Monitor reccomendations

[Rimskidog]

Take a look at the room models on the GIK acoustics websites (sorry, having a heavy week and too lazy to sketchup your room for you): [url="http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_room_kits.html"]http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_room_kits.html[/url]. You can see the stages you could go through as you improve your room. Essentially bass builds in corners (especially where three corners meet) so that's where to start. Floor to ceiling panels of RS45 rockwool (rocksilk if your are buying from Travis Perkins - they are cheapest). In stage 1 make the panels 6 inches thick and have them run from floor to ceiling in the 4 corners of your room (presuming that you don't hae time/money/energy to make superchuink traps which are more effective but more work/expense). Stage 2 would be 2inch panels at your mirror points. Once you've done that see how it sounds. Deal with problem issues from there.

Also in terms of setting up your room, you want the monitors shooting down the longest length, preferably with a foot of space behind them before the wall to reduce proximity effect bass - if you dont have enough space for this you'll want a couple of chunky bass traps behind them). Does this all make sense?

Edited February 25, 2010 by Rimskidog

[TDM]

Thanks for the advice!

I'm not sure how I'd get bass traps in the the end of the room with the door as traps in one corner would block the door and the other corner would get in the way of my bed. Can I get away with smaller ones in that corner? Would having two bass traps at the front, in the corners either side of the window, help by themselves?

Edited February 25, 2010 by thedonutman

[Rimskidog]

[quote name='thedonutman' post='757657' date='Feb 25 2010, 10:13 PM']Thanks for the advice!

I'm not sure how I'd get bass traps in the the end of the room with the door as traps in one corner would block the door and the other corner would get in the way of my bed. Can I get away with smaller ones in that corner? Would having two bass traps at the front, in the corners either side of the window, help by themselves?[/quote]

Every little helps and the more you can do the better so do what you can and don't worry about what you cant do. Remember bass traps in any corner will work so you could put them along wall/ceiling corners or floor seiling corners and they will work well.

[tombboy]

With regard to monitors, can I throw another brand into the mix?
Get yourself a pair of Mackie HR824's mk.II
Great quality and second hand they go on the bay for around £500.
More information can be found [url="http://www.mackie.com/products/hrmk2series/"]here[/url].

[TDM]

I went over to Production Room in Leeds to try out some monitors today:

KRKs - I really liked the RP5s, but the RP6s and RP8s didn't have as much mid/high definition although they had more (albeit slightly muddy) bass
Yamahas - They didn't have any of the HS series, but the MSP5s didn't seem nearly as fatiguing as people make it out to be. I thought it sounded a bit boxy though
Adam A7s - Very detailed highs but surprisingly lacking in bass
Sonodyne - Never heard of them before, very detailed high end but terrible bass response, even the larger ones
Genelac - I wasn't originally even considering these but the 8020B, even with a 4" driver sounded surprisingly balanced.
Event Opals - The guy showed me these just for fun. Way out of my price range but certainly an amazing listening experience.

I think it's between the RP5s and the 8020s. The Genelacs are over twice the price of the KRKs and I'm really not sure they're twice as good. They weren't set up at the same desk so I couldn't do a direct A/B comparison. However, after A/Bing the 8020s with some 8030s, 6010s + sub and the Opals I must say I preferred the 8020s to the 8030s, and they even stacked up favorably in terms of highs/mids to the Opals.

The A7s have come very highly recommended from everyone on here and other forum, but I wasn't particularly impressed with them - something wrong with my ears?

So in short, I still have no idea what to buy!

Edited April 3, 2010 by thedonutman

[Rimskidog]

The A7s are midforward which will give the impression they lack bass. If you are aiming for that level of monitor but something less midforward look at the Dynaudio BM5a. And as there's a MKII just come out you may get a discount on the original.

Edited April 3, 2010 by Rimskidog