John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi once again and thanx for a incredible knowledge base.

I have two related questions around speakers

Firstly, I have been reading on the forum and have noticed a number of problems with the KRK Rokit 8 speakers. I have a pair of these and have not experienced any problems with them. My question is this, How do these speakers rate amongst the vast array of monitor speakers available, I would like to have the best possible monitor speakers available, and would like to know where these rank (the Rokit 8's), and what better alternatives are available?

Secondly, I have a pair of power amplified behringer B300 speakers in my Open area, and would also like to replace them with high quality speakers. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Aloha Terence,

I would like to have the best possible monitor speakers available, and would like to know where these rank (the Rokit 8's), and what better alternatives are available?

What's your budget?

Aloha

If money is no object, what are the best you can get, and what will they cost

Aloha Terence,

If money is no object, what are the best you can get, and what will they cost

Ask the 10 top engineers this question, and you might get 10 different answers. I've asked this same question and got several different ones myself. I think a little more info would be helpful, followed by a few suggestions, which then should be auditioned side by side if possible, and then you make the call.

- What are your requirements?
- Pro/Semi-pro level?
- What kind of music are you recording/producing?
- How big is your room?
- How big do you need?

For my use (home project studio/local CD release) I am looking at the following:
- Adams S2.5A (150w, 2 way, 9" woofer, $4,250/pr)
- Adams S3A (150w,2 way, dual 7" woofers, $5,350/pr)
- Dynaudio BM15A (200w, 2 way, 10" woofer, $3,145/pr)
- Genelec 1032A (200w, 2 way, 10" woofer, $4,900/pr)
- Genelec 1037C (180w, 3 way, 12" woofer, $10,200/pr)
- JBL LSR6328P (250w, 2 way, 8" woofer, $2,800)
- Klein + Hummel O300D (150w, 3 way, 8" woofer, $4,660/pr)

If you are looking at Pro-Level Studio main monitors, I would have to defer to those with that background.

Hope this helps,

Aloha

Yes has been of help.

My control room is about 5 by 10 meters.

The uses will be mainly for mixing, and for the production of CD's for the indie record label market.

I have KRK Rokit 8's currently, where do they rank in the hierarchy of monitoring systems.

Appreciate the input

The Rokit series is KRK's entry level speaker, the 8's retail in the US for $500 USD each and can be had thru mail order outlets for around $200 each. The OTHER end of KRK's line are these

http://www.krksys.com/v3/main_m218.asp

which retail for $50,000 EACH, and aren't sold mail order at all to my knowledge.

Other companies in this business have similar ranges, some only make nearfield monitors, still others make near and midfield monitors.

Personally I've yet to hear a 2-way speaker with an 8" woofer that doesn't sound "scooped" - meaning a dip in the midrange response such as you'd get with the bass and treble boosted in a serious, FULL-range speaker - for most types of pop music/rap, this isn't a problem because most end users typically crank the bass anyway, and wouldn't know a flat response if it smacked them in the face with a brick.

For jazz or classical music, it's a different story; the more accurate and flat response, the better.

Your comment about your control room makes me wonder if you'd be better served FIRST re-building that room to better dimensions, so you're not wasting your money on speakers that your room can't allow to perform up to their specifications; you didn't mention room Height, but if your two other dimensions are really 2 to 1 ratio, you're never going to hear what expensive speakers can do. You might try a search here on the words Ratio, Splay, Mode, Soffit (search on one word at a time) (set the search to display Posts instead of Topics, and be prepared to read through a LOT of posts) -

Remember that acoustics is a THREE-dimensional science - so room dimensions with only TWO of these don't mean much, other than telling us that your room itself may be the limiting factor because NO room with dimensions that are even multiples of each other will give good results.

Also, the bigger the room the larger, more powerful MAIN speakers it can handle (and NEED) - so smaller nearfields, even when flush-mounted (soffited) correctly, will NOT give you that "WOW" factor for clients when you crank them up; they'll just distort and make you look like an AMATEUR.

If you do some research (try Googling the phrase "room ratio" for starters, and follow where it leads) you'll learn a lot more about what's necessary in a room for accurate response - without that, even those $50K KRK mains won't sound all that good... Steve