What up people, I’d like to start by thanking you for stopping at www.omyerds.com. I am one of the nerds, i go by the handle “lord nikon” .Now what we are going to be covering today is going to be kind of a unique look at the purchasing of studio monitors. 

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Im not going to be giving you a Sunday,Sunday,Sunday Vs. battle style review like you can find anywhere.I would rather just tell you what i chose and why.

 

I have a project studio where I do all of my personal work out of and monitoring in these situations is critical to produce a high quality product, Not only because of the typically untreated room(which ill come back to )but also because of the typical restrained budget that keeps us from all having million dollar studios, Sure would be nice but i digress.

 

 So when i started looking to buy my first pair of studio monitors of course in a lower price bracket i found that the Alesis monitor ones were just the stand out option in the 2-300$ range. Great sound, Great flexibility on the passive set. I just had a home theater amp powering them and they were definately comparable to any other set on a much nicer amp, i was totally surprised . Here is a short list of some some tech. specs.

 

Driver: 6.5″ polypropylene woofer

Frequency Response:45 Hz - 20 kHz

Amplification: 120 watts rms, can peak  at 200 (questionable)

Input: typical speaker wire connections, with bananna and spade plugs.

Dimensions:15″(H) x 8.5″(W) x 10″(D)

Weight:(1)  15lbs.  

 

I found  the response to be lacking in its flatness. I used them for quite some time. And after a couple of years of use it became more and more evident that the low end in them was lacking and the midrange just didnt have the warmth or presence in it for the styles of music i typically handle( dance, hiphop, downtempo). there was alot of A/B-ing and countless one track CD’s for testing in various systems. And as i got better and time passed i noticed that more and more of them were going in the garbage because of the translation issue i found. Which can lead to a funding question.

 

 

So i finally decided that i needed some new monitors. it was time to take a step up. Now after looking in the next bracket up which includes the Event 8’s, M-audio bx8a’s, KRK rp8’s jut to name the big boys in the 4-550$range. and after annoying the guys at the local guitar center as well as alot of ” so what do ya  think’s” i came down to going with the KRK’s. here is another short list of some tech specs.

 

Driver: 8″ Glass Aramid Composite Woofer

Tweeter: 1″ Neodymium Soft Dome Tweeter with Ferro Fluid

Input:XLR (3-pin), RCA & 1/4″ TRS - 10k Ohm Balanced / Unbalanced

Amplification:140 Watt Dynamic Power Bi-amp with 24 dB Octave Filters

Frequency Response:45 Hz - 20 kHz

Dimensions:(H x W x D)15″ x 10 7/16″ x 12″

Weight:30 lbs 

 

After realizing how important a flat frequency response is when purchasing monitors. i can honestly say that i am elated with my choice when upgrading. These speakers gave me a new view on the clarity of all of my work. Which was good and bad(lol strictly my own fault on the bad stuff). But, I will say that bass response is definately not a concern of mine anymore, the neighbors may have a different opinion but thats a whole other story.I just feel that i can push my mixes to be what they should instead of like something is wanting to jump out of the cabinet. 

 

The bottom line to me is i need something that has a flat frequency response and when things get hot and heavy in a mix can still keep their composure and i have found that in the KRK rp8’s.Not to mention that they just look so damn cool.

 

So now on to the topic of room treatment. Nothing beats it ! But, If you don’t have tha g’s to reconstruct your space i came across a product thats worth looking into and i think with just a little foam can go a very long way.IK multimedia makes it and it is called ARC( acoustic room correction). Here is the URL: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/Main.html?arc/index.php.

 

I was very skeptical at first but after trying it and seeing what it does and how it 

does it , Its at-least worth looking into. It comes with a proprietary mic that is used for “shooting” the room. Its a very interesting and after a while of that ~”ZAP!ZAP!ZAP!”~ can be very annoying process as well. The software and the plug-in used after the initial “shooting” of the room are cross-platform and multi-format so almost every major DAW out there can plug it in with no problems. With a tag  of 6-700$ its definately not a gimme ,But do some lookin around and make the choice.

 

Thanks again for visiting Omynerds.com and keep checking back for more from the Nerd Crew.

 

Lord  Nikon

 

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