Monitors a.k.a. Spend My Tax Return For Me

Evening all.

I'm about to get a tax rebate and I have narrowed my choice of what to spend it on down to three things, one of which is a new pair of monitors.

I have up to roughly £700/$1100 to spend on a pair of active monitors. What does WATMM suggest? I generally mix a lot of bass heavy/electronic music, but work also requires me to listen to a lot of dialogues so realistically something that is a good all round monitor would be preferable.

I haven't bought a pair of monitors in like 8 years so don't really know what's out there. I just can't get on with Genelecs for some reason (music wise at least, they were great for work). I used Mackie HR 824/624's way back when and really liked them, I noticed they have MkII's now?? Other than that I know fuck all.

Also, if anyone knows anywhere round London way that has a good showroom where I can test shit out I'd be appreciative.

Cheers

You should be able to find these Yamaha mcr 140s in Britain. Not only can you hook your computer up to it when making music, you can hook your iPod up to it too. http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-systems/mcr-140__u/

lol

i've never been as confident with how stuff sounds than with my yamaha hs50m's (not that i have time right now grr...)
but they're discontinued. i dont think ya can go wrong here, they sound crappy but if you can get your mix to sound good on them, the legend says translation is a breeze.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_hs_5.htm

go to your local music store with one of your mixes as well as your favorite commercial track on a cd or mp3 player. they might even let you plug your laptop in and try mixing right there if they're not busy. just to get a sale yknow? i've seen people sit in the speaker room for what seems like interminable periods, why i have no clue, the room wont sound the same when they take the speaker home anyway....

Equator D5's or D8's and then buy a synth with the change

I think the Adam A7X are right around your price range, but if you don't like Genelecs you may not like Adams. They're super clean and emphasize the high range a tad. I have the old Adam A22s and find them very useful for music. It took me a while to be able to use the cleanness to my advantage.

Though if you really wanna do bass heavy stuff you have to get a sub. Two ways in your (and my) price range will only do so much.

I should have clarified that my beef with Genelecs were with the models around my price range, I have used some of their higher end ones to better success, though they also had a sub on the go too.

Looked into the Adam's. The Gearslutz folk seem to rate them, though many saying the new Equator D8's are superior, might have to check them out. Trying to find a fucking dealer in the UK to test them though is a nightmare.

For the money nothing can beat the Yamaha hs50m monitors. FACT

...get the Yamaha HS10 sub too and you set for at least 5 yrs...

Well I found a showroom in London (Red Dog Music in Clapham for anyone interested) that had a load of speakers to test. Despite robotrobot's best sales pitch I've ended up putting a deposit down on a pair of Adam A7X's. They were pretty impressive. Picking them up tomorrow. Spending money is fun.

  On 9/5/2013 at 3:01 PM, b born droid said:

Well I found a showroom in London (Red Dog Music in Clapham for anyone interested) that had a load of speakers to test. Despite robotrobot's best sales pitch I've ended up putting a deposit down on a pair of Adam A7X's. They were pretty impressive. Picking them up tomorrow. Spending money is fun.

Good choice I think. I've tried the A7's for a bit and they seemed good for the price. I mix mainly on Adam P11's with a Sub12 and I'm very happy with them. But the room you're mixing in makes a big difference too.

  On 9/5/2013 at 3:25 PM, paranerd said:

 

  On 9/5/2013 at 3:01 PM, b born droid said:

Well I found a showroom in London (Red Dog Music in Clapham for anyone interested) that had a load of speakers to test. Despite robotrobot's best sales pitch I've ended up putting a deposit down on a pair of Adam A7X's. They were pretty impressive. Picking them up tomorrow. Spending money is fun.

Good choice I think. I've tried the A7's for a bit and they seemed good for the price. I mix mainly on Adam P11's with a Sub12 and I'm very happy with them. But the room you're mixing in makes a big difference too.

 

Yeah it's unfortunate that I can't really acoustically treat the room I'm working in, so I may not get the most out of them immediately. But I won't need to upgrade for years now (except adding a sub), and hopefully soon I can move into something that's more acoustically sound (pun lulz).

Nice! Let us know how you like them! And yeah, old story but the room really is key. My room changed so much after i spent 400 bucks on foam and put it on the walls and ceiling. Felt like i was hearing things for the first time.