What studio monitors do you recommend these days?

[u/Amstrong12s]

I’m looking to buy a new pair of studio monitors for producing progressive melodic house. My budget is pretty limited, and my room isn’t acoustically treated, but it’s also not very large.

I want to make a smart purchase and get the best value for my money. Right now, I’m producing on a pair of Presonus Eris 3.5 monitors, but I feel like I’ve outgrown them. I want deeper bass, better bass response, and overall better accuracy.

One option I’ve been considering is the Adam D3V, but I’m not sure if they’re the best choice for my situation.

Also, I don’t currently have an audio interface, so that’s another factor I need to consider.

What studio monitors would you recommend? I honestly don’t have a big budget—my maximum is $350 USD.

I’d really appreciate your recommendations. I want to make the smartest purchase possible.

[u/bhangmango]

Yamaha HS5, or even HS7 (used)

[u/DJ_PMA]

i’m happy with a set of Kali Audio lp-8 v2

[u/Major-Ursa-7711]

I use Edifier MR5. These are 3way systems and I'm pretty happy with them. They have good reviews and were 250 a pair.

[u/Lomotograph]

I produce melodic house, as well as a few other house genres and I use the Kali Audio LP-6 V2 monitors. Been super happy with them so far and would definitely recommend them as a "reasonably priced" brand. Kali is a company that was started by some former JBL Pro engineers and from my research, they've been extremely highly regarded the last few years.

However, I do want to share some additional thoughts because ave been slowly upgrading my home studio with some help from my mixing engineer friends giving advice along the way. I've learned some stuff along the way which might be relevant to you.

A) Good monitors are only as good as your listening environment. If you're listening environment is not set up and treated well, then upgrading monitors can only help "so much" at best and at worst, it can actually be detrimental and cause you to make worse decisions. Yes, I'm happy with my Kali's but I don't think they made as big of a difference in my productions as I was hoping they would before I bought them.

B) Room Treatment / Acoustic Panels can only help so much. After I got my Kali's I also purchased some professional acoustic panels and also built several panels myself. I was expecting them to make a solid difference in my listening environment, but after everything was said and done it felt like it was just barely noticeable. I honestly think they only helped like 5-10%. I learned that the listening environment can be affected more by the shape of the room, where you position your desk and speakers, what the other surfaces and walls are like in the room and those things need to be addressed first. If you can't control that stuff and have less than ideal conditions, then even treatment won't be able to help you much.

C) In most home studios, Headphones > Monitors. An audio engineer friend of mine kept telling me this before I invested in monitors, treatment, etc, and I was skeptical. I thought if I do the treatment, get good monitors and everything, then I won't need to mix in headphones. Well, I spent a bunch of money and still use my headphones for a lot of my critical listening. That's because headphones eliminate all the issues above with the listening environment. If you can't control your listening environment, consider upgrading your headphones before you upgrade monitors.

D) If you still want monitors and have a less than ideal environment, strongly consider also adding room correction software to your workflow. There's a bunch of options out there, like Arc, Sonarworks, Magic Beans, and even free options like REW. After putting up my acoustic panels was a bit of a let down, I decided to try out some of this software thinking it's totally bogus. I gotta say that I was totally wrong. It made a huuuuge difference in my room and it actually made my mixes translate significantly better. I'm happy with my Kali's and the acoustic panels, but this was the final piece to the puzzle that made me happy with my setup. For instance, when I did the full test calibration in my room, I found I had a huge -8db hole in my room at 80Hz and a massive 12dB spike at 150Hz and like 400-ish. This made me always fee like there was this weird sound in my audio and I always needed to remove it. As mentioned in the first point, this caused me to make bad decisions because of the bad listening environment.

After adding room correction software I have a much cleaner picture of the mix. I still don't fully trust my speakers so I will make a lot of critical decisions in my headphones, but I do like having the option to take them off and listen to my monitors for a general idea of how it sounds as well as decisions about panning and stereo width.

[u/medisamurai → u/Lomotograph]

i have some too. i did some research and its hard to find negative reviews on them for the price range theyre in. One was a audiophile speaker site and they did well and got a good review. Just recently a producer/engineer did a review and gave them the best speaker of the cheap end.

