Which sub £100 monitors?

thecolourbox

Hi all, looking to replace my hifi with monitor speakers having been impressed the one time i heard anything played through them, however the ones i heard aren't made any more, and ive no idea where to start. Usage would mainly be to play my ipod or laptop through, likewise my tv and any recording i do as well.
Seen a couple (one in maplin) but concerned at the £70 they cost, they're just computer speakers with Alesis written on them. The other option was the Harman Kardon soundsticks, though they are bigger as they have a sub.
What do you knowledgeable folks recommend?
Thanks all

octatonic

Honestly, keep what you have for a bit longer.

£100 gets you nothing useful for recording or mixing.

thecolourbox

Oh ok, what about for music and tv playback though, recording is likely to be the least common usage really, just a nice-to-have, i use headphones (when even get time to do any) as i live in a quiet house

randomhandclaps

Agree with octatonic.  You aren't going to make a decent improvement (in any) with £100 and pretty soon you are going to want to upgrade again.  Based on usage (at opposed to personal taste or snobbery) I cannot think of a single (i.e. not a pair)  monitor under £100 I would consider using, let alone a pair.

 

randomhandclaps

Most studio monitors aren't overly lovely to listen to music or TV on and can be quite fatiguing.

thecolourbox

Hmm my hifi cost probably £40 15 years ago haha though it is better sounding than that suggests, it does rely on the laptop eq for music quite a bit. But, point is noted, thanks

octatonic

randomhandclaps said:

Most studio monitors aren't overly lovely to listen to music or TV on and can be quite fatiguing.

Good ones aren't.

I can listen to my Dynaudios for 16 hours a day and they don't get fatiguing.

You won't get much change out of £2k though.

thecolourbox

Oh ok then thanks all, i shan't bother

spark240

How about a pair of Tannoy 601A from Thomann?

 

I think they are doing them for £105 each...bargain.

IanSavage

I listen to everything on my HHB Circle 5 monitors, and I fucking love them - if you're going to use your monitors for mixing it kinda makes sense to use them for as much 'everyday' listening as you realistically can so that they're almost an extension of your ears and you know EXACTLY what sounds good through 'em.

I wouldn't get ANYTHING monitor-ish for less than £100 new, but there's a few bargains drifting around secondhand if you keep a weather eye on eBay - I've had ESI nEar monitors before which I'd recommend, and Samson Resolvs which I also liked a lot. You'd get either for a ton if you're lucky, as well as the Behringer Truths - not amazing, but a lot better than most other stuff at that price point. 

Not to show off, but I only paid £150 for mine through judicious eBaying and a bit of luck - they were over a grand new and you can tell. Just shows that the bargains ARE out there. 

IanSavage

Ooohhh lookie lookie, local too - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-Tannoy-Reveal-Active-Monitor-Speakers-/151160805658?pt=UK_ConElec_SpeakersPASystems_RL&hash=item2331e2d91a

thecolourbox

Thanks all, but i was looking to spend (well, my girlfriend was) less than £100 for the pair, or for a hifi type thing, seems i was way out on that one unfortunately...
the harman kardon soundsticks are looking the most likely bet i think

thermionic

There's a pair of Tannoy Reveal Actives on ebay now for £109 BIN. I have a pair and they're the best investment I made in terms of recording gear. You can pick up the passive versions for much less if you have a half-decent hi-fi amp to drive them.

Before I could afford proper monitors I went to Richer Sounds to look for some bookshelf speakers and mentioned to the salesman what I needed them for (this was in the days of cassette Portastudios). From his reaction I guessed he know a little about recording music as opposed to just playing it back and suggested some JPW Mini Monitors. They did the job admirably well for years and I still use them to check mixes.

ICBM

The best monitors you can get for under a hundred quid are a pair of old 80s British hi-fi speakers and an 80s Japanese hi-fi amp.

(Celestion, Mission, Wharfedale etc and Pioneer, Technics, Yamaha etc.)

If your hi-fi is anything like that, keep it.

If you train your ears well enough with that sort of kit by listening to all your music on it, you will be able to mix through it perfectly well.

Catthan

I'm interested in the topic too and was recommended to get a hold of a pair of Alesis monitor 1 which I can find for £130 passive or these which tempt me quite a bit

http://www.lookat.com/uk/alesis-elevate-3?utm_content=uk&utm_medium=googlebase&utm_source=merchantcenter&gclid=CJW-mbem7LoCFfSWtAodFAwA2g

Any thoughts?

