Best Studio Monitors

Best studio monitors. Do you need them? Yes and no, it depends on you. Just doing this for fun, on a budget, or just trying it out, then you can start with studio headphones. But if you have a room/space you can use for a studio then it is worth trying, it is a fun project to build your studio and set up your speakers. There are countless bedroom producers among us, most bedrooms are a great place to start out as the bed can work as some acoustics treatment. When I just tried it out I realized this is what I wanted to keep doing. You can try it out with some pc/bookshelf speakers at first to see if that is something for you or if headphones work better for you, but remember pc speakers or bookshelf speakers won’t give you the honest and neutral sound you need for mixing and mastering.

Set up your speakers as you see in the illustration below. 

Point the tweeters to your ears and not the chest.

You need to treat your room with some acoustic treatment to stop reflection/echo in the room so you get the best sound experience, especially if you are going to mix and master music. A good start is to have a sofa/bed in the room, carpets on the floor, and some acoustic panels on the wall. The cheap foam ones you can buy on ebay and Amazon helps a little bit, but I recommend you save up and buy some better ones. 

This is just an example of what you can be on the lookout for in this “Link” or you can build it yourself as you see in this “Video”.

My choice of monitor KRK Rockit 5

These are great active near-field studio speakers with a true to the original, flat-response sound. I bought these because of their good reviews, and they have the bass port in the front, so they can be placed closer to the wall. Speaker with the bass port in the rear needs some space from the wall. These ones are an excellent choice for all genres, often used for electronic and hip hop. | Frequency range: 43Hz – 40kHz |

What are active speakers? It means that one of the speakers or both has a built-in amplifier. This is very useful for small studios and saves space cabling management etc. Most studio monitors/speakers have built-in amplifiers. 

A popular choice is the Yamaha hs5

Yamaha HS5 active near-field studio monitor features a 5 ” bass element and a highly efficient 1-inch dome tweeter for an extended high-frequency register up to 30kHz. It is designed to ensure that the sound is true to the original, with a high resolution and flat response, to achieve the best possible mix. | Frequency range: 54Hz – 30kHz |

You do not need to start with the most expensive speakers at the beginning. But stick to studio monitors! Bookshelf and pc monitors are not a good choice since they don’t have flat frequency responses.

iLoud is excellent for small studios and traveling

iLoud Micro Monitors from ikmultimedia.com are excellent studio monitors for small studios and producers who travel. These are small but the sound is large. | Frequency range: 55Hz – 20kHz |