Hi-

I tried out the RP8 monitors in a local music store. I thought they
were the best sounding monitors in the price range that I heard. More
even sounding to my ears than Behringer, Samson, M-Audio, Yorkville.

The sales person said to me that he'd actually recommend the RP6's, but
he didn't have them in stock. He claimed that they sound tonally the
same as the RP8.

Does anyone have any commentary on the 5 vs. 6. vs. 8 comparison?
Because maybe the 5's are all I need and that would cost a lot less.

It's for home recording. The room I am in has a reasonably low ceiling
(7 foot) and the back wall of the room is only about 10-12 feet away
from where the monitors will be facing. (It's a finished attic in a house).

I've also heard comments that you *need* a subwoofer with any of
these... my main concern is to have accurate monitors. I don't need to
be throwing house parties with them But I also don't want to be
mixing without any low-end...

To my ears, the RP5's and RP8's sound pretty much the same....the main
difference being, the RP5's will have a hard time outputting 85dB with
very heavy bass, whereas the 8's will have no problem. If you like
monitoring quietly and/or you're not working with heavy bass (ie.
hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, etc.) then the RP5's will treat you just fine!

Jonny Durango

RSS wrote:
Hi-

I tried out the RP8 monitors in a local music store. I thought they
were the best sounding monitors in the price range that I heard. More
even sounding to my ears than Behringer, Samson, M-Audio, Yorkville.

The sales person said to me that he'd actually recommend the RP6's, but
he didn't have them in stock. He claimed that they sound tonally the
same as the RP8.

Does anyone have any commentary on the 5 vs. 6. vs. 8 comparison?
Because maybe the 5's are all I need and that would cost a lot less.

It's for home recording. The room I am in has a reasonably low ceiling
(7 foot) and the back wall of the room is only about 10-12 feet away
from where the monitors will be facing. (It's a finished attic in a
house).

I've also heard comments that you *need* a subwoofer with any of
these... my main concern is to have accurate monitors. I don't need to
be throwing house parties with them But I also don't want to be
mixing without any low-end...

Thanks a lot for the response. I am going to be recording mostly
rock/pop music. I don't expect there to be heavy bass.

Nonetheless, do you recommend a subwoofer with the RP5's or not
necessary? I am mainly concerned about this: if I don't have a
subwoofer, am I going to be boosting the bass too much on my mixes to
compensate for the lack of low-end? Or do you think it's manageable.

Thanks again.

Jonny Durango wrote:
To my ears, the RP5's and RP8's sound pretty much the same....the main
difference being, the RP5's will have a hard time outputting 85dB with
very heavy bass, whereas the 8's will have no problem. If you like
monitoring quietly and/or you're not working with heavy bass (ie.
hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, etc.) then the RP5's will treat you just fine!

Jonny Durango

RSS wrote:
Hi-

I tried out the RP8 monitors in a local music store. I thought they
were the best sounding monitors in the price range that I heard. More
even sounding to my ears than Behringer, Samson, M-Audio, Yorkville.

The sales person said to me that he'd actually recommend the RP6's,
but he didn't have them in stock. He claimed that they sound tonally
the same as the RP8.

Does anyone have any commentary on the 5 vs. 6. vs. 8 comparison?
Because maybe the 5's are all I need and that would cost a lot less.

It's for home recording. The room I am in has a reasonably low
ceiling (7 foot) and the back wall of the room is only about 10-12
feet away from where the monitors will be facing. (It's a finished
attic in a house).

I've also heard comments that you *need* a subwoofer with any of
these... my main concern is to have accurate monitors. I don't need
to be throwing house parties with them But I also don't want to be
mixing without any low-end...

Nonetheless, do you recommend a subwoofer with the RP5's or not
necessary? I am mainly concerned about this: if I don't have a
subwoofer, am I going to be boosting the bass too much on my mixes to
compensate for the lack of low-end? Or do you think it's manageable.

I haven't heard the KRKs, but my experience with my Mackie HR624s (6"
woofers) is that I do have frequent issues with low bass management on
my mixes. Their bass extends to about 55Hz or so, and what's there is
nice and tight, but getting the kick and low bass guitar to fit right
into a mix is sometimes a bit of a leap in the dark.

However, the cost of a subwoofer, plus the amount of room treatment
necessary to make that subwoofer give you anything accurate in the
first place, would have more than doubled the price I spent on my
monitoring system. For my purposes, I find that keeping a set of
MDR7506s on hand when mixing allows me to keep my bass in control. A
pair of these, or perhaps the Sennheiser HD 580s, would be a very
useful investment if you don't have the budget to spend on a matched
subwoofer and extensive acoustic management of bass in your mixing
room.

For those who may object to this sentiment: I'm not arguing that mixing
bass on headphones is ideal. You don't get to feel the bass in your
chest at all, which is an important component for some types of music.
But it's far less expensive to do a fairly accurate assessment of bass
content on sealed headphones than out of speakers.

Hope that helps
-Todd

RSS wrote:
Thanks a lot for the response. I am going to be recording mostly
rock/pop music. I don't expect there to be heavy bass.

Nonetheless, do you recommend a subwoofer with the RP5's or not
necessary? I am mainly concerned about this: if I don't have a
subwoofer, am I going to be boosting the bass too much on my mixes to
compensate for the lack of low-end? Or do you think it's manageable.

Thanks again.

Jonny Durango wrote:

To my ears, the RP5's and RP8's sound pretty much the same....the main
difference being, the RP5's will have a hard time outputting 85dB with
very heavy bass, whereas the 8's will have no problem. If you like
monitoring quietly and/or you're not working with heavy bass (ie.
hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, etc.) then the RP5's will treat you just fine!

Jonny Durango

RSS wrote:

Hi-

I tried out the RP8 monitors in a local music store. I thought they
were the best sounding monitors in the price range that I heard.
More even sounding to my ears than Behringer, Samson, M-Audio,
Yorkville.

The sales person said to me that he'd actually recommend the RP6's,
but he didn't have them in stock. He claimed that they sound tonally
the same as the RP8.

Does anyone have any commentary on the 5 vs. 6. vs. 8 comparison?
Because maybe the 5's are all I need and that would cost a lot less.

It's for home recording. The room I am in has a reasonably low
ceiling (7 foot) and the back wall of the room is only about 10-12
feet away from where the monitors will be facing. (It's a finished
attic in a house).

I've also heard comments that you *need* a subwoofer with any of
these... my main concern is to have accurate monitors. I don't need
to be throwing house parties with them But I also don't want to
be mixing without any low-end...

I'm not a big fan of subwoofers unless they are used carefully. There is
often a noticable dip where the xover frequency lies and it's hard to
balance the sub w/ the nearfields. If you think you're up for the task,
it might be a good idea. The RP10 is a great little sub for the $.

Jonny Durango