[adam79]

Hi. I want to buy a pair of studio monitors for my KORG D16. My budget is
$300. There are a decent amount of brands that sell pairs of monitors
anywhere from $99 up to my $300 budget. For this kind of money does it
really matter what brand I get? Will the $300 ones really outshine the $99
or $199 monitors? I'll be buying them from swee****er.com since I have a
credit card with them.

Thanks,
-Adam

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 7, 3:43 pm, "adam79" wrote:
Hi. I want to buy a pair of studio monitors for my KORG D16. My budget is
$300. There are a decent amount of brands that sell pairs of monitors
anywhere from $99 up to my $300 budget. For this kind of money does it
really matter what brand I get? Will the $300 ones really outshine the $99
or $199 monitors?

Hey! Somebody finally asked the right question, or rather, asked the
question right. I don't think you'll find any outstanding differences
between monitors in that price range, but if you were to listen to
several, you'd almost certainly notice differences though it might be
hard for you to decide which one you preferred.

I picked up a pair of K-Rok Rocket 5 powered speakers for $250 from
Guitar Center when I wanted something I could carry along easily for
doing show-and-tells, and they're surprisingly unobjectionable. Ask
your Swee****er salesman what he'd recommend, and if you have the
opportunity, try to listen to them in a local shop to make sure you
don't hate them.

[William Sommerwerck]

Don't buy speakers you haven't heard.

[Tim Brault]

On Dec 7, 3:53 pm, Mike Rivers wrote:
On Dec 7, 3:43 pm, "adam79" wrote:

Hi. I want to buy a pair of studio monitors for my KORG D16. My budget is
$300. There are a decent amount of brands that sell pairs of monitors
anywhere from $99 up to my $300 budget. For this kind of money does it
really matter what brand I get? Will the $300 ones really outshine the $99
or $199 monitors?

Hey! Somebody finally asked the right question, or rather, asked the
question right. I don't think you'll find any outstanding differences
between monitors in that price range, but if you were to listen to
several, you'd almost certainly notice differences though it might be
hard for you to decide which one you preferred.

I picked up a pair of K-Rok Rocket 5 powered speakers for $250 from
Guitar Center when I wanted something I could carry along easily for
doing show-and-tells, and they're surprisingly unobjectionable. Ask
your Swee****er salesman what he'd recommend, and if you have the
opportunity, try to listen to them in a local shop to make sure you
don't hate them.

You've hit the nail on the head--go to Guitar Center, listen to
whatever you can within your price range, and then go buy from
wherever you feel comfortable. Make sure you bring along a CD you know
well enough to make subjective judgements, write down what you thought
about your options, then look up the specs.

Also--don't rule our demos or scratch & dent monitors--you can save
some money that way and maybe get something you thought was outside of
your range. I dropped ~$350 on some KRKv4's, and I'll never regret it--
they're decent enough speakers, and when I can afford to upgrade
they're small enough that I'll just use them somewhere else in the
house!

[Scott Dorsey]

adam79 wrote:
Hi. I want to buy a pair of studio monitors for my KORG D16. My budget is
$300. There are a decent amount of brands that sell pairs of monitors
anywhere from $99 up to my $300 budget. For this kind of money does it
really matter what brand I get? Will the $300 ones really outshine the $99
or $199 monitors? I'll be buying them from swee****er.com since I have a
credit card with them.

I don't think there is anything sold as a studio monitor under $300 that
you'd want to work with.

You might look for a used pair of NHT Super Ones. Add a small power amp
to that and you'll have something that won't make your tear your hair out
somewhere in that price range.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Russell Dawkins]

On Dec 7, 12:43 pm, "adam79" wrote:
Hi. I want to buy a pair of studio monitors for my KORG D16. My budget is
$300. There are a decent amount of brands that sell pairs of monitors
anywhere from $99 up to my $300 budget. For this kind of money does it
really matter what brand I get? Will the $300 ones really outshine the $99
or $199 monitors? I'll be buying them from swee****er.com since I have a
credit card with them.

Thanks,
-Adam

Audioengine 2's and 5's are getting very good press:
http://www.audioengineusa.com/news.htm at $200 and $350, but I see
Swee****er doesn't carry them.

[Ken Winokur]

Have you considered used speakers? There's a pretty big difference
between the cheapest monitors on the market and the next level. There
are lots of Tannoy speakers available used. I have yet to hear any
Tannoys I wouldn't recommend. If you can find a pair of Reveals (the
red - passive ones without internal amplifiers are quite a good
deal). I like the PBM 8. The smaller and cheaper PBM 6.5 are a great
deal for very little money. I think some of the others (System 8 for
instance) would blow away any new $300 monitors. It's really useful
to get speakers that have a good low bass (which usually comes with
speakers with larger woofers and larger cabinets).