After reading many articles and talking to people, I decided to go into storage and dig up some OLD crappy computer speakers that we had kept from a few years ago. I plugged them in and check my mixes on them frequently...I can just hit a button and A/B. I don't use them to make decisions on the mix other than "ohh I got a little carried away with the low end there," etc, etc. I figure that most of the people enjoying our music don't own $2000+++ studio reference monitor systems. Our work must sound decent on shit systems.

Here's one you can do for free, if you have a TV set that's not too old:

A lot of television sets made in the last few years have audio inputs and outputs (usually RCA). They are stereo, but with little tiny crappy speakers... just perfect for what you are looking for! If you've got too much low end information in your mixes, those babies will let you know in a hurry!

Littledog, if you can hear me slapping my head and saying "Doh!" then you probably figured out that the JVC video monitor right in front of me has an audio input... Thanks for the reminder! Question 2, check!

hello, again

i've got an old crappy panasonic boombox with an auxiliary rca input which quadruples as a powerbook monitor/softsynth amplifier, mixdown monitor, cassette dubber and a impromptu gig/rehearsal recorder

goddam useful piece of technology (been with me since i started doing this) ... and battery operated