Good budget studio monitors for Fm9 editing?+

Any pair will do. Just know their strengths and weaknesses and use a 16 band eq with them if needed.
 
MikeBrooklyn said:
How so?
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Room treatment ensures that unchanged direct signal from the speakers reaches the ears earlier and much louder than any reflections. The goal is to have an unaltered signal "as is" and let the ear be the judge to make correct decisions. Main idea: unchanged signal true to the source.

Room correction changes the signal from the start by applying EQ to suppress certain frequencies (almost always in the bass department) to allow other frequencies be heard and/or make some other frequencies louder. It changes the signal significantly by applying many cuts, and by doing that already introduces issues, especially with the phase.
The result might seem similar but it's very different. Try comparing true single coils to a "single coil made out of humbucker with EQ" - same thing basically, EQ'ed HB will sound phasey.

Correction is not an alternative to treatment, it should be applied as minimal as possible to fix the remaining issues which treatment failed to fix due to cost/space/speaker/room size considerations.
 
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MikeBrooklyn said:
How so?
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Chromatizm got some of it, and I'm not at all against corrective EQ. I think it can be great. But it's not quite the same thing.

In very real ways, room treatment makes the room act like it's bigger by reducing the reflections that you hear. Some of that does help "fix" the frequency response by reducing comb filtering. It also lets you use bigger speakers (and place them farther away, which big speakers require) while you're still essentially listening as if they were nearfields, meaning that they dominate the sound rather than their echos. Room correction doesn't do that. There are also other things going on in rooms like flutter echo and ringing that EQ can't really address.

But...if your speakers don't create the frequency response you want, you can't fix it with room treatment.

If you're in a relatively small room (like most of us) and want accurate sub-bass...you physically cannot fit enough treatment in the room to completely even it out. And room correction, generally, can't EQ aggressively enough to even it out either...which is why a lot of people have been experimenting with using multi-subwoofer arrays (in specific locations) as part of the strategy.

The rooms that most of us work/play in are acoustically pretty small and complex...which brings in a LOT of challenges if you actually want accurate sound. And, unfortunately, no single method works to fix all of them.

I kind of got obsessed with it (though I don't just play guitar in here). I had GiK consult on designing the room when we had our basement finished. I also have a few thousand dollars worth of treatments in here. And a pair of subwoofers despite the fact that my towers would go down to like 34 Hz on their own without the XO. And I use room correction. None of those things alone "finish" the sound I wanted.

I'm also not saying the iLouds are bad (or GLM, DiracLive, Trinnov, Sonarworks, etc.). It's just that those things alone are not a panacea.
 
I have a pair of Yamaha’s HS7 and JBL 305P MKII at home. I prefer HS7, but for the budget, I don’t know if in the price range of 305P mkII is there something better. They are pretty damn good.
 
JoKeR III said:
I wouldn't go smaller than 6.5" monitors unless you're going to use a subwoofer. I agree with those who say get the best you can with what you have to spend, but I would buy whichever monitor you choose as a pair. I understand budget constraints but buying something now with the idea of getting the rest in the future usually doesn't pan out for a lot of us.

I can't say enough about the Behringer monitors I recommended earlier. I am not affiliated with Behringer in any way and am not really a fan of the brand. I really had my doubts about buying them but really had no other good options at the time. The 2030A's are very neutral sounding with a lot of power and adjustments to compensate for different rooms and placement. They are inexpensive enough to allow you to get some room treatment should you need it.

When looking to 'upgrade' the Behringers, I had the same budget as you and tried the Adam T7v, Yamaha HS7/8 and JBL 305/308. Bought the Adam T7v's and was disappointed when I got them home, there wasn't a noticeable difference in audio quality between them and the 2030A's. There was also some fizziness in the high end that I couldn't get used to. Unless you're able to double your budget, the Behringers are the clear choice in my experience. It wasn't until I was able to spend around $1000 that I found anything that sounded 'better'. Currently using Focal Alpha 65's.

As I mentioned in my other comment, the Behringers were a cheap solution that turned out to be a great value in the long run. If I am ever in the same situation again, there would be no hesitation in buying another pair.
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So I ended up buying a used pair of what I thought were HS5's from GC but they actually were HS10e's or something like that, I looked it up and they are diff, last years model. Anyways so I eventually bring them back for I thought they were "ok" but figured I could do better for $300+ range. I end up buying a new pair of Adam Audio T7V's at $249 each. I couldn't wait to get home and check them out figuring they'll at least be a lot more powerful compared to the 5 inch Yamaha's. I gotta tell ya, volume and power wise I feel like the smaller Yamaha ones were much much more. I'm still checking out the T7V's, while I think they sound decent, prob def have more lower end than the Yamaha ones, I have my fractal and the volume setting on each speaker at prob 75%, whereas the smaller 5 inch Yamaha ones I don't think I ever went past 50% on either. I have a feeling after I test these out a bit I'm gonna want to spend even a little more $ and return the ones I got today and get at least the 7 inch Yamaha ones, I'd love to get two HS8's but damn, at $400 each.
 
