What you need to do is go to a guitar shop and just find what sounds the best to you and can fit in your price range. I found KRK monitors to perform pretty well. They are a bit steep in pricing.

http://www.krksys.com/product_rokit.php

Its your choice to find what you want.

You could do what I’ve done and just shop around for a 1970s Stereo receiver and some speakers from that era. Those systems are warm, and clear on the whole audio spectrum.

Hope this helps.

I don’t think Glenn is an idiot. Oh, and by the way, you would write it like this:

“Dear Glenn, your *an* idiot.*

Who’s the idiot now?

The debate between hifi and pro audio gear has been going on for years, because everybody wants to achieve the perfect sound, bringing you closer to the music with as little coloration as possible (transparent components). On the other hand, there is no such thing as a transparent component (for example, valve amplifiers for warmer sound, solid state for more ‘accurate’ and ‘clinical’ sound, ribbon tweeters, metal dome tweeters, silk tweeters, paper cones, ally cones, plastic cones, closed cabinets, ported cabinets.. the list is endless)

The benefit of having studio monitors is speaker designs loaded with custom build Class A/B or D amplifier perfectly tuned for the speaker, thus removing the ‘crossover’ from a passive design. The downside of this is, should you wish to upgrade you are stuck with an active monitor that will need replacing.

In my opinion pro audio monitors are designed for their environment. There are hundreds of beautifully designed, weird and wonderful passive consumer speakers available.

As a ‘producer’ and hifi enthusiast myself, I have extensive experience from both routes. In the ‘pro’ world I have used Dynaudio, Tapco, Mackie, Genelic, PMC and a few more along the way I’m sure..

In the ‘hifi’ world I have had Spendor, B&W, Monitor Audio, Acoustic Energy to name a few..

A lot of these brands I have listed sell both pro and consumer models – with good reasoning to each side of the story.

If I were you, I would completely steer clear of pro monitors. Unless you have a pre-amp, you are going to need something to tame the power amp on the back of the speakers.

The beauty of hifi is, although it may take up more room, the possibilities are endless. As others have suggested here, there is synergy between great brands such as Rotel (electronics) and B&W (speakers) – but don’t take their word for it, part of the excitement is getting out there and experimenting!

I should add that class D amps can be had for very reasonable prices now, and they can be purchased in smaller sized cases. They sound great too!

Sorry to ramble.. !

PS. My current speakers are Spendor S9e’s (retail £3500) – they are superb!

That said, the M-Audios are a pretty good choice. However, you’ll need a good source (as I said before). This means purchasing a completely separate audio interface (because.. a notebook wouldn’t be able to drive such large speakers with an 1/8”-in). Bad source with awesome speakers = a pretty bad sound. You may not notice the difference unless you’re trained to hear distinctions in music (if you’ve been playing any type of instrument over the past few years).

Figure out your budget before you forage into this field. It’s an endless spending game that will leave your wallets crying for help. I’m your age, and I certainly know expenses from experience.

If you’re listening for a budget punch, I recommend the brand “Swans” – available at http://theaudioinsider.com. Personally, i’d take the D1080MKIIs in a price:performance ratio, and the Swans M10 if you want a great 2.1 set for your laptop. The M200s aren’t a bad choice, so you might want to consider those.

Anyway, hope i’ve helped narrow your choices some. Let me know if you have any questions.

sorry, that is just effing hilarious.

There’s nothing wrong with M-audio. Their just another brand that makes affordable audio gear, they may not be the best of the best, but they are the better choice for people on a tight budget and they’re probably better than behringer! lol

Also, I see people talking about Creative and Logitech, THESE are not studio monitors! they are basic computer speakers. Studio monitors and computer speakers are totally different things.

I would suggest looking at the brand KRK and their VXT series, and also the brands Event, Focal, and Yamaha. (or Tannoy if your on a budget) There are many others out there as well so go listen to a few kinds and make your decision that way.

Hope this helped!

I’ll add another suggestion for AudioEngine’s bookshelf speakers. They’ve got good sound quality for their price and the multiple inputs is great for plugging in game consoles and other devices you want to plug in.

I’ll also suggest that you take a look at audio forums like Head-fi.org if you want more helpful suggestions.

I would also advise you go to a shop and have a listen. I did as well and found I didn’t like the bass in the entry level KRK’s I had in mind, so I ended up getting these Alesis ones instead.

Speakers that give a flat response are great and worthwhile for actual audio monitoring, but for listening, I’d rethink your approach. The trap many people are falling into today is in thinking that they need pro audio gear for general listening, which is a huge step in the wrong direction. There is absolutely nothing wrong with colouring the sound to please your own ears. So instead, why not invest in some good, solid, and not necessarily expensive hifi speakers, and a separate DAC and amp. That way, you have a lot more control over your sound and you can interchange parts to suit your own ears as you become more aware of what you like and dislike over time.

Head on over to head-fi for some recommendations on audio gear. There’s plenty of it out there. I’m thinking a good pair of active bookshelf speakers like the Audioengine A5 and an external DAC like the EMU 0404 is a good place to start.

Do you do any sort of musical production? I’m a producer of house/dance/electronic music (and I DJ) and I am in the middle of setting up a home studio. My friend has two KRK monitors and they sound exceptional and I don’t think you would hear much of a difference between them and these overpriced M-Audio speakers.

I tend to agree with what Alec Feld was saying. It is important to have very adept ears and understand sound before going head first into the field of reference monitors and spending big bucks. I mean, you can get a great sound that you might not even be able to distinguish from the same coming out of monitors out of speakers which aren’t even traditional studio monitors.

So, I suggest that you visit your local music hardware store and ask questions and listen to some monitors. Even better; if you have a friend that is into production and has monitors, spend some time at their house!