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Originally Posted by RedJoker
Bob, how big a difference is there between 'low end' monitors and expensive monitors? I know you get what you pay for but at what point do you think a beginner / home studio hack is just throwing money away?
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Bad monitors will fool you into thinking that you are hearing accurately when you aren't. I am mentoring a young engineer right now who started on a pair of $200 monitors at home and who just joined our crew. He would bring his ensemble mixes from home and we would evaluate them on the top-end, tuned system in my control room. Somewhere along the way we came to the conclusion that he wasn't hearing things right. He asked to borrow an unassigned set of $4000 monitors the facility owns, took them home, and used integrated them into his setup. His mixes
immediately snapped into much better focus. He was also much more able to integrate the suggestions that came out of our meetings. Obviously, $4000 is a lot of money.
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There may not be a good answer this but I don't know. Something like, if you don't spend at least $xxx, you are just getting cheap computer speaker quality and are no better off. How would I even know if I'm getting something decent?
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I can't give you a dollar figure, partially because a portion of being able to work with less expensive speakers is getting to know them and already being proficient in recording technique. I can tell you that I am fully confident mixing on a pair of JBL LSR4328P with the integrated subwoofer. However, a pair of the LSR4328Ps will set you back $1700 and then there is the subwoofer. I'm sure that somewhere beneath that figure there are some monitors that are just fine, I just don't have any sort of dividing line. I wish I had a suggestion for low priced monitors but I just don't. Sorry.
One way to find good monitors is to hook into a good forum such as Gear Slutz and see what they suggest in your price range. Of course, you'll probably get the flavor of the month, just like you get that when you ask for suggestions of a guitar here at the AGF.
Bob