Hey guys! I just wanted to see if anyones really familliar with M-Audio’s AV 40’s? I see the price on M-Audio’s page as 200 something and my local store as 189.00. Its nice and a little more affordable, and altho I will have to invest a little more then I really have I’'m trying to figure out if their really worth it or if I should just buy one KRK (RP5-G2 75W) for now and save up for the other… I heard the M-audio’s arn’t even that bad really. [center]
[/center]Here’s the link to the stores add for the M-Audio AV 40’s: http://mothersmusic…0&cat=86&page=3[center]
[/center]And the KRK’s that would be my price range: http://mothersmusic…1&cat=86&page=2[center]
[/center]Thanks for any advice ahead of time guys! =D[center]
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Shouldn’t you go have a listen for yourself in a store where they sell both monitors? In my own experience thats the best way to judge which ones sound best for you.
KRKs are nice monitors, good fun to produce on, can go really loud and sound pretty decent. However they aren’t the clearest monitors around so I always end up doing most of my mix downs on my headphones (using beyerdynamic DT770 pros, which are pretty nice but i’m thinking of getting some sennheiser hd650s to go with them also)
Especially if your going to just have one monitor i would definitely get some headphones just to be able to judge whats going on in the stereo.
I use the same KRK / DT770pro combo - Spooky!
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[/center]Hey td6d! And really thanks for the thought… of course this is going to be the defining part of the whole experience but I really respect the word and qualifications of my peers and am kinda doing a little market research myself (with my own research and data gathering) along with gathering personal experiences then the actual monitor test to finalize my purchase. But really if I sit down and listen to them and let that be the sole basis on how I purchase am I not really selling myself short? What’s a manufactured cd already mastered going to tell me about a product that’s to help me with the whole production process… Anyway thanks for the input so far… has anyone used the M-Audio’s before? I know to avoid M-Audio as much as humanly possible due to their lovely lack of compatibility due to their drivers and no updates or just really crappy hard to find. 
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[/center]KUDOS! [center]
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I didn’t read topic, but any 8 inch monitors will do the job
I’m a fan of 8" woofers too. Really happy with my Yamaha HS80Ms. Quite enough low representation with 8" without really wanting to muck around with the idea of a sub. And if I really want to do some detailed work with sub freqs I just do it with my AKG K240mkIIs. The more systems to check for translation the better (see my InDepth article for why). Other than Yamaha I’d rate the Mackies. Don’t buy until you see a frequency response graph. Do lots of research, tonnes of reviews on the web.
i don’t recommend the mackies at all. they’re too thin on the mids…things that I’ve mixed down on them sound muddy as all hell on other systems.
i like the hs80m as well. solid monitor, sounds good, not too expensive.
yes, im in the same boat (tooooth) and was thinking the same: “what’s the point of listening to already mastered music in a room that is NOT your own studio/room”
so far my conclusion is: you should get the monitors where your OWN unmastered music sounds the most horrible on, that’s the monitors that are most honest… eh ? does it make sense ? idk.
myself im pondering to get the Samson Resolv a8 ( they go 30hz deep! and are pretty cheap) or to get the Yamaha’s hs80m
it’s a interesting topic indeed
Everything. What type of speakers do you think the CD was mixed and mastered on?
Find some monitors within your budget and listen to them. Then choose the ones that sound clearest/most detailed/nicest
In my opinion you can’t go wrong with Adam, Genelec, Event, ATC, PMC, Dynaudio etc. But if you can’t stretch to their cheapest offerings look at KRK, Mackie or Alesis M1s.
probably not the ones we poor hobbyists buy, what do you mean?
why listen for niceness and not for things that sound ‘wrong’ ? isn’t that what monitors are for, to reveal inaccurate mixing? my reasoning might be wrong, still i’d like to understand. 
I have KRK RP-5s, they are fine for the money. I find the low end slightly lacking though, so I may get a KRK sub when i have some money. You may want to consider going for the RP-6 or RP-8 which will deliver a little more bass, or RP-5 + 10S for this reason. Generally speaking the KRKs are a reasonable choice though I think.
If a mix sounds good on the £200 monitors in the shop, they are closer in sound to the £20,000 monitors the track was mixed on. (Providing whoever mixed it knew what they were doing)
The point of monitors is to help create mixes that translate well to other speakers.
You don’t need monitors to do this, the alternative method is to listen to the track in progress on as many different systems as possible. Hi-fi speakers, ipod headphones, laptop speakers, in the car. But that’s a lot of effort.
Marketing would also have you believe that ‘studio monitors’ have a completely different, special sound that ‘normal’ speakers don’t have. My friend has a pair of British-made hi-fi speakers from the 60s that would be as useful to mix on as a pair of brand new studio monitors. Conversely there are many studio monitors that are crap for mixing.
However, regardless of their performance, studio monitors are designed for mixing, so if you are looking at several different models above a certain price point they are all likely to be equally useful to mix on, so the deciding factor for me would be whether I like their character or whether it suits the style of music I make.
My final point is that (unless you mix exclusively outdoors on in an anechoic chamber) when you are mixing, you are listening to the room as much as you are listening to the speakers (or even more than the speakers depending on your setup) so how can you really tell which speaker will be most useful…?
thanks, so is it save to concluded that:
- if possible, one should listen to the monitors in one’s own studio (apparently, some shops allow this above a certain price mark)
- listen to various well mastered music that you know inside out
- listen your own unfixed music and see if it reveals your own weak spots
- spend more is probably better…
but what is this magic price point?, would brand fame always beat raw specs? for example, those samson resolve a8’s have very nice specs, yet they are really cheap compared to other brand with similair or less specs… it’s not making it any easier, really.
I wrote this article to fully explore the issue of translation, rooms and reliability:
that certainly helped putting things back into perspective, sir mmd. ;]
Hmm… No one has really touched on the M-Audio AV 40’s… Thanks for all the input. =D. And mmd… I read your article when you first released it (as I do most of your shizzz) I really thoroughly enjoyed reading. Thanks for always adding shit like that too man, really helps, i mean I know what im trying to achieve but I always love more understanding WHY and WHAT im trying to achieve, lets me know that i’m on the right track. =D [center][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, sans-serif]
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