Best studio monitors (2) in the $900 range for home playing

I'm a home player who likes to play loud occasionally also.

I've tried everything from cheap to expensive active studio monitors and PA speakers including the QSC HRP122i and settled on a pair of M-Audio BX8a's for $400.00 tax included from GC - brand new. I've had them for 6 months now and am very pleased with their price for performance. Big tight low end, focussed mids, and smooth highs, and they're plenty loud for home playing (130W). The QSC-HPR 122i PA speaker was very good but I found the top end a little harsh and just couldn't justify the price. Save some dough and check the M-Audio's out.

I'm still searching for a single PA speaker at a reasonable price and think I will try the Mackie SM450 V2 next.
 
Tonechaser,

Have you compared the M-Audio BX8a's to any other nearfields? Particularly the Dynaudio BM5a's? From what I keep reading you get what you pay for with respect to monitors. It would be great if the M-Audio BX8a's were in the same ballpark as the Dynaudio's!! They are about 1/2 the price. Anybody have experience with both??
 
I wasn't going to say anything to badmouth the M-Audios, but I had the BX-8's (predecessors to the BX-8As) for 3 years before getting the Dynaudio BM5a's. The only thing I can say in favor of the M-Audios is that they had more bass (larger woofer). However, in a critical-listening context, this was actually a minus, as the additional bass on the BX-8's weren't accurate, and the midrange and highs were much less detailed and clear. For mixing purposes, the Dynaudios are much, much better, both in accuracy and clarity: I can hear new things through those in mixes that I was extremely familiar with.

Another factor is reliability. One of the M-Audios developed a slight buzz that could be heard all the time, even with no input signal. Sending it in for warranty repair didn't fix the problem. The Dynaudios have been trouble-free for two years.

There's a reason the M-Audios are cheaper.
 
SGB: Yep. They didn't sound $4-500 better to me - they sounded similar. The M-Audio's are very underated IMHO.

FYI - I A/B'd an M-Audio BX8a studio monitor on one side and a QSC HPR 122i PA speaker on the other for about 4 hours with my Ultra running through numerous patches (clean to very high gain) and it was close but the M-Audio sounded better and projected more natural bottom end and smooth highs in my listening enviroment (20'X20' studio). I know this isn't an apples to apples comparison but I was thinking of buying 2 QSC's instead of monitors but just could not justify the price for performance for use with my AXE.

However, the QSCs are the best I have heard so far for playback of recorded music (iPod through Mackie mixer). Very loud, clear, balanced, with no audible distortion or break-up what so ever at very loud volume testing.
 
I'm really leaning towards the Dynaudio BM5a's! I'm a complete noob to active monitors so what would be a good way to be able to play cd's, mp3's thru them? Especially while breaking them in before I run my Axe thru them?
 
sgb said:
Tonechaser,

Have you compared the M-Audio BX8a's to any other nearfields? Particularly the Dynaudio BM5a's? From what I keep reading you get what you pay for with respect to monitors. It would be great if the M-Audio BX8a's were in the same ballpark as the Dynaudio's!! They are about 1/2 the price. Anybody have experience with both??
Click to expand...

I have had both, BX8s and now I just picked up a pair of Dynaudio BM5a. Just for the record i also had a pair of A7's

The BX8's are ok for the money but found them to a bit brittle sounding. Full bass response was cool but the highs were very hard on your brain. You have to cut them quite a bit and even then it wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. But for that kind of money I didn't expect them to be perfect.
The A7's were great, once you rolled off the HF they sounded fantastic. The woofer is a little smaller than the Dynaudio BM5a so the bass response suffered a little. Not much but you could hear the difference.
The Dynaudio sounded the best for this application. I am very pleased with them so far.
 
Just bought a pair of the Dynaudio BM5a's that I'm breaking in with the mp3 player now. I'll let everybody know how I like the Axe through them whem I'm done breaking in the bad boys. Can already tell that the sound quality of them is fantastic! :D
 
sgb said:
Just bought a pair of the Dynaudio BM5a's that I'm breaking in with the mp3 player now. I'll let everybody know how I like the Axe through them whem I'm done breaking in the bad boys. Can already tell that the sound quality of them is fantastic! :D
Click to expand...
I'm currently using bm5a's with the Axe. So far they sound great. I'm not sure if it's the monitors or the Axe-Fx, but I can't seem to get a good open thick bassy oomf-thump that I could get with a Muff and guitar cabinets (low volumes too). However it's worth noting that I've only had the Axe and monitors for a few days, and haven't had time to experiment in-depth with everything (obviously). Hopefully monitors and/or the bm5a's are capable of this and I don't have to buy a sub..
 
