IF you were to buy KRK monitors, would you....

....get the Rokit 8, 6, or 5s and why?

I love my 8s

Depends on the budget, the application, the size of the room, etc. The 5 are great little monitors for smaller rooms. If you can afford a bigger room chances are you can afford better monitors.

I was all set to buy a pair of KRK 6's a couple of months ago, but I was talked out of them for these Yamahas: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS50M/

 

I suppose it depends upon what you're mixing, but the Yamahas are definitely much better-built and tighter. They lack in bass, but like any monitor, you have to train your ears. They also can be tailored better to your room with the ample adjustments, which is a plus if your setup is less than optimal.

 

If they are within your budget, you will join many satisfied customers with a pair of HS80M's: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS80M/

 

-Bruce

I started on the rokit 5's years ago. It was so hard to mix with them. I learned them very well and I must admit that I still use them to check the 200-300hz area. They muddy up really easy in that area. I use Yamaha HS's 50's with a sub. I am still blind in the 100hz area though.

Used to own Alesis M1 Actives Mk 1 ... upgraded to KRK V8 Mk 1.

 

8" versus 5" is night and day ... and the room you are in makes a big difference ...

Keep in mind there are much better 5" speakers out there. I would suggest you look at better 5" before getting a cheap 8". I mean the Rokit 5" are great for the price, but if you want to spend more money I would consider switching to a better 5" monitor before considering bigger woofers.

 

FWIW I personally use 6.5" woofers (albeit not in that price range) and am very happy with them:

 

http://www.mercenary.com/fosobemopa.html

 

Just trying to insist on the fact that when it comes to speakers, it's not as simple as bigger=better.

Room treatment is also a very important factor!

Room treatment is also a very important factor!

 

Definitely. And there's no point putting large woofers in a tiny room. Most home studios don't benefit from 8" woofers.

Interesting concept of buying better 5" than a cheaper 8'. As a side note to this topic, what size speakers would be adequate for a 10' X 12' room?

I'm in the market for new monitors, and was looking at the KRK 8's.

But if I don't need monitors that large, then it's good to know.

Room treatment is also a very important factor!

 

Definitely. And there's no point putting large woofers in a tiny room. Most home studios don't benefit from 8" woofers.

 

 

Ha Ha Ha ...

 

You would not believe what I have sitting in this little room.

 

http://slotfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sound.jpg

 

J/k

Interesting concept of buying better 5" than a cheaper 8'. As a side note to this topic, what size speakers would be adequate for a 10' X 12' room?

I'm in the market for new monitors, and was looking at the KRK 8's.

But if I don't need monitors that large, then it's good to know.

 

I think for a 10x12 room, which is a typical bedroom, 5" or 6" are plenty enough. More and you start having problems with bass. You will improve your monitoring much more by treating a small room like that vs by spending money on better monitors.

I'd say it also depends on what your producing. I was having major trouble mixing anything below 100hz on my old 5" monitors, so I bought a sub and found the system hard to tune to the room. I ended up getting some HS80M's and love them. I have a fairly small room but have adequate bass traps surrounding the room so it all works out quite well.

I'd say it also depends on what your producing. I was having major trouble mixing anything below 100hz on my old 5" monitors, so I bought a sub and found the system hard to tune to the room. I ended up getting some HS80M's and love them. I have a fairly small room but have adequate bass traps surrounding the room so it all works out quite well.

 

5" tends to have a boxy sound ... that's why I recommend 8" ... face it, physics is at play here ... no matter what ingenious design is behind the speakers, size dominates the bass parameter here. You can never beat 8" versus a 5" for bass freq ... and if you treat your room well for bass freq, they'll be alright

 

Supplementing 5" with sub woofers is not easy ... usually you'll end up with couple of freqs either missing or too resonant due to incorrect crossover tuning. Many don't realise that implementing a mono subwoofer actually results in cancellation at the sub freq due to summation of L and R channels. A stereo subwoofer pair is much more accurate. I would advise you you do a sine wave sweep of your system and note the spectra meter. Note which freqs are weak and which are too resonant ... so that when you mix, you have an idea how to EQ your mix correctly .... that goes to knowing your speaker behaviour better.

 

Unfortunately, a larger speaker means you have to monitor at louder volumes as speakers have optimum operating ranges. I'm alright cos I monitor at different volumes to hear how my mix translate at different volumes anyway.

 

Despite owning 8" monitors, I still use a subwoofer. But I only turn them on when I want to make sure there's no ugly sub bass freqs lurking down there as a result of my EQ'ing.

 

I also realised that the mid-range is very important cos almost every instrument overlap in that range and a lot of material have things happening at the mid-range. If I have poor mid-range representation in my speakers, then the speakers will be useless to me - I think I'll chuck them away.

 

On an occasion, I built a demo showroom for a pal of mine who was distributing Nords and we had grief with the smaller KRKs Rokits and even the VXTs ....

 

With program material that had lots of unexpected peaks, especially with synths, the KRKs clipped terribly when it was moderately pushed. In the end we couldn't even use them to demo any of the Nords. We moved to cheap no name monitors and things improved tremendously - but that's for demoing purpose, so accuracy was not primary selection factor. Once or twice, we tested them with Genelec 8030s (from our studio room) and even they had slight problem with the material.

 

From this experience, I realised that manufacturers tended to dedicate better components to larger monitors - eg. smaller monitors tend to have lower watt amplifiers, poorer resonance properties, crossover design, etc. Compare the VXT6 and VXT8 - a 60W difference at the LF stage. With material that has not been mastered, compressed or limited, these monitors will have problem due to their low headroom.

 

The answer here is not to give you the solution to your problem cos everybody has different opinions about them; their room, requirements and experiences are different. But sharing our experiences should help you along.

 

YMMV, but I guess no harm in taking note of what I mentioned. Making an educated decision will minimise your purchasing grief. Cheers and happy hunting.

Edited February 3, 2011 by jazzyjoepass

Room treatment is also a very important factor!

 

Definitely. And there's no point putting large woofers in a tiny room. Most home studios don't benefit from 8" woofers.

 

 

Ha Ha Ha ...

 

You would not believe what I have sitting in this little room.

 

http://slotfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/sound.jpg

 

J/k

 

 

 

I don't see any speakers at all ... only a couple of horn instruments; trombones and tubas ... and a large aircon vent in the middle ...