Hi
I'm actually using Event's Opal 8´ in a small space, the really good thing is that I can listen and feel the bass without the need of putting the speakers at high level.
If you think a bit about physic you'll understand that smaller low speakers needs more power to produce bass, and that's why I disagree that small spaces need small speakers.
I had very small JBL speakers that were 130 watts, but to listen to the bass correctly I had to push them at least at 75 watts, and that , in a small room is unbearable.

Once that said, there is one thing you really have to care about, is that most 8´are made to work at 100 watts RMS or more, and obviously their response curve is proportional, so my advice is buy 8´speakers but that are made to work around 70 watts or less, then you can have an equilibrated sound with around 30 - 35 watts, which is adapted to a small room.

 

I would recommend the Monkey Banana Turbo 6 - for the price, in my eyes, the best studio speaker. If you have more budget, I would go for the Neumann KH 120 A.
I have listened to A LOT of speaker from all brands and up to 2000$ a monitor and both of the speaker above had for me the best sound, really transparent but still with a richness and misicality in the whole range.
When I got the Monkey Bananas there where worlds between them and my KRKs. The same goes with the Yamahas, which I don`t like because they don`t sound so musical to me. The best tip I can give is, go and try to listen to as much monitors as possible and make up your own opinion .

 

This is like with women's Most of the time everyone prefer different one, but also many times we prefer the same one . Most safe bet you will make, if you just testing with own amp what is available to you and pick what is the closest to your preference and close match to your amp. Why? You can blindly peek a monitor on review basis, which have perfect characteristics, but every speaker have own sound flavor or sound character. Every speaker also need preferable amp to realy start to "sing", especially expensive ones can become picky. On top of that not one ear on earth is physically the same, which most probably mean our brain not recieve necesary flat signal form our ear. How do we really know that signal from our ears to brain is really flat? There are just to many people's unique variables(physically different ears, paths, brain's, ect) in the equation to be applied the same rules for everyone.

 

its not meant to be.. porting is only for speaker performance its NOT meant to be a sound source if you hear anything from it s its just air moving from the back of the speaker, if that was meant to be heard speakers would never be put in boxes. even in sub woofers boxes that are baffled. single double or what ever the porting serves the same purpose ( control airspace front and back of the cone of the speaker so that air pressure is neutral on both sides. besides Bass is resonate NOT directional

 

are we talking mixing or rocking the neighbourhood?

in the end studio monitors are only one tool needed in mixing , i use spectral displays as well so i can see what frequencies are actually there

different ears hear different things

best bet in the end test em all in your price range

If the ones you like best are a bit more expensive wait and buy those

dont settle

But know also, if you want others to enjoy your music you need to present it in a way that will work in a multitude of systems

Hence a flat response is needed. and i hear it all the time and can tell in mixing they pushed there monitors to get that 40hz dooooooong

and when played on a system the mix just becomes a muddy mess

 

I think you should take a look at Bower & Wilkins studio monitors in your price range. They will inevitably sound better and have better range than any of the standard low cost studio monitors in my opinion.

 

Personally I find the Yamaha HS8's excellent for mixing....

 

The Neumann KH 120 A will see you through a lot of studio upgrades. It's probably the most underrated professional studio monitor out there, and it's reasonably priced too.

 

funny, really funny...

 

Honestly with a budget like that. You'll be worlds apart in better shape putting your money into sound reinforcement & keeping the 8" mid/nearfields. In a room of that size as much broadband & bass traps you can muster will make the room a better critical listening environment. Do yourself a favor. Buy some OWC 704 or 705, make some traps. If your budget allows, make some frames & cover the traps with cheap cloth that is somewhat breathable "ticking cloth, thin cotton"...

 

Unfortunately budget is $500 and cannot spend more because I don't make money from music, is just a hobby, and cannot test more in my area, just the ones from first post.
I really like the 8 inch ones, isn't better to have larger woofer for low volume work?

 

Test of Tannoy Reveal 802

 

Everybody has their opinions. But it really depends on your ears.
my recommendation would be, stick to Jbl and Yamahas.
and only If you are really sure you need the extended bass response go for the 8 inch.
but I will promise you, in your room, you will get better results with an 5 inch speaker.
Everybody talks about jbl and Yamahas because they're that good(for the money).
the krk 6" are a lot of fun too, but the lower mid freq are really coloured
I worked with Genelec 1030 Adam p11 quested ns10 jbl(im an old fart heheh).

And IT always Come down to
1.) Personal preference
2.) Rom Treatment.
The more expensive the speaker lesser rom correction nonsens you will find on them.

right now, in a similar room like yours (but some treatment, i use 2nd.hand jbl 2325p (350 a pair)
with a sub tat i never use because it is just overkill (in this room, the jbl are strong till 50hz, smoove roll off)

and i bought some Adam P22 second Hand(treated the room some more now)
for less than one of them (still) cost new.
but this route only works if you know the speakers. (and your room)

best option would be buy em new, test them and send em back, repeat till you are happy with YOUR choice



.ps
if this gets lost in translation
i truly only try to give my (hopefully helpfull) 2 cents no ego involved ;)
buy cheap have fun, and good gear bought cheap is the best :]]

 

8" well its all about the Bass bout the Bass No Treble well its all about the Bass bout the Bass No Treble ! Go with the Yamaha H5" There Awesomely Flat and produce great Mixes

 

Studio monitors shouldn't sound "musical", but actually sterile or "cold". Afterall, you're intend to make your music sound warm on them, but not to be lied by the speakers that your music is already warm. Don't confuse seterile/"cold" with harsh highs sounding or unclear sound stage. Is about flatness and "boring" sound.

