Home studio monitors & practice speakers

[Salt on your Bass?]

Hi all,

I'm looking at purchasing some active monitors for a light bit of mixing and home recording/ band demo work and wondered what recommendations anyone could offer for a set that are towards the budget end of the market but represent good value. 

 

Secondly, I want to be able to use them for home practice when not using headphones. Does anyone do this? Does it work? I'm intending on using cab IRs as part of the preamp/ set up I'm putting together. 

 

My chain would be:

Bass > effects board > preamp > cab sim > interface > monitors / laptop / headphones

 

Thanks for any help, greatly appreciate any experience and recommendations. 

 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Anything will work in a pinch - even a cheap 2.1 set of PC speakers, however you will be limited on the volume that they will handle without distorting and the detail they will resolve (speaking from experience back in the day using any old cheap domestic hifi I could cobble together).

 

Decide what your budget actually is - if you can listen to a few of the speakers within your budget side by side, you might be suprised by how different they can sound to each other, so pick something that you like and can live with soundwise. Also bear in mind the practical implications of speaker size - whatever you buy is going to need to fit into the space you are using, which might mean you need to make some compromise if your space is small.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by SubsonicSimpleton

[Salt on your Bass?]

Thanks, they're some really helpful considerations.

 

I'm unfortunately not likely to get a chance to listen and compare to be honest so will end up buying without listening. It is a small space, however I want to make sure I have enough head room to get a bit of volume out of them before they hit distortion. 

 

Ill have a think about budget but really wanted to keep under the £400 threshold. I'd be prepared to go to £600 though if there really is significant difference. 

 

In the meantime I'll have a trawl through more threads and take a look at some online retailers.  ✌️

[lowdown]

Have a look at the many online reviews for 'Kali Audio LP-6's'. Within you budget at about £370.00 for a pair if you shop around and well worth the money for the quality sound.

I have a pair and have been knocked out by them.

 

Kali Audio — LP Series Monitors

 

 

 

 

[skidder652003]

when i saw your budget, the Kali LP6's were the first thing i also thought of..

[Salt on your Bass?]

Thanks both - will they provide enough headroom to handle bass practice through them without distorting in your experience? They look a reasonable set to take a punt on as my first venture. 

Appreciate the thoughts. Cheers

[velvetkevorkian]

Unless you need to practice at hearing damage volumes you should be fine with pretty much any monitors.

[Leonard Smalls]

I sometimes practice through my Helix and Adam monitors - I've got the predecessors of these and they sound excellent - £400/pair. If you go for teh 7" woofer version you can get a pair for £359 including cables and stands from Inta...

https://www.andertons.co.uk/adam-t-series-t8v-nearfield-monitor-2-way-8-woofer-each-t8v?msclkid=9e340124d7b6187f10ce6384574375f8&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=IMP || Main Catalogue || PLA 2 [Brand]&utm_term=4575755087676380&utm_content=adam

[fretmeister]

I have a pair of Yamaha HS7 monitors. They are marvellous. Great at all volumes, more than loud enough for deafening home volumes and really clear.

I use them with my helix and for all my PC audio (using helix as my soundcard and interface).

 

99% of my home playing is with them.

[bartelby]

22 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I sometimes practice through my Helix and Adam monitors - I've got the predecessors of these and they sound excellent - £400/pair. If you go for teh 7" woofer version you can get a pair for £359 including cables and stands from Inta...

https://www.andertons.co.uk/adam-t-series-t8v-nearfield-monitor-2-way-8-woofer-each-t8v?msclkid=9e340124d7b6187f10ce6384574375f8&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=IMP || Main Catalogue || PLA 2 [Brand]&utm_term=4575755087676380&utm_content=adam

 

 

I have a pair of TV7s and they're very nice indeed. 

[Bolo]

I've just shelled out for Kali IN-8 monitors after trawling reviews for any pair under £1000. Spent the past three months looking at nothing but studio reviews etc 😁 

The IN-5 could be a step better for bass than the LP-6 because the woofer is freed up for the bass and the mids are handled by a dedicated speaker.

Good luck, make sure to listen to comparisons with quality headphones and take everything in the internet with a pinch of salt.

[simisker]

13 hours ago, Bolo said:

The IN-5 could be a step better for bass than the LP-6 because the woofer is freed up for the bass and the mids are handled by a dedicated speaker.

As an owner of some IN-5s, I can't see how any other monitor in that price bracket comes anywhere close.

 

In fact, I was about to sing their praises based on the mistaken memory that I paid about £800 for a pair. To discover that I must have paid only £560 - going by Thomann's current prices - just makes them even more of a steal.

 

They can be extended with a Kali subwoofer too, if required.

 

They're a bit bulky, mind, so check desk space first.

 

 

 

[Leonard Smalls]

I've just been in a studio with Kali IN8s plus sub.

And they are pretty good, especially at that price!

However, I agree with the Sound On Sound review that mentions a slight prominence of upper bass.

[adamg67]

I always practice though a pair of Adam monitors, with the signal going through my Kemper. I used to do the same with a multi amp, and with a small pedal based rig just like you describe. I run it out of my DAW and audio interface and back in but that’s not making any difference to the sound.

 

I’ve checked it back to back vs a powered speaker and flat response speaker out of the Kemper power amp its close enough that I would never bother about the difference. That’s sort of why I do it, I have a sound (from the Kemper these days) that just gets reproduced accurately by whatever it goes through, studio monitors, stage monitor, foh (maybe tweaked by the sound guy for the room) or amp for back line.

 

So short answer is yes, definitely you can do it. if you want to do live stuff as well just put the same rig through a FRFR speaker (I’ve got a b stock ART 715 that works a treat, any decent 12” monitor will do) and you’ll have the same sound live that you have in your home studio.

[Salt on your Bass?]

Thanks for all the thoughts and recommendations. For the interim, I've landed on an iLoud MTM which I picked up for £120. I'll be adding a second in the future but initially for low volume practice, it's ace. Need the second before I de headphone when mixing etc obviously. 

 

As a result I've quite got into preamps which I haven't really taken much notice of before