Studio monitors upgrade advice

I've been very happy with my IK Multimedia iLoud MTM Precision monitors. $1600 for the pair (when I bought them), comes with mics for their ARC room correction. I'm not a studio engineer and my room is far from ideal but it was a night and day difference for me (previous headphone user).

Didn't want to drop that kind of money, but once I did I wished I'd done it sooner :D

(edit for clarity)
 
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I have a bout 5 sets, I relegated my HS8's to monitoring the AXEFX and I'm using Dynaudio LYD 8's for the actual music mixing, and love them. I still have a set of original NS10s that I found at a thrift store, I lucked out finding an early pair in amazing condition, but I really don't use them and might sell them to someone who can appreciate them... But also the Dynaudio BMKIII from Sweetwater sound really good and they're a bit smaller. I used those in my other room before the LYD8s. Depends on your budget and space, and are you monitoring your axefx or expecting to mix all of your music on them.
 
418Teapot said:
I've been very happy with my IK Multimedia iLoud MTM monitors. $1600 for the pair, comes with mics for their ARC room correction. I'm not a studio engineer and my room is far from ideal but it was a night and day difference for me (previous headphone user).

didn't want to drop that kind of money, but once I did I wished I'd done it sooner :D
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Are you by any chance in Canada?
That price is literally double what i see in the us.
 
In my personal experience, playing along backing tracks at home was best using a pair of Presonus Eris 8s with a subwoofer.

You don’t need a lot of low end for guitar as such, but it was much more enjoyable to have some punch for kick and bass tracks. It also helped a lot in dialing in tones for the band mix, with a fuller context.

Those aren’t great monitors for mixing though, so I used a pair of Dynaudio BM something for more subtle work. But even though those monitors were much better, they weren’t nearly as much fun to play through.

So maybe trying to have an all in one solution isn’t the best strategy.

There are a lot of comments that you don’t need big speakers in smaller rooms, and maybe that’s true (although I’m not 100% convinced it is). But I always found that bigger speakers are simply more fun, they have better projection, and are somehow just more energetic. The less you rely on the port bass extension the better.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Are you by any chance in Canada?
That price is literally double what i see in the us.
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Nope, I'm in the US as well but I forgot to specify mine are the MTM Precisions. Looks like they've had a price hike or two since I bought them; like everything else, eh? :laughing:
 
I would avoid Adam, Focal, Barefoot, Amphion. IMO they are all worse than Kali.

Neumann 310’s would be a very solid choice, and are hard to beat even when spending considerably more. The KH80/120/150 are all good too, but you may well want a sub with those (a sub with the 310’s also helps a lot).

Genelec 8040/50/60 etc are excellent but get quite expensive. Same goes for PMC6, 6-2, 8-2 etc. I’m not sure they’re a worthy step up from 310’s despite the difference in price - it’s more of a personal preference thing at that point.

I use ATC SCM20’s along with my Neumann KH420’s. If I just had 310’s and subs I’d be perfectly happy honestly.
 
418Teapot said:
Nope, I'm in the US as well but I forgot to specify mine are the MTM Precisions. Looks like they've had a price hike or two since I bought them; like everything else, eh? :laughing:
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Totally irrational maybe, but I just can't possibly force myself to pay so much for an IK Multimedia product. :)

They have great reviews, of course, and maybe they're an excellent product. But still...
 
IK Multimedia iLoud Precision monitors are the best you can get for under $2k. They have built in room correction and sound incredible. They also have different built in speaker references for mixing. I don't think anything else comes close to these for the money. I feel like IK did a poor job and branding and marketing them, thus then don't really get the credit they deserve. Nuemann KH120 is also another good option.
 
SHEPPARD said:
I feel like IK did a poor job and branding and marketing them, thus then don't really get the credit they deserve
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They just made a lot of products using this name, and it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Especially hearing about built in room correction and other stuff.

I'm ok with using their products in principle (I have a pair of Micros, which are also typically highly praised, being just meh multimedia speakers in practice), but there's a mental threshold on how much I can pay for something with that name. :D

It also doesn't help that MTMs look like Micros. :)

But that's just my craziness possibly.
 
vangrieg said:
They just made a lot of products using this name, and it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Especially hearing about built in room correction and other stuff.

I'm ok with using their products in principle (I have a pair of Micros, which are also typically highly praised, being just meh multimedia speakers in practice), but there's a mental threshold on how much I can pay for something with that name. :D

It also doesn't help that MTMs look like Micros. :)

But that's just my craziness possibly.
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Yeah, awful marketing. I own the iloud precision MTM's and they are incredible (they are quit large too). Don't be fooled by the bad marketing.

The thing I love about built in room correction is the zero latency when applying the correction. I had Sonarworks before and it's fantastic software but there is a noticeable latency.
 
Sonarworks has zero latency mode.

A DSP in speakers will inevitably have latency, you need to do the ADC conversion at the very least.
 
Recently got the Genelec 8020D for a smaller late night listening experience. They rival my A7V's with the MKII Sub at similar DB levels.
 
The real thing would be for folks to recommend the speakers they like, and then show a mix they did on the speakers in their rooms. One person's "sounds great" is someone else's "wtf was THAT?"
 
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