monitors and headphones

[nicknack]

Hi Allz

how r you? i'm getting a new pairs of monitors and headphones. for monitors i'm tempted to get alesis mkII because that's what i was using last, good value for dosh, everyone else had em at the time and the sound quality was really good in comparison to the white yamaha jobies the girl at turnkey was trying to flog off on me. for head phones i'm thinking sennheiser; i've always used em and the quality is outstanding. love to know what you lot think.

[Barfunkel]

What's the budget?

[ARiFF]

What about this one :

Beyerdynamic DT880 PRO ( +- 250€ )



5Hz ~ 35KHz
250 Ω

[nicknack]

not much over 200 GBP on each. i'm in a small room, pc, desk. monitors probably up against the wall. nothing professional.

i'm really trying to get an idea of what most people are using in the starter scenario. but something that can still be used to produce must that is releasable.

[ARiFF]

not much over 200 GBP on each. i'm in a small room, pc, desk. monitors probably up against the wall. nothing professional.

200GBP is perfect You should be able to find the DT880's for that price... Dont get them by Thomann though, Mattias will come and haunt you at night if you did.

[Barfunkel]

I got the Beyerdynamics DT770's. Cost 150€, so well within your budget.

They emphasize the bass a little bit, which might be a problem for some, but it's great for me, as I tend to put too much bass in my music, the headphones make my mixes a bit more tolerable.

Dunno about 200 pound monitors though. Many like the Behringers, but I hate their sound, not fun to listen for extended periods of time.

[arc]

Another vote for the DT880s. Great headphones. Although sometimes I wish I got the 770s since they're closed and not open, plus the lower ohms which would make them a little louder.

As for monitors, I've had my KRK Rokit 8s for something like 6 years now. They've been turned on 24/7 for the entire time and have never given me any problems. I can't really speak much on how well they sound as they're the only monitors I've ever owned. But as far as reliability is concerned, you can't go wrong with them. Eventually I'd like to upgrade to some nicer monitors like some Focals, but I don't think it would be wise for me to do that because my room isn't really ideal, so spending that much would be kind of stupid really.

[Mattias]

not much over 200 GBP on each. i'm in a small room, pc, desk. monitors probably up against the wall. nothing professional.

200GBP is perfect You should be able to find the DT880's for that price... Dont get them by Thomann though, Mattias will come and haunt you at night if you did.

Hahaha.

[msl]

Get the phones now and save up to get slightly better monitors, 200 is just not enough, unless you go used.

[nicknack]

Get the phones now and save up to get slightly better monitors, 200 is just not enough, unless you go used.

well at dolphin, a pair of alesis mkII can still be picked up for 260 GBP over the web. but they are nearly 100 quid more SRP what ever that means -- i'm guessing in store price. i remember buying the same monitors brand new for just over 200 GBP but that was about 5 years ago and i think they were on sale. i've heard the alesis are pretty good but they exaggerate the bass by about 5 %. i'm okay with that but i'm still not to sure about them; that's why i'm posting. i wouldn't mind paying a couple hundred quid more if they were really offering a clear benefit. i can't go to big though because i'm only in a small room in a house share. i'm thinking of doing most of my work on head phones and then use the monitors for mixing. if it really becomes necessary, renting some time in a pro studio for mixing -- its not that much for an hour in some places in london and you get huge monitors and a properly sound engineered room.

[msl]

Well its up to you mate, if you know them and like then go ahead. I have a friend (well known techno artist) who still uses them, but really I think there are much better options around these days, they are like 8 years old at this point. Stay away from the small KRK's anyway. A used pair of Yamaha's might be a good option MSP5 or HS80.

Yes the difference will be night and day if you could splurge for something like Neumann 120's or Adam A7x's etc. You get what you pay for with monitors, the better your monitors the better your mixes.

[Mattias]

I know it's not what you wanna hear, but going cheap won't help you in the end.

