallengard]

Well yeah, you will need cables to hook them up with the audio interface. Which ones depend on the monitors and the available connections on the interface. It's easy enough to check it in the hardware specs of each.

I would say room treatment is every bit as important as good monitors. Without room treatment your room will color the sound. Spend as much on room treatment as you will on monitors.

 

[iLLxANT]

What would be beneficial as far as room treatment goes? I know you'd need a good desk for the monitors obviously. Are monitor stands essential as well?

 

[Wallengard]

Do you mean what kind of room treatment to get or what room treatment would do to benefit your situation?

An appropriate positioning of the monitors is pretty important ad well. I think the best way is to have the distance between the 2 speakers be the same as the length between you and the speakers, facing directly to you and at the same height as your head.

I'm not really good with this whole room treatment deal so I am not going to say much more before I embarrass myself with faulty information.

If you can't achieve that without stands, they could be handy. Also any furniture has its resonant frequencies so try to keep the speakers off the desk, either with the use of stands or these pad things you put underneath, whatever they are called.