Recommend me some cheap monitors?

cornbb

Following the theft of my monitors and a bunch of other stuff, the little Creative speakers on my desk are driving me nuts and I need to pick something else up. Unfortunately I'm broke (after replacing my car and a bunch of other gear that was taken!) so I'm looking at the bottom end of the market, around €200, until I can afford to trade up.

I've been looking at the following models from Thomann among others:
http://www.thomann.de/ie/m_audio_bx_5_studiophile_demo.htm
http://www.thomann.de/ie/esi_near05_aktive_nahfeldmonitore.htm

Unfortunately there is little choice at this end of the market and reviews from reputable sources are thin on the ground. Don't suppose anyone has any pointers? They will be used for monitoring in a bedroom studio, need to be active, they need to be cheap and they need to not suck, those are my only criteria really...

mike65

http://www.thomann.de/ie/alesis_m1_active_520.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug06/articles/alesism1.htm

Mike.

jimi_t

I've a set of these http://www.thomann.de/ie/maudio_dx4_studiophile.htm

I like them, the bass response is adequate and the mids and highs are nice and clear. 1/4" and RCA on the back, and a headphone socket on the front. 18w might be a bit low, but for a bedroom scenario they're the perfect size/power.

That said I got a pair for 60 euro which was an absolute steal

Niall - Dahlia

If you can push the budget and buy second hand I'd go for Tannoy Reveal 5A's, though that's just from using them myself for a while, I haven't much to compare to. I was happy with them though.

At €200 though I'd honestly hold onto your money until you can get something a bit more substantial, not much point in buying something you'll be wanting to replace in a year or two, you'll lose out in the long run.

Frankiestylee

I got some TASCAM VL-X5s and they do the job nicely. Think they were around €200

squibs

+1 for the Tannoy Reveals

cornbb

mike65 wrote: »

http://www.thomann.de/ie/alesis_m1_active_520.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug06/articles/alesism1.htm

Mike.

Nice, hadn't seen those, I'll throw em into the mix

jimi_t wrote: »

I've a set of these http://www.thomann.de/ie/maudio_dx4_studiophile.htm

I like them, the bass response is adequate and the mids and highs are nice and clear. 1/4" and RCA on the back, and a headphone socket on the front. 18w might be a bit low, but for a bedroom scenario they're the perfect size/power.

That said I got a pair for 60 euro which was an absolute steal

Will also consider these, although the wattage is a bit low.

Niall - Dahlia wrote: »

If you can push the budget and buy second hand I'd go for Tannoy Reveal 5A's, though that's just from using them myself for a while, I haven't much to compare to. I was happy with them though.

At €200 though I'd honestly hold onto your money until you can get something a bit more substantial, not much point in buying something you'll be wanting to replace in a year or two, you'll lose out in the long run.

Yes, I'm actually seriously tempted to double my budget and get something like these on credit. Or maybe Event TR 6, something like that. The idea is to replace what I'd be getting now in 6-12 months alright though. Hmmm, maybe I'll hold off for another few months and scour ebay.ie/buyandsell.ie/adverts.ie etc.

Frankiestylee wrote: »

I got some TASCAM VL-X5s and they do the job nicely. Think they were around €200

Thanks, will also consider these.

Iomega Man

Hi cornbb,
I'd agree with mike65 on the Alesis 520's.
I was in the same boat as yourself a few months back,did a lot of looking around and had roughly 250 to spend.
After a lot of soulsearching,I decided to go with the 520's from Musicstore.
I'm really delighted with them.For the money,I would really recommend them.
I doubt that Bob Clearmountain is using them!,but for a small bedroom studio they are fairly hard to beat

jimi_t

cornbb wrote: »

Will also consider these, although the wattage is a bit low.

Well, they're desktop monitoring speakers but the 18w rating is misleading if you were to compare them to consumer level gear. For bedroom purposes they are more than adequately loud - in fact, they rarely go above half way and I like my techno... quite audible to put it mildy .

My advice would be to try to get to see them in action. If you happen to be in Dublin I'm fairly sure Waltons stock them, and I think that they have a pair of the alesis ones mentioned side-by-side with them in the upstairs part of Musicmaker.

ICN

Go to http://www.zzounds.com -

American w/site. They have basic tech-spec's and user reviews of pretty much everything you can think of. I always go to it before I buy anything. It can be hard to find unbiased reviews in normal language sometimes - but this has the warts and all.

Its great to get the no bullsh*t version from people who have/love/hate the product.


Also recommend that you check out http://www.musicstore.com. Thomann and themselves are usually neck & neck - They are pretty much clones of eachother, but sometimes it pays to shop around. I know its "off topic" - LOL - but I saved €100's on my Mac Pro with them.. so just see which is best in the end.

Finally - I would say that if you stick another €100 on that you could open your options up a little.

Both a)Event ALP5 and b)Rokit RP5, IMO are v.good and have had decent reviews in music mags & internet. I've heard both, and shall hopefully be getting the RP5's in the New Year.

a)http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=?SKU=REC0004069-000&ProductUUID=0&JumpTo=OfferList

b)http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=?SKU=PCM0003811-000&ProductUUID=0&JumpTo=OfferList

Its all Money,Money,Money at the end of the day isnt it.. but you are going to have these for a while to come..

frobisher

I've bought a lot of gear through the classified section of gearslutz ( http://www.gearslutz.com/board/gearslutz-secondhand-gear-classifieds/ ).

I put up an ad looking for cheap monitors there and got lots of offers. Ended up finding myself a beautiful set of Emes for very cheap. Infintiely superior to anything new for a similar price. You should try the same.

cornbb

Thanks for the advice everyone. I came close to getting a pair of used Alesis M1 Active Mk2 monitors via adverts.ie today, but it fell through at the last minute. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I'll see if I can up the budget a wee bit in the coming months.

cornbb

Just a quick follow-up: I got a second-hand pair of Yamaha MSP5a's today. Haven't given them a full work-out yet but they're looking pretty good, I'll report back when I form some opinion of em.