Active Studio Monitors

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
My stepson has asked for some for christmas but i't's an area i've never looked at before. Certainly not at this low price point (Around £150)

Anyone have any suggestions? I've seen the Mackie CR4's which seem to get decent reviews, and Mackie are generally know as quite OTT bassy which he seems to like

He mostly listens to electronic music.

Cheers
 
Are Mackie known for OTT bass? That would go against what studio monitors are designed for I would have thought; neutral sound. Some are known for it more than others, KRK in particular; but you're looking at maybe £240+ for those.

Mackie's cheaper CR range have a few too many cut corners in my opinion. 47 one star user reviews from 234 on the jungle site, is a few too many. They wouldn't get my money. If I had £150 to spend on a pair of studio monitors, my pick would be Presonus Eris 4.5.
 
It's not a great budget for studio monitors over a small amp and a set of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s IMO.

Under £200 is generally dominated by smaller budget studio monitors, the M-Audio BX5 D2 and the JBL LSR305 being the solid contenders. But you're going to be limited on the bass extension, probably not what you want if it's electronic music that's favoured.
 
Cheers

I agree completely and a set of speakers and an old Sony amp is what he currently has and what i recommended changing. But for some reason he wants some active monitors.
 
I was looking into them cr4 as there cheap but most of the reviews say they stop working in a couple months. So I’d avoid them.
 
Marsman said:
If I had £150 to spend on a pair of studio monitors, my pick would be Presonus Eris 4.5.
Click to expand...
I've just found this review...


Interesting at 13m28s he starts to discuss channel inbalance at low volumes... I'm starting to favour the BX5-D3, bi-amp'd I guess meaning there's less of a chance of this occurring? Better overall maybe? Or maybe I wouldn't notice with powering them from a Magni 3 and so using this to change volume.
 
Interesting. I don't think I've seen this mentioned before. He seems to suggest it happens at 50% or less. That's really quite high for channel imbalance to still be heard; which is usually the first few %. If it's noticed anywhere up to 50%, something not right is going on. Either a fault or quirk with the pair in the video, or maybe something else causing it. If it were a more common inherent issue with these particular speakers then surely it would be borne out in the user reviews? Specifically on sites that sell studio equipment, where buyers are likely to be more critical when they are buying these for music creation/mixing.

None the less, spending more does get you a better quality studio monitor; so if you or anyone can afford the extra though and go for a £200+ pair, whether it be the M Audio BX5 D3, JBL LS305, or similar, then it's worth doing.

These are still a good option though for those wanting to spend around £150 and don't want to stretch to £200+. For me personally, this video would not put me off, because of the user comments and reviews I've seen, I've yet to see anyone else mention this. Unless of course, I've just not looked hard enough. :p
 
Marsman said:
Are Mackie known for OTT bass? That would go against what studio monitors are designed for I would have thought; neutral sound. Some are known for it more than others, KRK in particular; but you're looking at maybe £240+ for those.

Mackie's cheaper CR range have a few too many cut corners in my opinion. 47 one star user reviews from 234 on the jungle site, is a few too many. They wouldn't get my money. If I had £150 to spend on a pair of studio monitors, my pick would be Presonus Eris 4.5.
Click to expand...

I second this recommendation, as I have had the Eris 4.5 since April 2015, and quite like them. They sound very good for the money. For significantly better sound without significantly more cost, look for a deal on a pair of JBL LSR 305 monitors, which are renowned for their excellent price/performance ratio. They also have a horn mounted tweeter which is fantastic.

Check out Z Reviews' video on them on youtube. He lauded them. I would love to have a pair. The Eris 4.5 come with everything you need in the box, while you will need a 3.5mm to 6.3mm TRS stereo to dual mono breakout cable (maybe 10-15 squid on the forest) to run the 305's.

On a side note Presonus now has an Eris 3.5. They are very very cheap. Do they sound as good as the 4.5? I seriously doubt it. But they exist, and they're cheap.

BTW if you have a spare single length of half decent speaker wire I would use that for the 4.5's as the speaker cable they come with is about as gutter quality as is possible while still being a wire. It's like 26 gauge. Terrible terrible garbage.

davidmt83 said:
I've just found this review...


Interesting at 13m28s he starts to discuss channel inbalance at low volumes... I'm starting to favour the BX5-D3, bi-amp'd I guess meaning there's less of a chance of this occurring? Better overall maybe? Or maybe I wouldn't notice with powering them from a Magni 3 and so using this to change volume.
Click to expand...

I have not noticed any imbalance on my 4.5's...
 
Cheers both.

Marsman said:
None the less, spending more does get you a better quality studio monitor; so if you or anyone can afford the extra though and go for a £200+ pair, whether it be the M Audio BX5 D3, JBL LS305, or similar, then it's worth doing.
Click to expand...
Maybe a silly question but how do you match the volume on 2 separate bi-amp speakers? Other than just by ear? I guess play white noise and use your phone to match decibel levels?
 
Yeah, I see playing something like a 1kHz tone and using a SPL app recommended quite a few times. Probably the easiest best way and likely more accurate than doing it by ear! :p
 
Thanks guys. He’s decided to put some towards them so think those M-Audio ones are probably the way forward :)

This may sound daft but it looks like I can buy 2 single speakers on Amazon cheaper than a pair. I have speaker cable anyway but is it best going with a pair?
 
Last edited:
Makes no difference. Most studio monitor speakers are sold individually so it's easier to replace one, or add another if need be, rather than having to buy a pair. Some studios use multiple monitor setups.

They don't use speaker cable, unless you're thinking of audio connect cables. You'd only need speaker cable if you had one active and one passive speaker, such as the Presonus E4.5, or M Audio's cheaper AV range.
 
Ah yeah that’s what I thought. There’s be one master and one slave connected to it. But maybe that’s because I was looking at cheaper ones initially.
 
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