Thread: Monitors: price point, where to shop, how to shop

Beyond taking a reference CD, the next most important thing is the all mighty RETURN POLICY. Most stores I've been in have a poorly set up "monitor display" to begin with - and even if they did have a good set-up, it's still not your set-up. You need to take a pair home to try them out.
Make sure that you are extra careful packing & unpacking them, and a good store shouldn't give you any hassle. You could also order from a mail order place. There have been a few times that I have ordered 2 or 3 items with the intention of keeping one, and sent back what I don't like for a refund. I'm out a little shipping, but it beats having to make these kind of decisions while little Joey is hammering out his latest opus in the drum room next door...
...As far as price - it seems that the $1000-$1500 range is the most popular with the Mackie 824s, JBLs, etc. Then you get into th $3000-ish range with Genelec and the like, and then things get pricey...

Good Luck!

the job of a monitoring speaker is to find the truth of a recording. If the truth is beautiful it will sound beautiful, but if the truth is ugly that will be revealed as well. What ever circumstances, a sound engineer needs to hear the inherent truth of a recording to know how to respond to it.

There have been lots of threads on these forums regarding monitors at various price levels. Use a search for "Genelec", "KRK" or "Dynaudio" to get ideas.

I remembered this one on Dynaudio BM6As vs KRK V8s, which curiously didn't draw much response: http://www.recording.org/ftopict-40946-.html

When I last auditioned monitors, I was very glad that I had taken with me not only commercial reference CDs and a CD of typical material that I had assembled from my live recordings, but also a CD player that I trusted, as the one in the audition room at the store was not up to the job of providing accurate source material for A/B-ing these top-end monitors.

Chuck Levins - DC (Actually Maryland, but inside the beltway). It's a great place to buy and try. Good prices, great selection!

chucks is a good shop... is venemans still open??? meyer-emco for the audiofool types they used to be the B+W dealer there... is audiocrafters still around???

Myer Emco is still around. The biggest problem is, other than their premium lines (B&W and Krell which they hardly even display anymore) everything is Best Buy quality...Bose, sony, Yamaha, Pioneer, etc...

sorry to hear that jeremy... while they were the competion for me when i was in that biz... they were atleast good reputable competion...

sorry to hear that jeremy... while they were the competion for me when i was in that biz... they were atleast good reputable competion...