Ultra-affordable, good sounding speakers/studio monitors

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 28 Aug 2007 1:15 pm

Here's the link:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8085354138

These are extremely impressive bookshelf speakers (nearfield monitors) for about $60/pair found at Best Buy. Seriously very impressive, and stupid cheap.

Brad

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 28 Aug 2007 9:55 pm

Good tip. I have a pair of JBL Bookshelf speakers that I bought about 10 years ago. They had the same specs as as the comparable "studio near field monitor" at 1/3 the price.

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 28 Aug 2007 9:55 pm

Good tip. I have a pair of JBL Bookshelf speakers that I bought about 10 years ago. They had the same specs as as the comparable "studio near field monitor" at 1/3 the price.

John McClung · Post by **John McClung** » 2 Dec 2008 5:07 pm

Brad, you think these would be good for recording near-field monitors?

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 3 Dec 2008 4:02 am

They do look good. But, I don't know how they would compare with the Samson Resolv 65a's I recently bought.

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 5 Dec 2008 11:37 pm

Jack, 90% of the time you can tell a lot about the quality of a product just by the price of the product, BUT remember this every once in a while for one reason or another prices get lowered on a normally very good quality product. Just like the last set of M-Audio BX5 studio monitors I bought.

Over 2 years ago I bought a pair of BX5's for almost 400.00 bucks and they were stolen during a break in at my studio. Well for a few months some of my good pals here in town loaned me various items that I needed to continue recording and one of my pals had a set of studio monitors with 5 inch woofer and the 1 and 1/2 inch tweeter and they were not anything like my M-Audio speakers but I was very glad to get them.

So a few months later I bought another set of BX5's now they were just 300.00 bucks and then one of them fell off the stand due to a cord tangle (my fault) and it never worked again. So I called M-Audio and told them what happened and said send them back and we will fix them and they even sent me Fedex shipping boxes with shipping prepaid along with all packaging materials

So when I got them back there was a note in the box that said the speaker was damaged beyond repair so they sent me a complete new set of speakers for free! Then my son needed a set so I gave him those monitors.

I then went to buy a new set of the same speakers and now I only had to pay 169.00 for a new and improved model of the same speaker BX-5 A's!

So all of this dribble has been meant to say that those speakers that are mentioned above at such a cheap price might be worth much more than they are asking for them. I'm about 1/2 way in mind of ordering them but money is a little tight right now but other than that I'll bet they sound pretty good

Big Bob

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 6 Dec 2008 3:52 am

There are "bargains" around or devices that can be used for applications other than what they were originally intended for.

With "hi fi" speakers, they tend to have a built in frequency "curve" and are not "flat" like many studio monitor speakers. Even my large P.A. speakers do not have the flat curve of the Samson's.

The Samson's have a switch to select the response, flat or or plus or minus cuts.

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 7 Dec 2008 1:34 pm

Well Jack, as usual you are absolutely correct:-) But one more thing to keep in mind as long as you know what your mix down speakers sound like compared to being played on real world speakers e.g. hifi stereo speakers, car 16x9's, surround sound amplifier systems in your or other folks homes, or even 1" little cheap portable mono CD player units it makes no difference in the frequency response of the original speakers that the music was mixed down on.

Just as I'm sure you have a good idea of how you need to mix your recordings down on your near field monitors so the music will sound good on most all speakers your music might be played back on. Someone else could do the same thing on their cheap hifi speakers as long as the person mixing knew the frequency response as compared to a the same variety of other real world speakers that people might play their music back on just as you try to do sometimes it comes of great and other times...... well not so good hehehe!

Of course that little explanation is not original I've heard audio engineers and producers say the same thing in different words for over 30 years..

Bob

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 7 Dec 2008 3:07 pm

The guy I learned from always mentioned the "transistor radio" and he said he learned it from a Nashville engineer (he mentioned the guy's name but that was late 70's and I have no idea who it was now).

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 9 Dec 2008 6:11 am

Please bear in mind Brad is a mastering Engineer,
besides being a picker and a electronics builder.

I sent him some mixes and he kindly remastered a few for me,
because I wanted to hear the difference in my S. France control room.
And then started mixing slightly differently to match and was happy with the results.
Brad's got pro ears for speakers.

If Brad says these are impressive,and especially for the money,
they likely will be pretty good nearfields.

It depends on WHERE you use them, the enviroment
and early reflections are quite critical for nearfields.

But I bet these are a heck of a deal.
I would get a sub-woofer for then if there was
no other low end reference. Maybe make the sub woofer switchable on off too.

James Quackenbush · Post by **James Quackenbush** » 10 Dec 2008 5:20 pm

Thanks for the tip Brad ....Im gonna go out and buy 2 sets for surround sound ...Heck at that price how can you not afford to record in surround ? ....The material even hit's your ear right being that they are coaxial's ....Hmmmm....Good look out !!....Jim

gary pierce · Post by **gary pierce** » 16 Dec 2008 10:48 am

If I used these with my computer, what would be a good amp to use, or would it be better to buy powered studio monitors?
Gary

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 16 Dec 2008 1:27 pm

Most any amp will work.
Rule of thumb double or triple amp power
to speaker rated power.

John McClung · Post by **John McClung** » 16 Dec 2008 3:55 pm

Has anyone actually bought these speakers, and have a review for us?

gary pierce · Post by **gary pierce** » 17 Dec 2008 5:13 am

Thanks David, I'm going to check out the powered monitors tommorrow at guitar center and tell my wife which ones I want for Christmas.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 17 Dec 2008 6:36 pm

I actually own a pair. I've had them for over a year. I got mine even cheaper than what they seem to offer them for now, but still for $80 something dollars a pair, they're a really good deal. The speakers are kind of bright sounding, but not too bright. The co-ax design makes for real good focused imaging. Pretty full sounding boxes as well. Currently they're set up as my wife's studio monitors, and they really do perform, especially for such a cheap speaker. After having them for this long, I'd still recommend them for anyone needing a nice studio monitor or stereo speaker on a tight budget.

Brad

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 18 Dec 2008 12:29 pm

There is absolutely no doubts in my mind that I would buy a set of the very affordable speakers if I wanted to use a power amp and then connect the speakers in that fashion but I find it more cost effective and much easier to just buy biamped powered speakers with 4 inch speakers all the way up to 8 inch speakers depending on the size of my control room which right now is pretty small.

Like I think I mentioned before I use a pair of M-Audio BX5a near field monitors they do not have a ton of power but in my small control room they fill it up completely and actually they can get to loud in my small area and I found that buying powered monitors seems to fit the bill just fine for me.

But like I said if I were a serious engineer/producer/studio owner I would use a power amp with at least 4 different sets of speakers to listen to my mixes thru reference monitors that would range from 3 inch speakers likened to a small cheap CD player setup with the small 3 inch speakers that you can buy for a few bucks at Walmart and then all the way up to some JBL 18 inch speakers for big speaker sound monitoring to make sure it doesn't sound like a disco beat or even worse a rap/hiphop mix on the big 18's.

Thanks for the links Brad we all appreciate them

Bob