Cheap vs expensive monitors - big difference, or over-hyped?

C

cleanplanets

Member
Hey guys,

waiting on my fm3 to arrive, and now thinking about my monitors. I do hear a lot of people say quality monitors make a big difference, but you also hear that people get on just fine with cheapy's too.

so what's the real deal when it comes to guitar sounds? worth spending the money?

As it stands right now I have some 7-10 year old low end 8" Behringer monitors. there good and loud sure, but dont really know speaker / tweeter condition etc.

I want to make sure I get the full fractal sound / feel experience and would love your guys opinions.

Seems many like the JBL 308P as a budget option, and then the HS8 is you want to step your game up - big difference, or not really?


the JBL 308P would probably be pretty similar in terms of quality to what I already have.

thanks for any advice.
 
At home I use the Presonus Scepter S8s that are connected to my mixer. Live I use a CLR Neo Mk II or an RCF NX12SMA. All sound great with the Axe FX, none are particularly low cost. But if you are looking for home monitors, I can say the Scepters are a hard speaker to beat in the price vs performance category. The lower cost Eris speakers also sounded good to me, though I only have a little time on those.

As Cliff says, this is an area where you do price and performance do rise together.
 
I dont agree with cliff because before the monitor (house speakers) obviously should be of good quality but most important is the studio around.. You could buy super high price monitrs but if the studio is small unthreated also the best bigger monitor could not fit the room acoustic characteristics.
 
+1 to set a budget and go.

if you share your budget, you'll get more targeted suggestions.

only other advice is to try to find independent measurements of frequency response. Not everyone prints the +/- 3dB response. Some are just measuring if it is vibrating at all...
 
fractalz said:
+1 to set a budget and go.

if you share your budget, you'll get more targeted suggestions.

only other advice is to try to find independent measurements of frequency response. Not everyone prints the +/- 3dB response. Some are just measuring if it is vibrating at all...
Click to expand...

I was considering the latter...do you mean finding the frequency range and response parameters of ones headphones (or current monitorinf Device) and comparing it to the desired products specs?
I find some places give more info about range and response than others
 
cleanplanets said:
Hey guys,

waiting on my fm3 to arrive, and now thinking about my monitors. I do hear a lot of people say quality monitors make a big difference, but you also hear that people get on just fine with cheapy's too.

so what's the real deal when it comes to guitar sounds? worth spending the money?

As it stands right now I have some 7-10 year old low end 8" Behringer monitors. there good and loud sure, but dont really know speaker / tweeter condition etc.

I want to make sure I get the full fractal sound / feel experience and would love your guys opinions.

Seems many like the JBL 308P as a budget option, and then the HS8 is you want to step your game up - big difference, or not really?


the JBL 308P would probably be pretty similar in terms of quality to what I already have.

thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...
Are you referring to the B2031A? I mixed a lot of material years ago on a set of those and while not top of the line, they are decent.
Since you have them, I would suggest trying the FM3 thru them and see what you think.
If they are not damaged and you don't play at max volume, you might find they work just fine.
You can always get others.
Also, as mentioned treating your space with acoustic panels will help a lot.
You can DIY pretty inexpensively using these plans.
 
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I'm a cheap butt! I started off with relatively inexpensive monitors and wasn't very happy. I then bought a RCF NX12SMA and was much happier. After reading Scott Petersons glowing review of the Atomic CLR I bought one and my sound was much better. The RCF was good, but a little fatiguing in the upper end. I can listen to the CLR all day long...it sounds much more balanced to me. If you keep your eyes open you can get a CLR for 25% - 50% off new prices quite often on the used market. They are worth EVERY penny even at full retail.
 
RLD said:
Are you referring to the B2031A? I mixed a lot of material years ago on a set of those and while not top of the line, they are decent.
Since you have them, I would suggest trying the FM3 thru them and see what you think.
If they are not damaged and you don't play at max volume, you might find they work just fine.
You can always get others.
Also, as mentioned treating your space with acoustic panels will help a lot.
You can DIY pretty inexpensively using these plans.
Click to expand...


No, the ones I have are the B1031A's ... I think the are older then the B2031A?
 
Hi Cleanplanets
Spend as much as you can. If you get really good monitors, they could stay with you for decades. It really makes a difference and affects the enjoyment you get from your music.
Thanks
Pauly

cleanplanets said:
Hey guys,

waiting on my fm3 to arrive, and now thinking about my monitors. I do hear a lot of people say quality monitors make a big difference, but you also hear that people get on just fine with cheapy's too.

so what's the real deal when it comes to guitar sounds? worth spending the money?

As it stands right now I have some 7-10 year old low end 8" Behringer monitors. there good and loud sure, but dont really know speaker / tweeter condition etc.

