You can't hardly go wrong with JBL.

Theoretically speaking.... studio monitors are supposed to be as flat as possible and that often translates into honesty over ear candy. Home stereo speakers are often designed to give the ear candy effect. With studio reference monitors, we on the other hand are supposed to want a flat response, honest assessment of what has actually been recorded and what we are monitoring live.

That being said.... I remember the day I went to the local music store to purchase a pair of home studio monitors. There was a choice of 5" or 8" cones and there was also several different pairs all set up side by side with a switch to A/B them. I brought my own CD of music that I would be working with. The 8" cones were priced a bit more than I was wanting to spend so I focused on the 5" candidates. You can drop a lot of money real fast on monitors.

It quickly became apparent that not one single pair of them sounded the same. With the same source and volume, there was quite a difference in the sound. I went with the pair that I thought sounded the best to me. Did I pick the ear candy pair? I don't know. Probably. But I ended up with a pair of rear ported 5" Mackie MR-5 monitors.

I ended up adding a 10" 100w sub to the system a few months later. My sub is Polk Audio. And yes... if you're running 5" cones and playing bass into them, you're gonna appreciate the sub. You can always turn off the sub if you want to hear just the 5" cones.

A book by Mike Senior, called Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is a great book to read about studio/recording audio. Mike considers the monitors in the studio to be so important that he devoted the first section of 4 chapters to this topic alone. One of his comments in the book is... "The less money you're going to spend on monitors, the more you should approach ported models armed with holy water and cloves of garlic".... Read the chapters and you will understand this statement. However, the vast majority of home studios, including mine, are all sporting ported monitors.


Even the cheapest reference monitors will be much better than using computer stereo speakers. I absolutely detest using the Altec Lansing computer speakers to listen to music. I will often browse on them but if I hear something that sounds like it's good, I will switch to my good ear buds. Using headphones and ear buds for monitoring and mixing is a whole other rabbit trail. Short story.... I went to the very same music store and auditioned headphones. I was going to spend up to $300 on a good pair. Told the guy I was using them in a studio situation and he started pulling out a couple. I tested them in an A/B with my good buds. In all honesty, I could not find any of them to have a better response than the good buds. So I went home without buying anything. I still use those buds to listen, record, and mix.

If you have settled on the JBLs... have you actually heard them or are you simply reading reviews and looking at pics online? Before I would buy monitors, I would prefer to hear them. BUT.... HOWEVER...... even though the specs are good, and even though they sound good in the store showroom, once you put them in YOUR studio... they are going to sound different due to your room is not where they measured the specs and your room is not the store showroom. And that topic is covered in other sections and chapters of the book.

So... get a nice pair of monitors and the most important job then becomes.... Learn your monitors. Play a lot of the music you like on the speakers and learn how they handle the lows, the mids, the highs, all when set flat. Mine have a volume detente, and I tend to run them around that point. Low freq filter is set to 0db, and hi filter is -2dB. They've been at that since they were put into this room.

Have fun and get the ones you want.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.