Since I do not know what your definition of good is and your budget is well below what I would expect to pay for something "good" then no, I cannot make a recommendation.

I would save more money and get something really good.

That being said, there are certainly monitors that sound pretty good for your budget, but they get a lot better at the next level, so its hard to say whether or not you would be happy.

Steve

Since I'm not really sure what the exchange rate is these days between pounds and the dollar I can only guess.Seems the last time checked it was over 1.76 to 1.If so then Steves assessment while accurate as to what he is saying about buying the best, may be a little off as to what 1300 pounds may be in dollars.I think you cant go wrong with the Adams products in any case.

Well a direct conversion says that £1,300 is US$2,321.

Steve, what do you call good then? Because to me that seems like a pretty large amount of money! This is only a project studio bare in mind.

What price does the 'next level' start at? Are you saying that for just a bit more I can like.. click onto the next level and there is suddenly a huge performance increase?

Cheers!

What price does the 'next level' start at?

About $2000 for each speaker.

I'm sorry to say I can not afford that! So thats simple! :)

Any other monitors I should consider that have good for the price sound stageing?

I agree with Audiogaf, I traded and searched and saved until I ended up at a monitoring system that cost about $5000 which included speakers and a poweramp.

In the under $3000 range there are many monitors that are usable and well made, but they each have very different types of sound. So you are left to select based on what YOU like most and what YOU are able to mix with.

Many many people seem to like the ADAMs speakers. And many many others like Genelecs. Then again many people don't like either of these monitors.

You really really really need to get speakers in your studio and try them for a few days before you can know anything about them. this is true whether for home stereo or for $600/hour mastering suite.

If the stores you are dealing with will not facilitate this then they are not pro audio stores (or they do not trust you).

Speakers are the single most important item in the studio. They will make more difference in your ability to mix than all the vintage outboard, audiophile converters or wizbang DAW software combined.

Spend time on this and consider waiting until you can get what you really want.

The other thing to consider is your speakers will work just as well in 30 years as they do now. You will probably spend over $20k in computers and software over that time and they will all be outdated.

Good luck!

Steve

There is no silver bullet but you get closer as you spend more money (and you get actually pretty darn close).

If your budget is written in rock I would suggest that you get something decent (speakers that sound good to you all around) and learn your speakers - know what you need to do in your mix for it to translate well into the real world.
As you grow in experience (and hopefully savings) you can decide whether it is worthwhile for you to trade up to better speakers later on.

Here are a few speakers that IMHO opinion fit the profile of reasonable price/performance, some cheaper than others :
- Events 20/20bas
- Mackie HR824
- Tannoy Reveal
- KRK's
- Genelec 1029

You will find that all of these have a tendency to stir up religious disputes about how much they suck or not but at the end of the day all that matters is that they sound good to you, allow your ears long hours of work without getting tired and that you can make your mixes work (which takes time/experience using the speakers).

The ADAM's have a great reputation and if you are already biased that way, by all means, give them a try. As said before, ideally you want to hear them side by side in your control room. See if you can find a store that allows you to do that.

Just my opinion,

MisterBlue.

You'll find that Steve, I and many others speak from direct experience in how important it is that you not have good monitors but great monitors if you are going to be doing anything close to serious audio work. I happen to really like the Genelec 1031's. I have heard a few different models of the ADAM's and they are indeed very good as well. They were not in business that I know back when I bought my monitors or they would have been seriously considered as well. I mentioned this in another thread and I fell it needs to be repeated:

Go listen to some great and yes, expensive monitors so you have a reference of what music is supposed to really sound like and then go listen to the cheapies. I believe that you almost always need at least an 8-inch speaker in a monitor to get full sound reproduction unless you also get a sub to go along with anything smaller. If after listening to both types of monitors you really think you can now ever be satisfied and live with any of the cheapies, then get the best pair you can. If not, do the right thing and save up for a pair of the great monitors and let them bring a smile to your face every time you hear them.

But as Steve notes, what you hear when shopping for monitors in a store are most often very different from how they will sound in your room. Great monitors are still going to be great monitors, but will take on and magnify certain characteristics in how they sound from one room to another, or even when placed in different places within the same room.

Okay cheers guys!

When I look at what I can sell off my current Hi-Fi for I can probably up my money to about £1,600 MAX ($2,850) but that still doesn't seem to get me what you guys would call a GREAT pair of monitors.

