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8" Studio Monitors for Rock & Metal


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Hello folks. Might I trouble some of you for your educated opinions?

 

I would sincerely appreciate some advice on which powered monitor would best suit my needs. Unfortunately, due to my location, I cannot listen to all of these choices personally. I will be working in a rather small 'non-professionally' treated room mixing heavy rock and metal exclusively. I would much prefer to use an 8" monitor as I will not be using a sub.

 

For the most part, I will be using an arsenal SM57s through FirePods with a few fine FMR products. It is a rather basic setup but I am a hobbyist and am looking to have some fun and make some decent recordings. Perhaps in another life I will be a Phil Spector but for now I will settle for the best I can do with the materials at hand.

 

I would prefer to keep the budget to roughly $600 give or take. That said, I might be convinced to go a little further if I can find a decent bargain. So far, I have been unsuccessful in narrowing my choices. Here is a non-exhaustive list of my research thus far:

 

Adam ANF-10 (7" obviously)

Event 8XL

KRK RP8

M Audio BX8a

Mackie MR8

Mackie HR824 (Used for $800 if I am lucky...worth the extra?)

Yamaha HS80M

 

I have read many threads just like this one but I figured another one would not hurt and perhaps the specific information I have provided would help narrow the selection.

 

I thank you for your advice.

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I do, though of course with sufficient effort and time learning your equipment you can do as well with less if that's all you've got. As with most types of equipment, speakers have a cost vs. payoff curve and the increase in payoff per dollar diminishes rapidly above a certain point. The Mackies are fairly close to where the curve starts to bend right in preperation for flattening out. There's still plenty of improvement you can buy, but it starts getting more expensive pretty rapidly above that point.

 

The Mackies are kind of positioned as high end for the home studio and lower end for the professional studio. And that itself is probably a good description of where the curve starts to flatten out, because the home studio buyer is very value conscious and the professional more quality conscious to various degrees, and they are positioned kind of between the two.

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Perhaps I should also mention that, as it stands now, I will only have about 30" for my 'triangle' without reorganizing the room or getting a new desk to work at. I do not even know if that will be a problem or would inform a monitor choice. Should I be addressing that as well?

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You just want to stick with monitors designed for near field monitoring, which all of the ones on your list are, AFAIK.

 

 

I know I sort of brought this up in another thread, but which do you prefer? The mark I or mark II series of Mackies? And if so, why? Is there a difference in the two?

 

-Phil

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I never used the original models, so I can't say much there. The new ones are at least better in that they are larger and therefore capable of deeper bass response. Aesthetically they are nicer, though of course that's not really a serious consideration for a budget minded person. In terms of detailed differences in the components and specs, I've not really ever dug into it.

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