[nicknack]

well this exactly what i was hoping for when i posted. thanks a lot, and i mean it. i surely am not going to trust the sales blokes at the store as to what is good/bad because they just want to get rid of stock whether it's shit or not. if you're someone they think they can take advantage of then they will. that says nothing about customers they respect but i'm not one of those. fact is i'm looking for some thing i can produce music on that is release quality. translates well to PA systems, etc, etc. i don't know how much the Neumann 120's or Adam A7x's are but i'll have a look at them. i'm certainly not going to be paying anything more than 400 GBP; not right now anyways. i'm on min wage in london and that's about 4 months saving right there.

[AxeD]

I got the Beyerdynamics DT770's. Cost 150€, so well within your budget.

They emphasize the bass a little bit, which might be a problem for some, but it's great for me, as I tend to put too much bass in my music, the headphones make my mixes a bit more tolerable.

They have quite a dip in the mids as well. Good nonetheless though. I wouldn't go 250 ohm without an amp, but these 770's are available at 80 ohms.

Best I've heard so far are the Focal Spirit Professionals. Great sound, really flat. ATH m50 are good too, maybe those fit your budget better. Both are low impedance and they go very loud, so be careful with that.

[Planar]

I'd spend the cash on the headphones. Takes your room out of the equation completely. I only use my monitors to check the stereo field and if I've undercooked the reverb, otherwise it's all in headphones for me. 880 pros are fantastic headphones, they're the beyers to get if you have the cash.

[PixelKind]

I recently got new headphones as well and compared a few in the shop. DT880, DT770, ATH M50 and AKG K701.

The Beyerdynamics are a lot of fun to listen to but to me they sounded very "boomy". Kinda like a pimped out car stereo. Fun but not ideal for music production or mixing. The ATH are even worse. I got the AKG cuz they have a very neutral sound. My room here is shit and I needed headphones where i can judge small adjustments on effects like EQ and get a better impression of the overall balance of the sound. People say they are a bit weak in the lower frequencies but I dont think so at all. They just dont emphasize it as much as others.

But I would recommend u to put some tunes u know very well on your phone or on a CD and go to a shop to compare. I was pretty much set on the DT880 before I went to listen to them in comparison

[Lost to the Void]

I've got some of the best headphones you can get for production, In ear monitoring.
And they work really well. But I would still never finish a mix on them. You get no idea of sound travel, pressure, stereo, and things like reverb will always be under emphasized as they appear "closer" in headphones.

If 200 is your budget for monitors, buy used, you'll get something actually worth your money. 200 jib on new monitors is just not worth it.

[Lag]

Never do entire mixed on headphones. They just don't give an "honest" enough picture.
I have ADAM A7s for years now, couldn't be more pleased with them.
Monitors serve to give you a true picture of what you are doing. If you go 200e for monitors you will just get something that bends the sound enough to make the purchase useless.

[nicknack]

could someone give me a specific example of what the benefit would be in having monitors like the adam or neumann which cost over 1000 GBP over something that costs under 300 GBP. is it detail of sound? i mean i'm pretty sure that flatness of frequency response can only be so flat until any flatter would simply not be noticeable. i don't really care about whether the monitors are designed for a specific space or how the sound is amplified. all i care about is whether it translates well to a PA system.

i can believe that sound systems are always improving and that goes equally for club systems or big pa systems used at festivals etc. so maybe there's a correspondence between the level of detail a good pair of monitors and a good PA system can produce. obviously then there is a case for buying studio monitors that cost say 1000 gbp because then you're giving people an experience you would otherwise not be able to -- not intentially anyways. i mean, if you try to produce music on a cheap system that doesn't represent artifacts as well as a high quality system you may end up with something that doesn't sound good on the client system. then again when people actually buy music they listen to it on headphones so if you make your impression at that stage you've already won.

the only reason i'm getting monitors is for the flat frequency response and the whole stereo business. because i know that when i mix on headphones the frequency bands of the end product won't be in right proportions for an open system like club sound or whatever. you can get most of the detail on good headphones anyway. so what the hell is the point in forking over 1000/2000 squid for a pair of monitors. unless money just isn't important.

[Mattias]

Thing is, the cheaper speakers are not flat.
Neither are the more expensive ones but they are more flat.

Better components and engineering = higher price / higher price = better sound / better sound = better idea of what you need to do and what you can hear.