Oh well, I'll just have a listen to as many as I can!

Cheers,

At that budget you are getting close! Earthworks Sigma 6.2s and some of the ADAMS models come close. You will need a good power amp for the Earthworks. A Hafler or even an older Crown DC300 can be had for not too much money. Then someday later whn you have more budget you can upgrade the amp.

At least this way you do not have to can the speakers AND the amp in order to upgrade.

Steve

I found it interesting that someone wrote in a previous post "purchase monitors that you will still have 30 years from now " Well thats exactly what I did 30 years ago and I'm still useing them. Phase linear 400 & JBL 4311's.
After having this setup for so long,I have learned, over time, exactly how my mixes relate to the world. It seems as tho I just got to know them thru many generations and styles of music. I guess we just kind of grew together.
I KNOW there are a lot of speakers that make mine a dynosaur, and I,ve tried some, and they sound awsome. The feedback I got back from several A&R clients that I contract with all say "get those old monitors back or your future here will be short lived

Thats the set I learned on....wish I still had em. Think of the thousands and thousands of records we listened to and how good they sounded and how people today tout them as the apex of sonic nirvana and how we need to to get that 'vintage' tone into the digital world we live in.....and how MOST of those records were mixed on JBL 4311's with(take yer pick...Crown DC300,Phase Linear 400/700,MacIntosh,etc etc.)

Mine was the 4311 and the Crown DC300(no A)..

Hey the dinosaurs also left us oil.

My local sound per-feshun-ell has a nice set of L100's and I drool everytime I see em.

When I look at what I can sell off my current Hi-Fi for I can probably up my money to about £1,600 MAX ($2,850) but that still doesn't seem to get me what you guys would call a GREAT pair of monitors.

$2.850 You're so close. Save save save, and get those Adam's. :tu:

Mine was the 4311 and the Crown DC300(no A)..

Me Too! Crown DC300 finally died after and I replaced it with an updated/cleaner DC300A design, the Crown PS400.

Actually I'm looking more at a pair of Tannoy Ellipse 8's now. The ADAMs are hard to demo around here. If I got the ADAMs I'd get the S2 I think. I have heard from a few people that they are kind of harsh and have quite an obvious crossover point. I don?t mind bright and detailed but I don't like the idea of a obvious crossover. Also the Tannoys look way cooler ;)

Do the ADAM s2's count as great monitors? I will just get the best I can.

So far selling my stuff has gone okay. I have some stuff on eBay. I would think the only thing you may be interested in is the K1000 headphones. Excellent for monitoring the very fine details. Good price for them!

http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=ssashton&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=50

Originally posted by golli:

When I look at what I can sell off my current Hi-Fi for I can probably up my money to about £1,600 MAX ($2,850) but that still doesn't seem to get me what you guys would call a GREAT pair of monitors.

$2.850 You're so close. Save save save, and get those Adam's. :tu:

For anyone who hasn't heard them, this might give you a better idea of the ADAMs bass and midrange characteristics. The ADAM woofers have properties and sound very similar to the woofers used in KRK monitors. I posted a little technical analysis here: http://recpit.prosoundweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=10354&postdays=0&postorder=&start=30

Thomas

Barefoot!

Your stuff looks great...

I have the S3As and am simply stunned at what I can hear now.

Cheers guys! I have found a place that has an ex-demo pair of PMC AML1's within my budget so I am getting those. I think I must have found the only ex-demo pair on the web!!! I have to have them shipped from America to me here in England, but it is still worth it!

Any of you have experience with these monitors?

They have some great reviews and I like the PMC sound as we use BB5's with Bryston amps in one of the control rooms at college. Very dynamic I think.

Well I feel these do fit into your 'Great Monitors' section from the price at least.

I am late to this post but here are my 2 cents.

Tha Adam Audio S3A's are the badest thing around.
They translate very well and if your mix sounds bad they will too.
The "G" speakers make everything sound good, even bad stuff sound good. The ribbon tweeter in the Adam's is great smooth and very detailed but not fatiguing. here stuff you knew were there but
all the others covered it up.

The S3A's were the best sounding monitor at the 1999 NYC AES show
and the best sounding at the 2003 NYC show.
You know that they are the best when you spend all day listening only to monitors. We bought the ones on the show floor. Yes we had to break the piggy bank to buy them but it was worth it.