Rob brings up the important point to learn your monitors, whatever they are. Play CDs you like that are mastered well. What sounds great? What doesn’t? Part of this is learning the sound of your room. What booms? What disappears?

Monitors for listening and playing along are different from what you need for music production, where the monitors need to have a flat response. It sounds like you want to do both, which presents a challenge. I have two rooms, one for production and one for playing. My production is Adam 5xs with a sub. My playback room has two KRK 8s with no sub.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.