I want to make sure I get the full fractal sound / feel experience and would love your guys opinions.

Seems many like the JBL 308P as a budget option, and then the HS8 is you want to step your game up - big difference, or not really?


the JBL 308P would probably be pretty similar in terms of quality to what I already have.

thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...
 
I’d recommend getting reference 4 with mic and use it with decent monitors. Currently using the with budget presonus Eris 3.5 and couldn’t be happier.
 
I've used a pair of Behringer B2030A monitors for creating presets, recording and practicing for over 10 years and never really found anything wrong with them. They were a cheap option when one of my Event TR8's blew up but they sounded so good, I never really thought about replacing them.

A couple of years ago I tried the Adam T7v but couldn't get past a fizzy high end on clean tones. Seems to be an anomaly since most everyone loves them but I returned them nonetheless. A friend of mine has Focal Twins and I was impressed with them so I started looking into Focal. The Twins were well over my budget so I ended up with a pair of Focal Alpha 65's. I didn't expect a huge difference given the price point but there is a very noticeable difference in the clarity and stereo image versus the Behringers.

The Yamaha HS series are good as well, we've mixed some recordings on the HS8 with decent results. I personally didn't like the high end on them, after a couple of hours my ears were saturated mixing @ 70dB. I never experienced this type of fatigue with the Behringers.

You do get what you pay for but there are some relatively inexpensive options available. It may take going through a couple of models to find what you're looking for but there's really no getting around using monitors in your space to find what you need.
 
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You should consider upgrading from those old Behringer 8s. There is plenty of talk about good FRFR (full range flat response) powered speakers on this forum. Lots of glowing reviews of the Xitones, Friedman and Atomic CLRs, which will cost you $500 - 1000 new. I've got two Atomic CLR wedges and love them. It's not just the component quality - their coaxial tweeter design is very good at imaging a guitar cab speaker.

Good quality is also important if you're gigging. If you rehearse and play at home with the cheap speakers, you'll be tweaking the EQ and presets to get a good sound that won't translate well if you're going through a good PA at the gig. You'll end up wanting different presets for home and the gig.
 
Depends on many things. Room, ears etc...

I have a pair of cheap Headrush 108's and they sound good to me (with a slight low cut on the EQ). Had a Yamaha DXR10 before and it sounded pretty good also. Plenty of good inexpensive options out there for speakers imo
 
Checkout the Presonus Sceptre S6/S8 - I have the Atomic CLRs as well. It'll be a revelation how transparent both of these options are.
 
dsimms said:
You should consider upgrading from those old Behringer 8s. There is plenty of talk about good FRFR (full range flat response) powered speakers on this forum. Lots of glowing reviews of the Xitones, Friedman and Atomic CLRs, which will cost you $500 - 1000 new. I've got two Atomic CLR wedges and love them. It's not just the component quality - their coaxial tweeter design is very good at imaging a guitar cab speaker.

Good quality is also important if you're gigging. If you rehearse and play at home with the cheap speakers, you'll be tweaking the EQ and presets to get a good sound that won't translate well if you're going through a good PA at the gig. You'll end up wanting different presets for home and the gig.
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While true to a certain extent, the Behringers are actually pretty good for 'cheap' monitors. Presets I create at home have translated well to any venue I've played, the only adjustment ever needed was a bit more low cut.

Most studio monitors are actually FRFR monitors known as nearfield monitors (listener @ 3-4 feet from monitors), great for most rooms in a house. A lot of the FRFR monitors and CLRs recommended for guitar modelers are more midfield monitors and will sound similar to studio monitors with more volume for stages or small clubs. The bottom line is, a lot has to do with where the monitors are going to be used.
 
Owned a few over the years. The KRK first gen Rokits 5 and 6s (which I didn’t really get along with sound-wise) and the KRK VXT6s which I, to this day, think are really nice. The iloud Micros and MTMs, not horrible at all for small setups.

The Adams got rave reviews here, I bought some T7Vs, Nice, but a bit flubby; then the A7Xs, these pretty-much need tuning and breaking in as those tweeters are a-little on the glassy-end out of the box, but, great for mixing on. Just for listening, I do like the cheaper KRK VXT6s better.

I’m currently running the MTMs and AX7s, but the VXT6s - to my ears, are just as good, but for different reasons.

The Headrush cabinets - for as cheap as they are, can sound really nice if you EQ them properly. I’m not talking tripping the contour switches - actually running an eq block on the output signal specifically tailored for those speakers. You can easily remove the boomy low end very easily and very-quickly get a quite accurate reproduction from them. Kinda stumbled on them looking for a cheap speaker - for the money, they sound great.

Are there better out there? Yup!

Is all-this a matter of opinion. Yup! And this be mine. :0) ..You can overpay for quality though. So definitely do your homework.
 
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