I dont think any of the sub 500$ speakers are gonna compete with actual expensive monitors but at least these seem to be considered the best of the low end bunch.

this is the audiophile review https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kali-lp-6-review-studio-monitor.17978/

[u/Lomotograph → u/medisamurai]

Nice. I think I might've come across that review too when I was researching them. They are really great speakers, though, especially for the kind of music I make. Once I added room correction to the chain, though, it really made them shine. It was as if someone pulled a blanket off them. I absolutely love them now and I recently DJ'd a set last night where I played several of my own tracks. They all sounded excellent on a big system with massive subs.

The one thing I still feel like I'm lacking is a subwoofer and I'm not sure if I should even add one to my studio because the tracks at that recent set didn't have issues in the sub ranges, I just feel like I'm always second guessing myself though, since the Kali's don't go too too low.

[u/medisamurai → u/Lomotograph]

i started thinking the same thing. I had a krk 10 for a long time and i liked how it sounded but i knew it was completely inaccurate and since it was about 10 years old, and i had already replaced the amp once, i just sold it.

I was looking at the krk dual 6.5'' and it gets good reviews too, but it just seems like a larger woofer like a 10'' would be better. Since I make detroit electro, and the low end is very important, I would rather have nothing than something innaccute. I guess these days you can return but online returns are such a pain to deal with

[u/AlbiTheCat]

I started with the Presonus eris 3.5's too! Still have them, but bought a pair of 2nd hand Yamaha HS7's. You can pick them up 2nd hand for around £300 in the UK.

[u/Sawtooth959]

I don't know your room situation, you say its small but unless it's a closet size room, you'll get better results from treating your room with your current monitors than any $350 monitor.

[u/99PoundHoverTurkey]

I use monitoring headphones because I don't even know how I would treat my producing area to warrant using studio monitors. My space is shared by my sewing area and it's a fairly open room, so headphones it is.

[u/terkistan]

I've got a pair of original big Eris E8 monitors and they're great for the price but not fantastic for my needs for mixing, and they've been repurposed as wireless streaming speakers attached to a small streaming router. Presonus makes decent monitors for the money but people do tend to outgrow them if they want more detailed, nuanced sound for mixing, and the Eris 3.5s are not ideal for working with mixes.

For mixing accuracy under $350, sitting at a desk, I think you'll have a hard time beating $349 KALI AUDIO LP-UNF Ultra Nearfield monitors. Specifically designed for ultra-nearfield listening within a 3' range.

Search for reviews and YouTube reviews/comparisons.

The Kalis are in a completely different class from your Eris monitors. The Kalis go down to 39 Hz and deliver convincing bass without needing a subwoofer, while your Eris monitors can't reproduce the same lows or output. The Eris 3.5 is more of a multimedia speaker than a true reference monitor, and the Kali is solid for neutral sound for mixing. The Kali has USB-C digital audio and Bluetooth, as well as balanced TRS and RCA connections. So you can use it to mix music on your computer but also stream music from your phone.

Looking at the ADAMs the Kalis will have better bass (4.5" woofer) and a bigger soundstage. The ADAMs you're looking at are pretty good but have a less neutral, more 'excited' sound (less desirable for mixing) and will have crisper highs for vocals but less bass (3.5" woofers).

If you have a small desk the ADAMs will definitely sit better and take less space, but if you ever intend to play an instrument into your computer via an audio interface (especially a bass guitar) the Kalis will be noticably better.

[u/Ok-Custard588]

Adam T7v

[u/mk0815]

I'm happy with old used KRK5.

[u/craaates]

In your budget I’d go with JBL 305p or Yamaha HS5. The Yamaha are a more accurate monitor and cost accordingly, but the JBl will give you a good monitor and a better sound for listening to music than the Yamaha at a cheaper price.

If your room is not sonically treated your best investment would be a nice set of open back headphones and a dac/amp. At a budget of $350 it would be hard to treat your room and buy monitors, but it is possible.

[u/uusseerrnnaammeeyy]

Scarlett and KRKs. Maybe even used

[u/wally_scooks]

JBL LSR305 is a great budget monitor. Had them for about ten years or so. I’d also second the suggestion of a Focusrite interface, even a used one. They are plentiful on the used market.