I worked in 2012 on Adam A7x, Dynaudio BM5a (for a while) and Yamaha HS80M in a studio from a neighbour city (which i didn't own) and the guy that i've been working with he'd never rely just on Adam A7x or Dynaudios just because they're more expensive. Also we never seriously mixed vocals on Adam A7x, they were used more in the production's "fun process" along with the Dyns, even though you can still mix whatever you want on them, but for us it was always seemed like a piece of cake to mix the vocals right on the cheaper HS80M and the things were really trust-able on the "crappier" Yamaha, because honestly? Yamahas sounds cold, boring and "unmusical", people will keep bashing them hardly, but these Yams always performed "honest" and "motivational" in a mixing process, that's because it was pushing you to actually work hard on your mix. They're like a workhorse.

Then i had some budget studio monitors at the end of 2012, called ESI Aktiv 08 which were good as well, kinda mid-forward (1-2khz bump) but with enough bass and harsh highs, i always had to use them with the high trim to the lowest value.

In 2014 i intended to save up a lot of money and go with the EVE SC305 studio monitors but i had some plans changing and i canceled the "investment". This year i bought myself the new Yamaha HS8 after i went into the store to test them out, also tested HS5, but surprisingly its tweeter didn't sounded as good as the HS8 model, (HS7 wasn't available in the store though).Was curious to see if HS8 sounds any different compared to the HS80M model that i used to work on and well.. their tweeter is redesigned and sounds smoother than the older version, the bass seem more tighter or "controlled" and defined enough compared to HS80M (which i used to don't like at all, while Adam a7x was tight but not deep, that's why we also had a sub) and the mids sounded kinda the same so i guess that's a good thing. Compared to the other ESI Aktiv 08 which i still own, they're not harsh in the highs at all and i was like "something is missing from these HS8..." then i realised it's the colouring from the ESI's mids and of course.. the headache which i used to get from the Aktiv 08. In the HS8's freq response chart i can see it's flatter than the old model. I use them placed horizontaly due some placement limitations in my new place and the high trim & room control settings engaged on -2db both.

(P.S. the photo's perspective is misleading, they're not as close to the wall as they look like, there's a distance of 20" away from the wall)



I'm planning to buy the HS8s sub in the future to complete my monitoring setup.

Another interesting thing i noticed in the first days after i bought HS8 is that i was able to hear clearly the difference between "Zero Latency" and "Natural Phase" algorithms on Fabfilter Pro-Q2 on certain mix elements. I wasn't able to hear that on the Aktiv08 because i see they wasn't as "revealing" but honestly i could hear it on the ATH-M50s headphones (repeat, headphones! not speakers), but even though, that's really a surprisingly good amound of details on these Yamahas which will really help you out in the mixing/mastering process.

In your actual budget, if you wanna just "making beats" then go for the more coloured and "fun-bursting" speakers. If you have some serious intentions about your music and you're going to mess with the mix and mastering process as well, then the new Yamms won't disappoint you at all in their price range.

Check this guy for example, JR Rotem. Yeah, i know his mixdowns are going to be mastered by a mastering engineer in the end taking in consideration the artists he've been producing for (Jason Derulo, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Britney Spears, etc.) but at his professionalism level i'm sure he's doing a lot of the mixing process himself. I recently saw a new video with him in his new studio and surprisingly, even though he's riding a Lambo he still rocks his old Yamaha HS80M babies.

Also check this "mic based" comparison between Yamaha HS8 and other 2 new models from JBL and KRK.(KRKs sounds so... i'll refrain from saying it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKnGNIa58c&spfreload=10

My 2c.

Evo

 

Great post Evorax, I really liked the Yamahas as well, when I tested in showroom, even if they had less bass.

 

You're absolutely right, I used to have these and they're unbeatable for the price.
Still, it's twice the OP's budget, hence the advice for JBL.

The Focal Alpha gets a lot of praise too.

 

Check out Back To The Future for the 8' speakers.

The optimal placement for your head is in an equilateral triangle. each speaker as two of the points and just behind your head for the third. A tape measure and a friend are the best tools for this job.

I assume you want 8" speakers for the volume. Mix at low volumes and get it to sound good, but check higher volumes every so often for reference. And don't forget the early reflections will screw up the sound in any room. I got the 6" and acoustic foam for the early reflections rather than go with the 8's.
IMHO

 

I will buy in 2 days the Yamaha's HS8 or JBL 308. Will test again with few songs I know best these 2 models

I don't find anywhere nearby to test other models that some recommended here

Thanks for answers

 

I purchased the Yamaha HS8, did a lot of testing between JBL and Yamaha and despite less bass, I went home with the HS8. Man, the sound is amazing, the bass is there in my room, without any acoustin tratment! I don't need a sub, I have enough lows for listening or producing. In the store, the sound was not this good, maybe because is less space in my bedroom, I don't know.
The Yamaha sounds excellent, at any listening level.

I should let these on all time or close from power when I'm not using them? They have a stand by function or something?


Love the smell of new speakers BTW )), thanks all for responses!!!