monitor recommendations ($350 - 400 Canadian)?

[therethere]

I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions for a dual pair of monitors costing about $350 - 400 (Canadian) total. I know that that budget will mean I'll never be able to get anything like old NS10s but I figure that most things will be better than the old Compaq JBL speakers I'm currently mixing stuff on. I'm looking at the KRK Rokit5 GP2s at the moment, does anyone else have any good suggestions?

[losthighway]

I just spent a half an hour in the prosumer purgatory of Guitar Center comparing monitors. It was hard to get an accurate read off of an Itunes file being played through monitors that were set at different volume levels.

My impression is that KRK makes a good monitor for a bargain. I would suggest getting nothing smaller than the Rokkit 8's..... they were pretty good sounding, but everything smaller seemed to be missing a chunk of the spectrum. They definitely stood up to the Yamahas.

[rwc]

http://axiomaudio.com/m2.html

they're local

their m22ti which I got for $400 sounds identical to the paradigm studio 20 which is $900.. the m2i is the single driver, smaller version of it. An amazingly accurate speaker for the price.

There's also the ascends, very similar to the axioms.

http://ascendacoustics.com/pages/produc ... bm170.html

Now you may feel free to completely ignore my suggestion in favor of an actively powered solution.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

+1 on the KRKs.
If you're in Toronto Moog Audio is selling them for $300 a pair. I enjoy mine much more than the NS-10s I have to use at other studios and the mixes translate very well.

[Jeff White]

Most people on here know that I am an NS-10M fanatic. I bought each of my pairs off of eBay for under $350/pair in the last year. My Adcom GFA-545II amp cost me about $225 off of ebay. You could easily power them off of a GFA-535 (under $125) and be happy. Just comb ebay, save auctions, stay up late, get up early... you will find a deal.

There are other monitors out there but again I love my NS10Ms and I really think that my mixes translate extremely well compared to when I was using Alesis M1 Actives.

Jeff

[therethere]

ok, thanks for the replies everyone, i'll make sure to check them all out (though i don't think i'll be able to afford any kind of NS10, haha). also, dave, saved by technology is selling the previous gen RP5s for about $135, so i'm tempted to go there but i'll also check out moog audio since they seem to have a lot of choices as well. loving the new fembots record, btw

[audioboy6]

I would recommend the old KRK Kroks they are great speakers for the price Much nicer than the newer KRK stuff in my opinion. You can probably get a pair for about $200 and use the rest to get a old hafler or a crown to power them. Or get a cheap alesis amp until you have enough money upgrade. In my opinion this would be a much better setup than the newer budget monitors of today. Good luck

[kingmetal]

like the NS10s? get the HS50ms! Yamaha trumpets them as the successor to the NS10 (they've even got the white cones), they're about in your price range and I love love love them. they replaced my old LSR25Ps that kept blowing up and I'd never go back. I've only been on NS10s once (I loved the experience), so I'm probably not the best judge of whether they're NS10-like, but the reviews I've read by people who I presume have had more experience tend to sing their praises. Here's one: http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_yamaha_hsm_monitor/. Here's another one: http://www.moozek.com/2008/01/09/super- ... ew-ns-10m/.

The only thing I don't like about them is that they have illuminated Yamaha logos that, while they look cool, are REALLY bright if you work in a dark space. You could always pull them apart and yank the LEDs in them, but seriously that's the only thing I think wasn't totally thought out on these things! They apparently sound awesome with their matched sub (which I believe is about $600, I have my own sub).