KevLev said:
Do you think picking up a pair of Yamaha HS5's are worth it? I have limited space in a small room playing my FM9, so far I've only used it with headphones, lol. And around $400/$500 is my budget but not sure if I should get a bigger speaker that's cheaper per size, or go with the small Yamaha's one of the de facto standards. TIA
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So I ended up buying a used pair of what I thought were HS5's from GC but they actually were HS10e's or something like that, I looked it up and they are diff, last years model. Anyways so I eventually bring them back for I thought they were "ok" but figured I could do better for $300+ range. I end up buying a new pair of Adam Audio T7V's at $249 each. I couldn't wait to get home and check them out figuring they'll at least be a lot more powerful compared to the 5 inch Yamaha's. I gotta tell ya, volume and power wise I feel like the smaller Yamaha ones were much much more. I'm still checking out the T7V's, while I think they sound decent, prob def have more lower end than the Yamaha ones, I have my fractal and the volume setting on each speaker at prob 75%, whereas the smaller 5 inch Yamaha ones I don't think I ever went past 50% on either. I have a feeling after I test these out a bit I'm gonna want to spend even a little more $ and return the ones I got today and get at least the 7 inch Yamaha ones, I'd love to get two HS8's but damn, at $400 each.
 
Dr_Pepper said:
Just bought a pair of HS8’s second hand for 350. That’s doable.
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Yeah I'd love to find a pair of used HS8's for around $400, that would be great but I'm kinda handcuffed at what GC has available for I'm using their CC for this specific purchase.
 
Javialtonaga said:
For me Yamaha HS5 for small/medium home studio.
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Yeah, the ones I originally bought used "I thought" were Yamaha HS5's, but in actuality they were last years model called HS50M's. The kid at GC is trying to tell me it's the same thing, just last year's model. But when I Googled it right away I saw the search term."HS5's vs. HS50M's" and apparently they are two totally different models. The newer and improved HS5 has better midrange and bottom end. So even though I like the Adam Audio T7V's, they are no where near loud or powerful enough, in fact a lot less in the volume dept compared to the HS50M's I demo'd. And now that I have the T7V's, we'll of course they now have a REAL used pair of white HS5's, so if I decide to return the Adam's maybe I'll just get the pair of white Yamahas.
 
I just bought a pair of JBL 306 used for $230 or so. They are quite impressive.

I had the first gen 305 for several years but they always seemed scooped in the low mids and a bit hyped in the highs. Never sounded great for guitar.

Bought a set of Genelec 8020s and they are flatter and clearer but still wasn’t fun playing guitar through them.

So decided to try the cheap big monitors and was surprised how much more enjoyable they are for guitar. They are fairly flat but laid back in the upper mids instead of forward, which is more forgiving for guitar.

Can’t say they are amazing monitors for mixing and translating but just for playing I like them.
 
KevLev said:
Yeah, the ones I originally bought used "I thought" were Yamaha HS5's, but in actuality they were last years model called HS50M's. The kid at GC is trying to tell me it's the same thing, just last year's model. But when I Googled it right away I saw the search term."HS5's vs. HS50M's" and apparently they are two totally different models. The newer and improved HS5 has better midrange and bottom end. So even though I like the Adam Audio T7V's, they are no where near loud or powerful enough, in fact a lot less in the volume dept compared to the HS50M's I demo'd. And now that I have the T7V's, we'll of course they now have a REAL used pair of white HS5's, so if I decide to return the Adam's maybe I'll just get the pair of white Yamahas.
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I think mine are the old version, with a lot of settings on the rear panel, you can adjust bass, mid, treble and bedroom. If the new ones are even better... I have to check ones :D
 
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Buy something from Adam Audio. They are great monitors in all price ranges. I personally have the S3Hs in my studio, which isn't exactly a budget option :innocent:, but I've heard the lower ranges and they sound really great.
 
Presonus Eris E44, no one talk about them, but the MTM woofer, tweeter, woofer setup is phenomenal for guitar work. And they’re front ported so you can have them pretty close to a wall if you’re tight on space.
 
