Upgrade from Yamaha HS8?

S

Silvertree

Member
I have a pair of HS8s that i like well enough but I’ve been bitten by the upgrade bug for some reason. What would be a worthwhile step up? I want to stay with monitors.
 
You will get many opinions, which is very normal and good also. Imho, with studio active monitors, for the most part, you get what you pay for.
So you paid about $700 for the pair. imho to really see a difference that's worthwhile you need to figure $500 to $800 EACH.
Take a look at Sweetwater music studio monitors-active and look at the prices and you will get a pretty good idea to start from.
I paid $1,200 for a pair a long time ago and I still use them today.
 
Silvertree said:
I have been thinking about the Adams A7Xs or maybe the A8Xs. That seems to be a popular pick. How much of an upgrade would it be?
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Honestly, I don't know. I'm still on my HS7/HS8S combo. But all I hear is that the Adam monitors are a crazy quantum leap in quality, so... yeah. I feel like I can't visit a forum or FB group or whatever without somebody recommending the Adam monitors
 
I 2nd the Adam's and would also suggest Focal's. I have Yamaha HS-5's and Adam A7's and the Adams are just MORE more full range, more detail, nuance, better imaging, They let you hear smaller increments of change. That said the Yamaha's are very good especially for the $ but with monitors sometimes you get what you pay for. You want to take into account the size of the room you're in, you can have problems if you get too much speaker for a smaller room for example, you wouldn't be able to turn them loud enough without being too loud for the room for example.

Also just for improved monitoring, proper speaker placement, speaker stands and some basic room treatment to tame reflections and some bass traps (even simple DIY type stuff) can make a huge difference in the accuracy of your monitoring. If you're going to invest $$ into better speakers make sure you have those other things reasonably on point. No need to crazy but worth putting some effort and $ into.

That all said Adam or Focal monitors are awesome event there slightly lower priced stuff sound really really good. If you are able to go and listen to some in person that's preferable with either your Axe FX or music you know well. Everyone's taste is a little different.
 
Silvertree said:
I have a pair of HS8s that i like well enough but I’ve been bitten by the upgrade bug for some reason. What would be a worthwhile step up? I want to stay with monitors.
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Curious? Just reading the suggestions. So, Are you mainly interested in using your fractal whatever you have with the monitors or are you interested in recording studio type monitoring?
 
For use as an Axefx3 monitor only in my designated basement manhole (not to use in a full recording studio type role), I upgraded recently from KRK Rokit8 to Yamaha HS8 and I did notice a difference in the "better" direction in that I tended to be fighting too much lower end in the Rokits which was not there in the HS8s which seemed more balanced - without tweaking I could hear expected nuances better on the HS8s. In my purchasing research I did not get that Adam monitors would be "quantum leap" better than HS8s under my usage conditions - a step up but not a dramatic difference, or as big a difference as compared to the KRKs. This statement here gave me enough warm and fuzzy to stick to my HS8 decision rather than spend more to get the Adams, but hey, if you got the $, I guess you get what you pay for in this case: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...tors-and-a-sonic-epiphany.151242/post-1799233

If I was going to use monitors for applications beyond guitar modeller / guitar plugin monitoring then I would have spend the $ for the Adams.
 
Silvertree said:
I am just using my Axe-FX. I don’t do any critical mixing work.
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That's pretty much what I thought but I did not want to assume that was the case. I agree with @sprint above. I have a small spare bedroom studio and do just as much recording as I do using my fractal gear. I can afford to get better monitors but my "old" Mackie HR624mkII's and my Yamaha Dxr10's serve the room well for both uses. It's your call really. No doubt the Adams 7's will sound better than the Yamaha's for any situation but you have to decide if it's important enough to spend the $$$.
Even my old Mackies are $1,200 for the pair.
Pretty much why I put the price range in my first response.
 
Silvertree said:
I have been thinking about the Adams A7Xs or maybe the A8Xs. That seems to be a popular pick. How much of an upgrade would it be?
Click to expand...

I got the bug for Adam Ax7's from this forum...I was going to travel 100 miles to go pick up a used set off a fellow when he called to say they had just sold locally....

So I did a few weeks of research online and it seemed the consensus pick in that price range was the APS Klasik or the newest model the Klasik 2020....
I ended up getting a matched pair (they are all matched pairs) from Alto music a couple weeks ago and I couldn't be happier...they are awesome sounding and are making my fingers sore playing for hours a day on these.

I still like my gigging rig for sound as well but this is another level in pleasure.

My rig is the AXE 3 with a Laney 8"FRFR and Laney 12" FRFR and a Headrush 8" FRFR....I also have a Turbosound IQ10 PA system

It all sounds great and it's a wall of stereo sound used together ...but for pure pleasure the Klasik's are sublime...
 
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