Apologies for another monitor thread. I've done my research, read previous threads and worked out my tight budget. I dont have a local store where I can try them out.

Which one of these should I go for.

Yamaha MSP3
Event ALP 5
Alesis M1 Active 620
Alesis Monitor one Active MK2
Tannoy Reveal 5A
KRK RP5
Behringer Truth B2031A

The room they will be in is about 11ft x 11ft. Unfortunately they will be very close to the wall (about 20cm for the one, about 35cm the other in a corner)

Cheers

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I wouldn't buy any speaker without hearing it first. There has to be some place you can go?

I personally despised most of those monitors on your list except for maybe the Reveal 5A. Which has a tonne of things wrong with it but for some reason I just sort of liked it in a really hard to explain kind of way.

Can't comment on the Truths - never tried them.

I really disliked the Alesis M1 MK2 and I've had to work on these one of my friend's house for the past few weeks. To me they sound no better or worse than the cheap sony mini hifi I have at home. The only plus I can say for them is that they are backed up right against a wall with a clearance of about 2 inches in a room with a wooden floor and an audible echo. The room is very small - about 10x9 feet. And I still don't get horrid bass standing waves and flutter echoes from them. Also, you can sit off centre and it doesn't really seem to change the sound (stereo image wise).

Whereas the Dyn BM5as at my place are way more pickey. They sound terrible in that room with horrendous sub bass echoes (that may be because they are rear ported though whereas the M1s are front ported). And you have to sit still when monitoring because moving around really changes the sound. You can move your head a couple of inches to the left or right and you can hear the phase shift (because now it takes the sound from 1 speaker longer to reach your ear than the other). The tweeters in the Dynaudios are unbelievably sensitive like that.

Last edited by Derivative on Mar-29-2007 at 12:12

Nearly all Tannoys monitors are awesome. I have the Precision 6D's

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quote:

Originally posted by G-Con Apologies for another monitor thread. I've done my research, read previous threads and worked out my tight budget. I dont have a local store where I can try them out. Which one of these should I go for. Yamaha MSP3 Event ALP 5 Alesis M1 Active 620 Alesis Monitor one Active MK2 Tannoy Reveal 5A KRK RP5 Behringer Truth B2031A The room they will be in is about 11ft x 11ft. Unfortunately they will be very close to the wall (about 20cm for the one, about 35cm the other in a corner) Cheers

Out of all of those I would probably get the Behringers. IMO it's better to show "more sound" crapily than "a little bit" well, when it comes to uber budget monitors. If not the berrys, I quite liked the sound of the ALP5s personally.

Also, the M1s are huge. I mean the woofer is really small but the monitor itself is massive. My BM5as have a huge woofer for a small nearfield (I think its 6.7 inches) but its overall size is smaller than the M1.

Dude if you are going to buy a monitor blind (which I do not recommend) I suggest getting a part time job and saving up to get something in a higher price bracket as there are less things wrong with the more expensive monitors.

Its still a totally subjective thing whether you like the sound of them but you will get used to it either way. But I know that if you can get up to the BM5a kind of price, there tends to be less physical problems with the monitors.

There tend to be better failsafes on the amps to prevent clipping and overheating (the Dyns have a soft limiter on the output to both drivers and they cut out completely when the amps reach a certain temperature threshold. They also have light indicators to show you when this is happening).

Their customer service tends to be better (but then you are spending more money so that figures).

Dynaudio have been pretty good to me despite my problems with Digital Village's returns dept who constantly seem to ship me B-Stock. TC Electronics (who have some sort of relationship with Dynaudio in the UK/Ire) have replaced 2 of those speakers for me for free and they have a guy at TC who says I can get in touch with them at any time if I experience problems in future and they'll replace the other speakers again for free. I think thats just awesome. I don't think Alesis would do that or at least be that nice about it. ADAM's support is really good too and their monitors tend to be built like brick shit houses too.

But I really think you should just get some musically minded mates together and go for a ride to your nearest city centre and go visit a music store on the way where you can demo these monitors. Its the only way you are guaranteed to be happy with what you have bought. If you don't do this you will always be going 'well what if I bought that monitor instead?' or 'damn, I made the wrong decision. I should have gotten that monitor for x reason.'