UPDATE - Well I was going to return the Adam Audio T7V's because as I stated earlier the power and volume weren't really there compared to the smaller Yamaha HS5's I tried out before. But low and behold I was talking to someone on a Fractal Facebook group and he told me to check out my I/O settings in my FM9's general setup. He asked if I had the output level on output #1 on -10 or +4. I never adjusted any of the I/O settings so not sure why, but it was set at -10. So I changed it to +4 and BOOM! The AA T7V's came alive, and the volume and power were suddenly there. They sound freakin awesome now, as I had to turn the level down (had it all the way up on the -10 setting) on the FM9 and also turn each speakers level knobs on the back of them way down as well. So needless to say I don't think I'll be returning the Adam Audio T7V's for they sound great now that the FM9 is set at +4db. One question though, the guy on Facebook told me the best way to achieve the best possible sound is to start with turning the Output 1 knob on the front of the FM9 to its max setting at 100%, then to adjust the level knobs on each speaker accordingly to whatever volume you're comfortable at. Is that what you guys do? I was always under the impression that the best way to do it is to have each side (FM9 output level knob/then each speaker has their own level knob on the back of em) at around 50%, which usually minimizes any distortion, gain clipping, etc. Do any of you set the output #1 knob on the front of the FM9 all the way up to its max setting at 100% then just adjust the volume by adjusting each speakers knobs on the back of them to how loud you want it? He said he achieves his best sound by having the output on FM9 turned all the way up to its max setting and then adjust each speakers level on the back of them accordingly. TIA.
And not sure why originally my I/O setting was on -10, but that means that the 5 inch Yamaha ones I tried originally were pushing out only about half the power on how good they could sound because they were on the lower setting. So now I wonder if I originally tested out the Yamaha HS5's on the +4 setting (instead of -10) if I would've even returned them in the first place. But I'm totally happy now with my T7V's, they are more than powerful and loud enough now and sound just great.
 
If you're dialing in patches for live, you're really best to do so at live volume levels, preferably through the same type of speaker you'll be using live.

Having said that, I find the KRK Rokits "ok" for a very affordable studio monitor.
 
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Greg Ferguson said:
I was going to say this too. Treat the room and make sure to place the speakers correctly, and the sound quality will go way up, no matter what speakers you get.
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I agree but also kind of don't. Decent speakers are still decent speakers....but regardless of application (hi-fi, studio, rehearsal space, etc.), there's a limit to how much it makes sense to spend on speakers for an untreated room.

At the same time, some speakers really start to show their flaws when they're not covered up by a bad room....it's not quite fair to say everything sounds better. The B&Ws in our living room sound fine there for how we use them...which is for TV and movies and sometimes background music when we have people over. But, they were absolutely horrid when I tried them in my studio....very much "not worth using" bad. If they sounded like that in my living room, I would have returned them. But something about the room makes them not bother me.

It's kind of a balance that depends on your priorities and budget.

If you're serious about good sound, IMHO, you get the best results if you figure out the room first and put most of your budget into the room...and then figure out speakers. The "problem" with that scenario is that it feels weird...I spent a good bit more on treatments than I did on speakers & subs....and it was the right decision. It was also kind of a leap of faith.

The "problem" for me is that the "upgrade" that makes sense hasn't really made sense. The next step up for speakers would cost ~$10,000, and it kind of doesn't make sense for me to put that into it without first doing a bit of a construction project to change my ceiling and back wall....and that would be at least a couple days of work and a couple grand in supplies, and the room would be down while I was working. Maybe some time next year.
 
marsonic said:
I agree but also kind of don't. Decent speakers are still decent speakers....but regardless of application (hi-fi, studio, rehearsal space, etc.), there's a limit to how much it makes sense to spend on speakers for an untreated room.

At the same time, some speakers really start to show their flaws when they're not covered up by a bad room....it's not quite fair to say everything sounds better. The B&Ws in our living room sound fine there for how we use them...which is for TV and movies and sometimes background music when we have people over. But, they were absolutely horrid when I tried them in my studio....very much "not worth using" bad. If they sounded like that in my living room, I would have returned them. But something about the room makes them not bother me.

It's kind of a balance that depends on your priorities and budget.

If you're serious about good sound, IMHO, you get the best results if you figure out the room first and put most of your budget into the room...and then figure out speakers. The "problem" with that scenario is that it feels weird...I spent a good bit more on treatments than I did on speakers & subs....and it was the right decision. It was also kind of a leap of faith.

The "problem" for me is that the "upgrade" that makes sense hasn't really made sense. The next step up for speakers would cost ~$10,000, and it kind of doesn't make sense for me to put that into it without first doing a bit of a construction project to change my ceiling and back wall....and that would be at least a couple days of work and a couple grand in supplies, and the room would be down while I was working. Maybe some time next year.
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It’s definitely a balancing act.
 
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