Studio Monitors?, Low budget!! Options

[Hamish]

I am on a very low budget approx £300 and I need monitors. What can anyone recommend? Active, or an Amp and monitors. Please help!

[Presto]

Thanks Holli for your very interesting analysis. You meant a too-many-watt amp sounds better as long as you don't turn it up too much and kill your speakers.

Well, if Hamish goes over budget and gets good speakers such as BM5s, he still has to find more cash for a good amp. Perhaps he could use a cheaper amp until he finds some more cash.

I personally think that speakers are usually the weak link in the listening chain. Although I'm no expert, I would tend to think that cheap speakers and an expensive amp are not as good as good speakers and an average amp.

Anyway, Hamish, whatever you get will be better than what you had before, and you may have to get some good mics which are usually the weak link in the recording chain.

If you start eating only potatoes and spaghetti, you'll still find you should spend more than you can afford on your gear.

I was able to spend 3 times your budget on my active speakers but as I will get a pro sound engineer to tidy up my recordings using his expensive equipment and experienced ears, it was more for my pleasure than an absolute necessity. I have a sneaky feeling I should have given more priority to the mics, but my ears are veeeeeeeery happy.

Although shops don't often have the best listening environment, you should go and compare what they have using your ears.

If you get active speakers, they will be balanced. The amps will be adapted to the speakers (or vice versa), but you may find a separate amp is more versatile - lots of inputs and only one on/off switch. I find it annoying having to walk round and switch off my active speakers to avoid spikes when switching other stuff off then on again later. In fact I often forget and cringe when I hear the spikes.