Help me replace my ancient studio monitors!

You just have to try them. Also, you didn't mention a budget, just size. Or what your room is like, or what kinds of sounds you like, how how loud you play. All the spec sheets have dimensions.

IMHO, pick your budget, see what's available, and then get a few sets that you think you'll like from somewhere with a good return policy and see what actually works for you. That's what I did, and there's no way I would have bought these speakers if I wasn't just throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what stuck. I wound up with mid-range HiFi speakers from a small company that most people write off.

As for subwoofers....I think they're necessary, but I'm sure people are sick of me saying that by now. I resisted for years until I actually tried it. The good home theater guys understand low-end better than the home studio guys...you can say it's different, but it's just physics. They do take some effort to set up, and you can't just stick a sub where it looks good or is out of the way. If that's what you're going to do, it's better to do without and tune your low-end with something like Tonal Balance Control (and generate the target curve based on isolated guitar tracks).
 
neumann kh80+neumann kh750 subwoofer. Get also the neumann Ma-1 measuring mic and let the KH 750 dsp fix your rooms frequency response, phasing, stereo image etc. It works as intended and if you fix also the decay time in your room with some acoustic panels, you will have commercial grade listening, mixing environment. But yes, it comes with price tag...

note: you could get also digital version of KH80, and it can do the dsp correction without needing the subwoofer. Though the sub adds alot in a goodway (if you room is kinda the right size and not super small)
 
The KRK VXT 6 and the A7X, are the better of what I have experience with. The VXT6s sound beautiful - more musical - though less critical - especially towards the top-end than do the A7Xs. But, if you gotsta have all that detail, then a well dialed-in (and broken-in) A7X will better get the job done (IMO).

I have a set of T7Vs too, they're here in my office actually; along with a pair of the iLoud MTMs. But, for recording use, though the MTMs are the better of the two (to my ears), neither hold a candle to the VXTs and A7Xs.

As others have said: the room plays a big difference. So, it's worth considering room, and speaker placement when it comes to getting the best monitor to fill your space.
 
I know these aren't terrible popular here, but I've been running M-Audio Bx5s for over a decade and they sound stellar to me. The Bx8s also sound amazing. If you have a Guitar Center near you, they generally have a room with a bunch of different monitors for you to listen to. Sound is so intensely personal, it's really worth listening with your own ears.
 
I have Adam A7X WITH a sub (also Adam) the sub works great and I would recommend this set up, the sub has a dial for frequency and a dial for db so you you can play around with how much work you want the sub to do. Unplugging the sub sounds anemic to me now…. Also before the Adams I had the KRK VXT 8, and they had too much low end which could not be dialed out. The KRK’s had a frequency roll of SWITCH on the back which to my ear either didnt cut enough or cut too much…. So I sold them.
 
Sorry didn't read this whole thread again, but do any of you have an Adam Audio Sub8 with your A7x's? I just purchased one. I know the 10 is supposed to be the perfect match, but I am in a very small room and I think the 8 will be perfect. Thanks!
 
neumann kh80+neumann kh750 subwoofer. Get also the neumann Ma-1 measuring mic and let the KH 750 dsp fix your rooms frequency response, phasing, stereo image etc. It works as intended and if you fix also the decay time in your room with some acoustic panels, you will have commercial grade listening, mixing environment. But yes, it comes with price tag...

note: you could get also digital version of KH80, and it can do the dsp correction without needing the subwoofer. Though the sub adds alot in a goodway (if you room is kinda the right size and not super small)
I made this comment in today's other monitor thread... The DSP can help, but really for only one location in the room, right? Understanding what is happening to sound in your room can really help you tune things with speaker and listener placement. Have your head 50% the distance between any two parallel surfaces? Probably not good for listening... Tangential and oblique modes are a hoot, and any asymmetry in your room will make crazy things happen...

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Mapping out room nodes and anti-nodes is a good step to understanding why you hear what you do in your small and/or untreated room. For all you know, you could have your head in a 100Hz vacuum or a 90Hz resonance. Unless you have non-parallel surfaces, bass traps, etc. you'll have these locations.

https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc
 
I made this comment in today's other monitor thread... The DSP can help, but really for only one location in the room, right? Understanding what is happening to sound in your room can really help you tune things with speaker and listener placement. Have your head 50% the distance between any two parallel surfaces? Probably not good for listening... Tangential and oblique modes are a hoot, and any asymmetry in your room will make crazy things happen...

###

Mapping out room nodes and anti-nodes is a good step to understanding why you hear what you do in your small and/or untreated room. For all you know, you could have your head in a 100Hz vacuum or a 90Hz resonance. Unless you have non-parallel surfaces, bass traps, etc. you'll have these locations.

https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc
I don’t think he has the intention of builing a commercial grade RECORDING studio. Things you wrote are not wrong but is overkill for most people’s purposes. A sweetspot where you can hear things as you should is good enough to tweak axe, mix, listen music etc, isn’t it?

Even my suggestion is expensive and way more than most would need. It gets you close studio standards. With some treatment you get actually right up there.
 
I don’t think he has the intention of builing a commercial grade RECORDING studio. Things you wrote are not wrong but is overkill for most people’s purposes. A sweetspot where you can hear things as you should is good enough to tweak axe, mix, listen music etc, isn’t it?

