Studio Monitors

As of late, I have been searching for a suitable pair of studio monitors for mixing and producing on. My current setup consists of a crappy set of m-audio speakers that I bought last year to do some work on at home. At the time, they done the job I needed them to do, but, as I have gained more experience, I have learnt that these will just not do the job that I need them to do. So, here my search begins. I have set myself a budget of £500 to get monitors, a budget that for now, is quite sufficient. Its sort of in between the budget monitors and getting closer to studio spec speakers that we all know and love.

The next debate I had with myself was what size of monitor to go for. Do I get a really impressive but fairly small size 5” monitor or go and achieve something bigger. I choose to go for the 8” range, for several reasons. The room that I will be mixing in is bigger with enough space to accommodate them and make good use of them. Next thing to decide was which ones to go for. I had several that I have been looking at, these were

1) Mackie MR8
2) KRK Rockit 8
3) M-Audio CX8

It was a tough call. Each sets have really good reviews and clearly people are using them in different places and have different uses for them. With anything that you intend to spend a lot of money on, its always better to try them out with your favourite music. So I went to GG Digital in Glasgow and put two of them through their paces. I tried various genres, from acoustic, to rock, Christian, and some R’n’B. I tried to cover as many as I can to come to the best solution.

The KRK’s were good, very detailed, especially in the mid range. The acoustic material I played was really good in this area. When I got to the more bass heavy stuff, I felt that it was slightly lacking in this area, I expected more from a bigger speaker. Maybe it was the room, I’m not sure, but it was lacking just a little.

The Mackies were just all round good. I had heard reports that the bass port on the rear of the speaker would give problems, but I never found this. The detail all the way through the frequency range was really impressive, considering the price of them. With Mackies reputation and engineering going from the HR range to the MR range, then its not surprise that these are a quality set of monitors.

In the end, I decided to go with the Mackies. I found them for a cheaper price from www.soundslive.co.uk for £380 including delivery. This is well inside the budget I had set myself with some change left over to buy some plug ins!

Mark Hoy