hp/mp said:
sgb said:
Just bought a pair of the Dynaudio BM5a's that I'm breaking in with the mp3 player now. I'll let everybody know how I like the Axe through them whem I'm done breaking in the bad boys. Can already tell that the sound quality of them is fantastic! :D
Click to expand...
I'm currently using bm5a's with the Axe. So far they sound great. I'm not sure if it's the monitors or the Axe-Fx, but I can't seem to get a good open thick bassy oomf-thump that I could get with a Muff and guitar cabinets (low volumes too). However it's worth noting that I've only had the Axe and monitors for a few days, and haven't had time to experiment in-depth with everything (obviously). Hopefully monitors and/or the bm5a's are capable of this and I don't have to buy a sub..
Click to expand...

hp/mp,

Glad to hear that your using the BM5a's! That makes 3 of us that I know of that are going to be using them. You, me, and Shredi Knight. Hopefully we can all help each other out so we can get the most out of the Axe-Dyn combo. You should PM Shredi for help with the oomph! He is a MASTER at dialing in the Axe-Fx!!! Particularly with Mesa/Petrucci tones!!
 
sgb said:
hp/mp said:
sgb said:
Just bought a pair of the Dynaudio BM5a's that I'm breaking in with the mp3 player now. I'll let everybody know how I like the Axe through them whem I'm done breaking in the bad boys. Can already tell that the sound quality of them is fantastic! :D
Click to expand...
I'm currently using bm5a's with the Axe. So far they sound great. I'm not sure if it's the monitors or the Axe-Fx, but I can't seem to get a good open thick bassy oomf-thump that I could get with a Muff and guitar cabinets (low volumes too). However it's worth noting that I've only had the Axe and monitors for a few days, and haven't had time to experiment in-depth with everything (obviously). Hopefully monitors and/or the bm5a's are capable of this and I don't have to buy a sub..
Click to expand...

hp/mp,

Glad to hear that your using the BM5a's! That makes 3 of us that I know of that are going to be using them. You, me, and Shredi Knight. Hopefully we can all help each other out so we can get the most out of the Axe-Dyn combo. You should PM Shredi for help with the oomph! He is a MASTER at dialing in the Axe-Fx!!! Particularly with Mesa/Petrucci tones!!
Click to expand...


Maybe a "MASTER" at only dialing in Mesa/Petrucci tones, but that's all. :lol:

Don't forget about SeasonOfPain as another BM5A user. He's the one that put them on my radar (in this very thread no less) to begin with.

How are you liking them sgb? Have you played the Axe FX through them yet?

For the "oomph!", I get plenty of it with the BM5As at even the lowest volumes. I would experiment with turning up the Deep control on the second page of the amp block, it's one of my favorite controls. For high gain tones, I always but a Drive block (the overdrive types - Full OD, T808 OD, & T808 Mod being my favorites) before the Amp block, with drive at 0 and level full. This tightens the amp up a lot and give it a more focused punch. You can experiment with the Drive blocks Low Cut control to add or subtract the level of bass that's hitting the Amp block. You can also add more low end with the LF control on the back of the BM5A itself, but I personally like to set all those controls flat and let the Axe FX do all the work.
 
It's hard for me to make recommendations for tweaking patches designed for playing the Axe solo; I actually tweak my patches to use in a band mix (either live or for recording), where you don't want to leave open space in the lower registers for the other instruments. You'd definitely get more oomph from a subwoofer, but then you'd likely lose some of the midrange clarity that the BM5As get you (which can be very useful when fine-tuning some of the more nuanced parameters).

I'd recommend listening to a lot of CDs through the monitors first (this will help break them in, too), so you get used to how they sound, then start tweaking your patches to blend in with other mixes.
 
Shredi,
I'm LOVING the Dyn's! I have a couple of questions though. When I turn on the cab sims I'm getting a lot of clipping on output 1. Not hearing it as much as seeing the clip light come on. Did you have this problem? Where do you have your input and output knobs set? How are you controling the volume between your patches? Are you using stock cabs or user IR's? If so which ones? Thank You Master Shredi! Lol!
 
White Lines Audio, Model K's are making my mixes easy and translating perfectly. I can hear the fundamental again! Sorry Genelec and Adams... :D
 
Why not run into your guitar cabinet (output 2 bypassing cabs) and direct into your recording setup at the same time? Best of both worlds.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Adam P11As yet. That's what I would check out.
 
freddieBOOM said:
White Lines Audio, Model K's are making my mixes easy and translating perfectly. I can hear the fundamental again! Sorry Genelec and Adams... :D
Click to expand...

$2400 / pair.

Next?
 
I've used Dynaudio's BM5As in my studio for about 2 years with AxeFX - Couldn't be happier, also killer for mixing purposes.
 
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