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Hi,
I am looking for good price and good quality studio monitors for mixing, recording, composing.
I found kind of interedting and cheap stuff.
So, it's JBL LSR305 and KRK Rokit 5 G3.
I heard a lot of good words about KRK monitors, but I was kind of disappointed. The sound quality was much better on JBL monitors.
KRK monitors seemed like Hifi monitors not like for studio.

What is your opinion? Have you ever tried those both monitors?
All opinions are intersted, I hope you could help me to make a good decision.

Comments

callahan studios Sat, 02/15/2014 - 06:36

I first started with the krks and once you get to know them (also get to know your room) they are good little monitors paired with a sub. If you want something that is little more flat try the Yamaha hs7. They are yamaha's (new) ns10 kind of. they are about as flat as you'll get in your price range. Another way is to build your own monitors if you want to venture down that road. Takes a lot of work and time but the end results are worth it.

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anonymous Sat, 02/15/2014 - 07:00

I am looking for good price and good quality studio monitors for mixing, recording, composing.
I found kind of interedting and cheap stuff.

"Cheap" and "Good" rarely go hand in hand.

What is your price range?

What is your room like acoustically?

JBL's make nice monitors in the high dollar range, but like many other manufacturers they also make a budget consumer-grade line as well...

As far as KRK's sounding like "hifi" monitors, there are many variables.... your room acoustics, the caliber of the monitors, the power, etc.

All monitors are intended to be "hi-fi"... which is an abbreviation for high fidelity. The higher the fidelity and accuracy you want, the more you can expect to spend.

What you are looking for are speakers which will give you the most accuracy - ie, a flat frequency response, or at least having attenuation - or gain - in particular frequencies or frequency ranges that the user is aware of, such as the NS10's that have become such an industry standard over the years. Engineers don't use them because they sound "good". They use them because they are able to translate mixes from those monitors to other playback mediums with pretty fair accuracy... and every NS10 user will tell you that they have a gain in the mid to upper mid range, and if you do use them, you need to be aware of that bump.

But none of this matters a bit, if the room you are mixing in is acoustically skewed and inaccurate.

You could have the finest monitors ever made but if you are using them in an environment that is inaccurate, they won't be nearly as useful as if they were in a room that has been treated or compensated, or best, built for that purpose in design, dimension and materials.

FWIW

Lotus7 Sun, 03/30/2014 - 08:35

Have a pair of Rokit-5 G3's and LSR-308s (not 305s). The LSR308s are "cleaner" (Lower distortion) at moderate SPLs (80 to 90dB) and sound flatter. The LSRs have an extended horizontal field, so have a wider usable listening area. However, they seem to have quite narrow vertical dispersion. Moving from a sitting position to a standing one makes little difference using the Rokit-5s but is dramatic with the LSR-308s. I prefer the JBLs over the KRKs but they must be aimed correctly in the vertical plane, a difference of 10 degrees of tilt is audible.

Stereo imaging is better defined with the JBLs, and, of course the LSR308's have much more extended low bass than the Rokit-5s. The LSR308s can produce a clean and strong 40 Hz fundamental, and will play a lot louder before clipping (5 or 6 dB). The LSR305s will play only a couple of dB louder than a Rokit-5 G3. At comparable sensitivity settings, the Rokit-5 G3s produce a louder background noise floor than the LSR-305s, by a few dB, although both are audible in a very quiet room. The noise is present when using a monitor switcher that shorts the inputs, so is definitely coming from the internal amps, not the signal feed.

I use the Rokit-5s for on-location recording monitoring when I have a separate room to use, and don't need to use headphones. They're small and light enough to carry around, unlike the LSR 308s.