What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

[Artie]

Quite awhile back, I repaired a pair of KRK Rokit 5's for a friend. I thought they sounded great. And this from a guy who's main speakers are old-school Yamaha NS-1000 studio monitors. Now, I want to get a pair of small monitors for myself. The old NS-1000's don't really fit my room anymore.

There was a thread where folks said that the KRK's really weren't that great, as small monitors go. I was looking into the Rokit 8's. What do you all suggest as alternatives? What sounds good? I don't need real high volume, but I do need tight, deep bass.

Artie

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

8's will certainly do it for deep bass. What 'people' say is irrelevent. If you like the speakers, more power to you!
LOTS of people mix on KRKs; no shame in that.

You didn't mention budget, so I am assuming you are looking at entry to mid priced monitors?

Brands to look at:

Focal
JBL
Emotiv
Equator
Adam
Presonus

If you can open your budget up:

Eve
Neumann
Focal
Barefoot Audio
Boulder

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

If you habituate your ears to a particular make and model of loudspeaker and keep making reference to some well-respected album recordings, it should be possible to avoid falling into the trap of misjudging the bass frequency content of your mixes.

Sound On Sound contributor, Hugh Robjohns, usually cites The Nightfly by Donald Fagen and a few other titles as references. Obviously, if your music is extreme Metal, find an appropriate comparator.

 

[Artie]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

8's will certainly do it for deep bass. What 'people' say is irrelevant. If you like the speakers, more power to you!
LOTS of people mix on KRKs; no shame in that.

You didn't mention budget, so I am assuming you are looking at entry to mid priced monitors?

I've heard good things about Focal, but I've never "heard" them. The KRK VXT 8 looks interesting too, but I wonder why it's more than twice the price of the Rokit 8! There isn't any good places to actually hear these things anymore.

Sound On Sound contributor, Hugh Robjohns, usually cites The Nightfly by Donald Fagen and a few other titles as references. Obviously, if your music is extreme Metal, find an appropriate comparator.

I love "The Nightfly", and I'm as far removed from extreme metal as one can get.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

My mixes didn't travel until I started using Yamaha HS7s with the matching sub. And HS5s, HS7s and HS8s all sounded significantly different when I auditioned them. The 7s were mostly flat with a slight bump in upper mids, which caused me to produce better mixes.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

I would personally go 7" as a minimum, 8" if you can. 5 Just cant reproduce the lows.

As far of the Rokits, I've used them in the past. Not a huge fan as I find they have hyped bass. With that said, i know a few EDM type guys that use and love them. They are very popular in their price range.

Personally I have and love the Yamaha HS-80s. I demoed Mackies, JBL's, KRK's all while chosing. The best thing you can do is go and listen to some, bringing your own reference tracks. Did you have a budget in mind?

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

^ 5" drivers are great because they don't excite room resonances like 8" drivers do.
The general rule of thumb is: small monitors for big changes and big monitors for small changes.
I use 5" monitors for most of the mix and the big mains for final touches.

 

[dystrust]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

I recently purchased a set of Presonus Eris 4.5s because they were the best monitor that would fit in my space without breaking the bank. I'd love to have a pair of Adam A3Xs (maybe someday) but I just don't have that kind of budget right now. You really don't need 8" drivers to be able to hear bass and kick drum, and they can actually cause more problems that they fix in small rooms as TO pointed out.

Regarding KRK Rockit's specifically, I find them scooped, boomy, and sizzling bright. Hip hop & techno guys love them, but they suck hard for guitar music IMO. I know there are guys out there who like them, but I greatly prefer being able to hear what my guitar tracks are doing.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

Presonus Eris monitors are excellent. I am saving up for a pair of Neumann near fields; I heard them at AES and was well impressed!

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

The most important thing is listening your fav tracks and developing a skill of comparing your mix to other recordings that will be your reference tracks. How do your favourite sound through them?

Back in my engineer days I worked with an ample of active and passive studio monitors, from baby to cupboard size, from super budget to stellar expensive. I always ended up using small to mid-size active ones.

My strictly subjective opinion but I have to admit that KRKs always were on the bottom of the list for me. Sponginess and lack of definition that caused fatigue after a while. They worked for other guys, though. Most of them made quite decent electronic music. I did rock.

