Here's some background: I've been using Alesis M1 actives for about 5 years and it's time to step it up. I record as a hobby in the genres of mainly rock and metal. Everything is recorded direct (guitars and bass) and the drums come from software.
This is in my bedroom. The room is not professionally treated but I have made acoustic improvements but putting some foam on the walls behind the monitors, as well as hanging moving blankets diagonally on the sides. That, and putting as much of my furniture in the bedroom/recording area as possible (making my living room look bare
) Anyway, that stuff has helped to tame reflections and such. It's not terrible, but not ideal either.
I think I've narrowed it down to either Adam A7s or JBL LSR4326. The former based on all the rave reviews and the latter for their "room compensation" technology where I could supposedly tune the monitors to my not-so-great room.
These speakers are around the same price. My gut instinct is to go with the Adams and I've heard that the JBL Linear Spatial Reference Technology doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
I'd just like to hear your opinion about anything I said here.
Budget usually dictates what group of monitors you can buy, but I feel you do NOT have to spend great coin, to get good monitors, not necessarily "great sounding monitors..." Allow me to explain;
A well treated room can alleviate the perceived problems with any monitor, but suffice to say I have yet to encounter those issues that do plague people's recording environments.
I've heard the Adam A7's and those JBL's...
The A7's at their price point are seemingly impossible to beat.
Go for monitors that are as flat as possible.
The extra digital goodies from JBL are *cool* but I didn't like their sound.
FWIW I use Event ASP8's and
M-Audio EX66's.
The EX66's are:
extremely bad ass
boast versatile connectivity (both analog and digital)
bass response goes all the way down to 36hz (with zero distortion)
output a HUGE spatial stereo image I've not heard from any other monitor.
output a very linear frequency response.
And I prefer them to my Events...
My Piano sample library literally does not have a left or right!
It's just vast and limitless, not to mention there is no sweet spot!
They sound very detailed anywhere...
My main point is you should listen to your own material/your favorite pieces of music on your prospective purchase...When you can hear everything?
You've found the ones you want.
Find albums that are overly compressed and/or introduce clipping as well.
THIS is a huge tell if your monitors are up to snuff or not.
IN the end my friend, you could technically stay with your monitors you have now, or monitor off of a $50.00 HTIB setup, provided you learn your speakers.
This is the key regardless of cost, quality and sound output.