In the £500 price range they would appear to be the choice, but is it the 8030a by Genelec or the HR623 by Mackie.

Informed opinions most welcome

ta

J

Dynaudio

Ha Ha OK, why and which model?
J

BM6A are fantastic. BM15A are for me, the best near-field monitor that you can buy. Evidently BM15A are outside your budget of 500 pounds but BM6A in its size also they are the best ones. You have to consider that the sound is something very personal. It is not possible to be measured.
Dynaudio sounds great, clean, with great diffusion of the image in stereo, bass deep, sweet and frightening. The middle are clear and do not tire. I recommend to you that listen the three monitors with a disc that you like and that approaches the sound which you want to do. Your ears will say to you as you prefer.

Thanks a lot for that,
Actually the BM15A are £629 and the BM6A £550 and I can get a discount so they would both be within my range.
If it's so personal an issue I think I should get a favourite CD and play it on all of these makes. (isn't that the best way of testing them?)

cheers, very interesting

J

If you have budget for the BM15A i not would doubt it. You have a good equipment. The fireface 800 is fantastic. Its clean and his full of shades sound combines very well with Dynaudio. I have the three monitors. Also Fireface 800. Genelec is less trustworthy, the middle are something compressed. This according to whereupon things can be dangerous. Mackie and Dynaudio are very trustworthy, but the sound of BM15A is really beautiful.

The 8030 really need a sub to get some depth, 8040 can do without. Some people trust a lot the Genelec, I find them "muddy" on A/B listening, but it's personal.
Dynaudio are awesome, BM6A are one of my favs (being on HR824 and dreaming of ADAM monitors).

Now, as Jimmynitcher and Jsegura said, it's a very personal choice. Open your ears, bring your CDs and have a good listening test.

Doh! I got all the prices wrong - they were for single speakers!
Start again...
thanks anyway folks, I can but dream.
J

I would go for the Mackie monitors. They have gotten very good reviews in all the mags I've seen.
They have been commended especilally for their transparency and detail in the mid and high registers.
Good transient-handling stable stereo-image and pretty wide sweet-spot.


The Mackie HR-624 can be complemented later with their subwofer HR-120 or HR-150.
First i will uppgrade my current iMac to a dual G5 - 2.3
Then I will buy a pair of Mackie HR-624.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

OK, the Mackie HR-624 is more trustworthy than Genelec 8030a. Its sound is cleaner.

I was wondering…

And I also...

As the Genelecs and Mackies suddenly soared out of your price range, I have a suggestion for really good budget speakers, Phonic P8A. They're basically a copy of Genelec's 1030-series design-wise. I traded in these for a pair of Tapco S5:s that I didn't like very much. The Phonics sound very smooth and truthful to my ears, no dramatic dips or peaks anywhere. Also with the 8-inch woofers, you won't have to worry about any external sub if you're not planning on going really deep. The only negative thing about these monitors is the auto-power function--it doesn't work at all, at least not in my configuration, so don't use this feature. Oh, and they look pretty cheap as well, but that figures, I guess.

Genelec No Doubt!!

I rock a pair of 1037's and they kick ass...Also, mackie just copied the genelecs shamelessly...

Good Luck when auditioning yourself because that's definitely what you should do before buying anything.

Vank

I'm sorry, but I really do not see the reason for following a certain name brand.. I don't know, maybe I just don't see the difference (other than the price).
For the price Alesis M1 active Mk2's have served me well... sort of. I'm not shure what bass respnce to expect. When the M1's are a' Thumpin', way too much bass in the mix.

The audio monitors are fundamental in a studio. It is not question of name brands but of effectiveness. In the budgets, usually one leaves for the end the purchase of monitors. It is a great error. Your car will be as good as their wheels allow him. Dynaudio is really effective and Mackie too. I have Genelec and they are not as effective as the previous ones. It is my experience. That each one juzge by itself.

Some tips when looking for monitor speakers...

Make sure when you go to listen to the speakers that you take some tracks that have some very specific things. You need on that isn't heavily compressed, so that you can hear the detailing, and dynamic accuracy (orchestral music is often very good for this). You need some that have low bass, so that you can hear the depth that the speakers are accurate to. (A real plus is if you can find a track that has two layers of bass, perhaps a bass guitar and synth playing similar bass lines - this allows you to hear if they are clear at the bottom end - William Orbit and P!nk's track Feel Good Time is a good example of this). It is very good to get tracks with accoustic guitar and piano playing in a similar range, as this often helps you see the accuracy of the crossover (often the cheaper speakers get muddy near the crossover point). If you can find a track that is poorly mixed, and doesn't really sound that 'produced' (like Dinosaur Jr. or some of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers tracks) this shows how uesful the speakers would be for mixing - these tracks are normally deliberately un-'produced' but you want to be able to avoid this.

Remember that you are not looking for the speakers that sound the best, but rather the ones that are the most accurate. These are tools, not toys. If you want a cd to sound really nice, then buy hi-fi, if you want the music you are working on to sound good, then go accurate.

A good option in your price range, mentioned above is the Phonic P8A - very accurate crossover, reasonably deep accurate bass (according to the specs accurate to 45 hz, but they sound reasonable down to about 25hz)

Another pair worth considering (and I'll probably get laughed at for suggesting these, but have a listen) is the Yamaha MSP5A's. I was astounded that speakers this small could have such strong accurate bass. If desk space is an issue for you, have a listen to these, they certainly surprised me.

I would personally avoid going for a seperate sub. Unless you are very good at setting up a crossover, then there is the potential that your mixes will either have too much bass, or not enough.

Hope this helps...

mykuhl

Of the two choices in the original post it's Genelecs all the way. I haven't heard the Dynaudios, but I would suspect they're up there with the Gennys and then it's personal taste really.

I still use my 1029As. The reason I was interested in them initially was the small size as I run a portable system. Since getting those I have been so content I have never even window shopped for any other monitors for the last 6 years. I don't even know what the latest Genelec models are.

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