These manufacturers tended to deliver all the time:

JBL (I still have a pair of old 6208 speakers)
Yamaha (I prefer the HS5 the best due to its great definition)
Adam (nice price / quality, I worked with the F series)
Mackie (nice for the price)
Tannoy Reveal (ditto)
M-Audio (they produced some surprisingly effective small monitors like AV40, old BX5 etc.
Dynaudio (even the smallest BM5 kicks major ass)

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

I will add in the above guys are right in regards to 5" and size of the room/ second pair etc. I certainly plan on getting something smaller than my 8" in the future for different reference.

A common problem you get with the smaller drivers (I find at least, maybe I just need more time with them) is when I go listen on another source, the bass end is wayy too heavy, because I am overcompensating. However, I'm sure if I spent some more time with some reference tracks with them it would certainly be a help.

As far as KRK, I've heard their higher end speakers in studios before and they are quite nice (cant remember the model)

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

I've only seen KRK V series in the 'name' professional studios. When I looked into the V vs Rokits, the V cabinets were constructed differently and I think the speaker components are different materials and ratings, particularly the tweeter. Basically, the Rokits only looked like the Vs, but were a cheaply made, overseas-constructed alternative. Don't know if anything has changed since then (4-5 years ago). At the time, I thought the V / VXT was going out of production? If it's still around, that's a good thing. 2-3 times as expensive, but you get what you pay for. If you can't hear it, you can't mix it. No point in having cheaper speakers that don't reveal all the frequencies in the recording truthfully.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

On the KRK game, I believe you can get better monitors for the price. During a head to head test in the studio I worked for, a pair of much cheaper Yamaha HS8 was preferred by everyone to the much more expensive KRK V8-II.

I will add in the above guys are right in regards to 5" and size of the room/ second pair etc. I certainly plan on getting something smaller than my 8" in the future for different reference.

Sure, switching between multiple speakers is a great way to mix. All of the different speakers have different purposes. Workflows and ears differ, other guys prefer other ways. For me the best way to create a mix is:

step1, tracking and balancing: start on small nearfields like the NS10, HS5, AV40, F1, A1, BM5A etc. If I had to choose only one type of monitors to work with, this would be my choice.

step2, setting spectrum and per/track compression, constructing low content: 8" nearfields or above.

step3, setting stereo field (always A/B with main monitors) and finetuning mastering processor / chain (detecting anomalies): headphones. I'm an AKG guy using everything between K240M and K1000.

I tend to switch between monitors a lot to check decisions but I spend the most of the time using these during these phases. Sometimes I just stick to one single monitor from start to finalising. For example this is a mix of 5-inch monitor only:



The bass content ended to be less dense but overall clarity improved. I decided this way because this project included many tracks fighting with each other considering spectrum layering. The most important goal was reaching a good separation between different components.

Sometimes the best 'balancer' monitors are not pretty. I'd dare to say that my all-time fav mix tool Yamaha NS10 sounds ugly. Its power is its functionality: if you can make a clean mix on these, it will keep its clarity during most of listening environments.

 

[Artie]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

Thanks for all the good info guys. I think I'm going to hold back for awhile and do this right, with trying to actually listen to some of these. I've got a pretty good selection of passive monitors and good amps, so there's no rush.

That Presonus Eris looks interesting. Especially at that price point. I can afford to go more, but don't need to if I find something good for less. Also, as I was typing this, I remembered that I have a brand new, unused set of Definitive Technology Studio 450's sitting in storage. I need to bring those back out.

Sometimes the best 'balancer' monitors are not pretty. I'd dare to say that my all-time fav mix tool Yamaha NS10 sounds ugly. Its power is its functionality: if you can make a clean mix on these, it will keep its clarity during most of listening environments.

It's funny how many times I've heard that. That is, that those old NS10's are great monitors, even though they suck.

Nice mix on that track, btw.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

The hard thing I learned about speakers in storage, and just plain over time, is that the glues, cone surrounds, and various components age in a bad way. Even if they were great speakers new, over time they will have to be refurbished or replaced completely.

 

[Artie]

Re: What are your thoughts on active small monitors?

When I say "storage", I mean sitting in our air-conditioned living-room entertainment center, unconnected. They're fine.