The only thing which is more complicated then buying a microphone is buying a pair of studio monitors. I know a lot of my fellow classmates will agree with me on that. You can always cheer yourself up after buying a microphone by saying "well, I will buy another before the end of the month anyway" or something similar. When buying monitors I require myself to be efficient and futuristic about my choice, because it is in my best interest to dedicate myself, rather than switching every once in a while.

I feel the pressure of choosing a monitor is not any less than choosing a woman. You have to identify features and cost, and you want something which has had good reviews. Even the the metaphor is lame, it is a tricky business.

From the beginning I know I would end up choosing something from the KRK Rokit series, Genelecs 6010A or 8020B or perhaps the Mackie MR5 or MR8. I have read a lot of monitor reviews and the KRK's get pretty consistent reviews and for the low price and relitively broad frequency response I was quite intriged to at least try them. In my opinion Genelec is a sign of quality and I have never heard a poor set of speaker from these Finnish masters. However the price tag was a bit unattractive to my eyes, as the cheapest pair you can get go for 350 GBP, and with a a frequency response of only 74Hz - 18kHz, they might not be suitable for all around sound engineering work.

So on I went to the Reverb-store on Jamaica street as I heard they had a selection of monitors set up for testing and listening. I took a reference CD with me which had a wide variety of musical genres and production style so I could try to guess the quality of the speakers. It shocked my to see that the store only had 1 pair of speaker set up, the Prodipe Pro Ribbon 5's. I had already read a very good review about them on the sound on sound website and they were offering it in store for half the price, 210 GBP. However, they sounded very harsh. Low-mids were very very muddy and unflattering and the highs and no detail and were very dull, even on dance/techno minded tracks which I knew were mixed more sharp and bright.

After a very unsuccesfull trip to Reverb, I started wondering if there were any other shops in Glasgow where I could try out monitors, but I soon discovered that that would not be possible and I would be better off ordering something of the Internet, trying it out and if I would not like it I would simply send it back. On that note, yesterday I ordered KRK Rokit RP6, which had some positive reviews and I am expecting them to be delivered to my door any minute now. It will be interesting to see how theyhttp://www.mysae.org/user/blog/6022# sound and if my views on dedication towards monitors will remain the same.