Thanks for all the info! I will use them for general listening as well as for production. I don’t really have control over placement since the space is somewhat constrained. I will basically have to have them on a shelf at head level just behind my desk (say 3-4 feet in front of me with a wall about 6 feet behind me. The rest of the room is extremely high ceilings and there is a large amount of space behind the speakers. Clearly not ideal but it is what it is
I was looking at the G3 KRK lineup but wondering if going to the 8 instead of the 5 would be better in this environment. Not really looking to make serious mixes but just want something that has more detail and precision than these crap logitech speakers I have now (I mainly use headphones currently).
I use Adam Ax5’s because i live in a small caravan I added a sub later-on.
I think they give an exellent definition and are very practical in size.
A sub is very difficult to manage in a little space but i could not live without it… The subs go so low on the A4 i really need it to hear wat’s going on down there. The avantage of a sub is that you can listen with or without it and adjust the level independant of the sattelites.
I used Mackie’s HR820 before buth they lack the High-Freq. definition off the Adam’s. They have a good low-end ( do a little to mutch )but in general i think they are pleasing to mutch.( and fuckin big ).
In a bigger space i think i would have chosen the A7’s but the A5’s are very handy in size when i need to take them somewhere.
I read somewhere to avoid monitors with a bass-reflect at the backside, because the sound then dépends on the wall behind them so it becomes more complicated.
When this pair came out I had them recommended to me by both a prominent Sound Designer and a friend who still uses them for mastering plus they look to be almost half the price these days.
Although how I got my pair was most amusing as apparently disgruntled ex-girlfriends might not get the Trade-me (the NZ ebay) details for a pair of DJ car speakers(?) or the 2nd hand price quite right in the heat of the moment.
The HS series just seems sllllightly marketed toward budget/bedroom EDM/“beats” production - so it made me uncomfortable to think that I was buying something rather “targeted” – though I suppose MSP-5s are targeted toward Japanese project studios producing crystalline anime/game music–which I have no problem with
In December I purchased my first set of monitors - Focal Alpha 80s (on IsoAcoustics stands). After a long burn-in period, I find the sound to be very good. The lows, mids, and highs are all about equally forward. I wanted something with a good low-end, as I was not interested in getting a sub-woofer.
Even with my - as yet - untreated room, I find the sound very good. I have run some audio test files and know that I have one big bass hole (I do not know the exact frequency). Otherwise, not bad.
Although I cannot pin this on Focal alone, the monitors drive my tinnitus crazy. That is why I am going to add some high frequency absorption to the room before I address the bass traps (which is going to be challenging in my room). By the way, the shelving controls on the back of the units actually work very well.
The only thing I do not like regarding the Alphas is the “power saving” mode. I like to listen to music at low levels while I am working on my computer. Every 30 minutes the speakers turn off (into power saving mode) and I have to turn the volume way up to get a strong enough signal to get them to turn back on again.
Obviously, monitor buying is a very personal decision. For my needs, I think these are great monitors, performing at a higher level than their price point. I give them a two thumbs-up.
upgraded from KRK v8’s to Neumann KH310’s almost a year ago. Just such a vast stark difference from the KRK’s. The low end is soo tight and clear and dynamic. I’ve became a sealed box fanatic. Im pretty sure the ported nature of the V8’s was the reason I always had to guess as to what was really going on down there. Ported boxes smear’s your bass in the time domain, as well as having a big resonant hump at the ports resonant frequency.
I think you are thinking of the KRK Rockit 8’s, the V8’s were around $1200 for the pair new if I remember correctly. But, yeah, obviously there is a huge price difference, so you would expect the sound difference to be extreme. The funniest thing about them when I first got them was that they were smaller than I was imagining them to be and there were so many times the first week that I would look up from the mixer and be surprised at how huge the sound was compared to the size of the speaker that its coming from.
A buddy of mine just got the new Barefoot monitors and I was blown away with those too, but even more $ than the Neumanns. He had just hooked them up the night before though, and they hadn’t had time to break in yet. I’ll be curious to go back and listen after he has had them for a few months.
yeah I didn’t catch that, the v8s are different…like you said though, still a big price difference…I would love to have a pair of neumanns but isn’t going to happen anytime soon…too much GAS for other gear
Genelec 8030a with a KRK RP10s sub taking everything under 58hz (where the 8030a fall off). Been using these since 2006 and after the first year I really got comfortable with them. Its just so effortless to work with them.
DAC feeding them has been everything from Metric Halo 2882/2d to Lynx Aurora to Audiofire4. Now that I’m not tracking jazz ensembles, I’ve settled on a Duet 2. Plus the building was built from the ground up with proper acoustic design and materials so I couldn’t be happier with how it sounds. Will be sad when we move in a few years.
I’ve been using some KRK Rokit 8s for years. I’d recommend against them. Very deceiving on the lows and not nearly flat enough. I’ll be finally replacing them this year.
