Going to agree pretty strongly here. I used a set of KRK rokit 5 for nearly a decade. I “upgraded” to a set of IK Iloud MTM. While they seem to work better sound wise, a year later I’m having to get my warranty because one speaker decided to stop working. The Rokit I didn’t have any trouble for like 3 years until buzz started seeping in slowly until at like 7-8 years of using them I finally said screw it and started looking for a replacement set.
I guess what I’m saying is things are cheap for a reason, BUT going with the “big” brand might be the best idea. Having problems will be easier to resolve with other people online having them.
If you buy cheap buy what it is proven. Otherwise definitely consider the more serious range of speakers that are more than a grand for a pair.
My argument is not that they're bad....just that they're all about the same level of "good for the money". They're very basic designs and very cheaply made. They're not really any different from random powered hifi speakers except in the marketing. And they are better than speakers at that price were 30 years ago. But, that applies to almost all of them.
They all sound a little different, and I honestly think the whole "these things punch above their weight" or "they're better than they should be at that price" mostly comes from a speaker happening to line up with a person's preferences for sound and how they happen to interact with the person's room.
If you listen to enough sets in the same room with a proper setup....they're definitely not all the same, but there aren't really any stand-outs.
A lot of people saying they like one or another and not just attributing it to preference ends up with less-experienced people thinking that cross-grading is going to make an improvement, when all it does is make a change. So, people
may wind up buying several sets of broadly similar speakers, thinking they're chasing upgrades, when all they're doing is throwing money down the drain. After you do that a few times, you probably could have saved up to make a big jump and actually get substantially better speakers that are more detailed, that actually handle transients well, that play louder without distorting, etc..
You absolutely do not have to buy a $50,000 set of PMCs or ATCs to get good monitoring at home, and diminishing returns kicks in
well before you get to that level. The only really interesting things I've seen lately are the Dutch & Dutch and Kii stuff. They're still a lot more expensive, and I haven't had a chance to try them except briefly in a showroom I don't know well....but the ideas seem awesome.
Still...pretending that there's some magical $500 set of speakers that really competes with a $2000 set of speakers is just not true. It's just marketing.
Now....whether any specific person, their room, or their situation actually calls for $2000 speakers (or 10k speakers, or 50k speakers)....that's a completely different discussion. It's more important that you know
your speakers than that your speakers are objectively good.
A lot of really great records were mixed on NS-10s. And they started out as really, really terrible hifi bookshelf speakers. They worked because a lot of engineers got used to working on them, because a lot of studios bought them for whatever reason. Their particular flaws lead people to lean towards a very smooth-sounding, mid-scooped mix....because they presented the opposite of that. KRKs tend to be kind of the opposite of NS-10s....if you mix something to sound good on KRKs, on a more "perfect" system, it's likely to sound mid-forward and harsh....or at least to lean in that direction.
Every speaker set has flaws like that. And just about every set can be used....after you learn them. Learning whatever speakers you wind up with is a much better use of anyone's time than chasing cross-grades or arguing about which speaker in a given level is better...none of them are; they're just different.