It's just so I can plug smth with RCA on my soundcard, ain't looking for any pro-grade stuff,,

Don't know about the OP but in my case it's either sub-£100 or head phones or creative generic pc speakers...

JayGee

ICBM said:

The best monitors you can get for under a hundred quid are a pair of old 80s British hi-fi speakers and an 80s Japanese hi-fi amp.

(Celestion, Mission, Wharfedale etc and Pioneer, Technics, Yamaha etc.)

If your hi-fi is anything like that, keep it.

If you train your ears well enough with that sort of kit by listening to all your music on it, you will be able to mix through it perfectly well.

UK Hi-Fi speaker designs from the "Classic Marques" (the likes of Castle, Rogers, Mordaunt-Short et-al) are hugely influenced by BBC monitor designs. I have a pair of Mordaunt Short MS10s sitting either side of my computer monitor hooked up to a Musical Fidelity B1  - lovely!

ChrisMusic

@octatonic said:   Honestly, keep what you have for a bit longer.   £100 gets you nothing useful for recording or mixing.

Spot on I'd say.

Good studio monitors are designed to allow you to hear and interpret exactly what is going on in the electronics / data of a recording or live signal, unflatteringly and as truthful as possible so that you can make qualitative decisions about production.

Good HiFi speakers are designed to sound pleasing and to flatter the sound, pretty much the opposite of honest monitors.

That is a distinction really worth getting your head around.

Having said that not all speakers are good or fit for purpose and there is plenty of BS out there.

Yamaha's NS10s were introduced to give an approximate studio reference to the average HiFi, and therefore gauge what a mix would sound like at home.

I agree with @randomhandclaps. Most "studio monitors aren't overly lovely to listen to music or TV on** " but if they are any good they really should not be "quite fatiguing".  That dubious honour would rest with the quality of the signal being monitored or the room acoustics being fit for purpose (if the monitors are good), again often not, and often overlooked or misunderstood.

(** "studio monitors aren't overly lovely to listen to music or TV on" and thats precisely because there are plenty of low production values around, and overly compressed, badly EQed, poorly balanced, (etc), mixes and broadcasts, so they are just being honest about the signal.)

ICBM said:   The best monitors you can get for under a hundred quid are a pair of old 80s British hi-fi speakers and an 80s Japanese hi-fi amp.  (Celestion, Mission, Wharfedale etc and Pioneer, Technics, Yamaha etc.)  If your hi-fi is anything like that, keep it.

Good advice in my book, but they will "sound good" which is not entirely what monitors should do' but are potentially a good compromise and the best option for the money, even if you just go out on GumTree for some.  I would also add that there are some good British and American amps too.

Rocker

JayGee said:

UK Hi-Fi speaker designs from the "Classic Marques" (the likes of Castle, Rogers, Mordaunt-Short et-al) are hugely influenced by BBC monitor designs. I have a pair of Mordaunt Short MS10s sitting either side of my computer monitor hooked up to a Musical Fidelity B1  - lovely!

I too have a pair of MS10s powered by a Musical Fidelity Elektra E100 integrated amp.  Pretty decent sound, nowhere near as good as my main hi-fi system of course, but acceptable for internet radio, YouTube videos, my Tascam CD-GT1mk11 phrase trainer and better than acceptable when I play FLAC files using Foobar2000.  I agree with the comments about monitors being 'not as pleasing to listen to' as normal hi-fi speakers.  Monitors do sound very impressive but after a few months use, you realise that that sound while showing everything that is on the CD, is too revealing and music actually becomes less enjoyable to listen to.  Possibly a smoother sounding amplifier or cables would tame the excesses of monitor speakers - could be a costly exercise trying to find the 'best' matching components though. 

AndyJP

I got some second hand rocket krk 5 monitors that are pretty good. Recommended by Guitarist magazine. Pretty pleased with them. £150 for the pair.....

thecolourbox

As an update on this i went to fairdeal in brum, tried the Roland desktop mini micro tiny cube thing with the iPod connection, which was akin to poundland speakers, and a Yamaha THR5 which was ok but certainly by no means impressive for playback. I think my mini hifi was easily better even with the left speaker that i sometimes have to slap for it to work.
Thanks for all the input guys but they all seem above budget, the original target amount was already inclusive of me putting money towards it in secret, so I think I'll have to leave it and get a stool instead
thanks kindly

bertie

randomhandclaps said:

Most studio monitors aren't overly lovely to listen to music or TV on and can be quite fatiguing.

this