[alohachris]

Aloha Warfrat 73,

RE: Near-field Monitors. Ya gotta be able to hear your track's details. Near-field monitors allow you to do that better than other sources, right?

It's been driven home to me that you spend the real money on your sound sources first: the mic's & mic preamps & then the monitors for listening closely to, editing & mastering your recordings. SO yeah, very good quality, flat-response near-field monitors are something I consider to be essential if you're into recording. You can use headphones too if it's not that critical to you.

Unfortuntely, & I'll get a few dissenters here on this, my opinion is that available near-field monitors under around $1500/pr. aren't worth much. Worse, they usually give you ear-fatigue quickly while listening for hours (my main reason). That's my ears talking from decades of auditioning high end monitors & gear. There are several choices available.

I used Adams A7X's for many years. Excellent & un-hyped tweeters with great balance, depth & sound-staging. Neumann KH120's are also great for the money & you'll stick with them for many years. Dynaudio BMK5's, Adams A5X's, & Focal Alpha 65's are good & a bit smaller/cheaper. There's always the standby Yamaha HSS 5's or 8's. Event 20/20's are decent too. I prefer 7" near-fields for acoustic music. I add a bass sub-woofer for more bass & keyboard-driven pop styles.

Hobby or not, ya gotta be able to hear the details of your recordings, warfrat73, or what's the point?

alohachris