Even my suggestion is expensive and way more than most would need. It gets you close studio standards. With some treatment you get actually right up there.
You can do wonders in mapping out a room with sine waves, a microphone and sticky notes. My suggestion is to do the tedious but cheap step of understanding what your room is doing as you set it up to help place things as best you can.

It took me a long time to graduate to a nice room. I had better small room results when I learned what the room was doing to sound and placed things accordingly.

Another fun one, how far are your monitors from the wall? That distance sets up resonances as the rear traveling waves reflect off the wall and head back at you. You can tune the unavoidable notches by playing with that distance. Until you can sink your monitors into the wall for an "infinite baffle".
 
I don’t think he has the intention of builing a commercial grade RECORDING studio. Things you wrote are not wrong but is overkill for most people’s purposes. A sweetspot where you can hear things as you should is good enough to tweak axe, mix, listen music etc, isn’t it?

Even my suggestion is expensive and way more than most would need. It gets you close studio standards. With some treatment you get actually right up there.
It's all a question of diminishing returns and what you can actually get away with. Each step gets you less than the last one and usually costs more. The difference between a not-terrible room with basic treatment and 2 well-placed subs and a purpose-built room is smaller than you would imagine.

I think it's worth doing just for listening. But, I get that most people won't do it and a lot of others can't. I can't un-hear it, though. I don't even bother paying attention to my living room hifi anymore...and it's B&W and Marantz....so, definitely not terrible. But that room just won't sound good without things that my wife won't let me do. It's loud enough to enjoy movies, and that's all she cares about.

Or....you can just not worry about it. But, you will probably have 40dB swings in low-end response and a reverb time measured in seconds. At which point, I honestly think half-decent in-ears are a better experience. Especially if you're doing things like tweaking your guitar tone that, theoretically, matters to you.
 
What kind of room dimensions, and do you have any acoustic treatment? I have Adam A5Xs in my relatively small, but well acoustically treated home studio control/listening room, and they work really well in there for anything down to about 80 Hz. I did consider A7Xs, but now kind of glad I didn't, because the bottom end is perfectly under control, and I'd need to filter the bottom end of A7s. I'm going to get at least one sub to take care of the missing very low frequencies, but for most of what I listen to or mix (rock, blues, indie, alternative) there's nothing I can't hear/feel in the mix.

Like @fractalz and @marsonic say, the speakers are playing the room, so it's really worth considering that when choosing speakers. In my small-medium size live room I have a pair of ART 732-A Mk4. I chose them because I wanted speakers I can use as PA for playing out with a band in small-medium venues, even in medium-large venues with a sub or 2. They are overkill in a 4m x 5.5m room, and I have to work on EQ to control the bottom end when using them for playback or rehearsal. I am sure they will be amazing in a bigger room, but had I been choosing for the sole purpose of playback and vocal/general PA in the live room, they wouldn't have made the top 3 choices.

Liam

@marsonic "But that room just won't sound good without things that my wife won't let me do. It's loud enough to enjoy movies, and that's all she cares about."
P.S. I am sure my wife actively seeks worse listening experiences. I have a pair of perfectly good speaker stands that are too inconvenient to have in any living space in the house, as are the Mission hi-fi speakers that should be sitting on them. Instead of that we have "kind of OK" Tannoy bookshelf speakers that are cunningly placed to avoid stereo separation, or general listening pleasure for that matter. 23 years later I'm resigned to it, and still married. ;)
 
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P.S. I am sure my wife actively seeks worse listening experiences. I have a pair of perfectly good speaker stands that are too inconvenient to have in any living space in the house, as are the Mission hi-fi speakers that should be sitting on them. Instead of that we have "kind of OK" Tannoy bookshelf speakers that are cunningly placed to avoid stereo separation, or general listening pleasure for that matter. 23 years later I'm resigned to it, and still married. ;)
Sounds familiar. Stuff kinda comes from the sides in the living room. But, it doesn't come from specific spots on the "stage" like it does in my room. Instruments or parts are missing or buried. Dialog is harder to understand. Etc..

Whenever it's time for my next speaker upgrade, I'll talk to her about using these in the living room. But, it'll be a while. I have apparently eschewed most of the upgrade path most people follow to make ~5x price jumps instead. It's going to be a while until I can justify the next one. The last jump was also years coming, and it was the upgrades to the room that made me realize how much I needed it.

That was a bit of a process. But, I guess I'm not normal. GiK's input literally helped us decide which house to buy, and I think I spent 2 months auditioning speakers. I kind of don't look forward to that again (though my short list is shorter for the "next step").
 
You can do wonders in mapping out a room with sine waves, a microphone and sticky notes. My suggestion is to do the tedious but cheap step of understanding what your room is doing as you set it up to help place things as best you can.

It took me a long time to graduate to a nice room. I had better small room results when I learned what the room was doing to sound and placed things accordingly.

Another fun one, how far are your monitors from the wall? That distance sets up resonances as the rear traveling waves reflect off the wall and head back at you. You can tune the unavoidable notches by playing with that distance. Until you can sink your monitors into the wall for an "infinite baffle".
this is my 7th or 8th studio and the last 3, i always measured with REW and placed my panels accordingly. ;);)
 
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