I have Yamaha HS8 as well, def more bass but the Adam AX7 have ribbon tweeters that give me less air fatigue and more dimension to the sound. I can listen all day. HS8 not that fun to listen to for a long time so you might want to keep that in mind too.

 

If you don't have a professionally treated room, skip subwoofers.

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2021

your primary concern should be midrange clarity, most bigger 2-way monitors lack in that area,

anyway to your question, I have Kali Audio IN-8 (8" 3-way) with WS-12 (12") subwoofer, primarily for listening though, and there is definitely less "stress" on monitors when sub takes care of low frequencies (I have mine crossed at 60Hz) but for proper monitoring and mastering such low frequencies, I bet your room won't be adequately treated, you'd better be using headphones for that task,
without subwoofer you'll have less problems to deal with - in that regard I absolutely agree with @powerplay

 

Good monitoring headphones + 7" monitors can be better for you, if your room is acoustic not prepared.

 

In a small to small medium room I would use no sub. I feel the need to feel the sub more than to hear it that's why I'm happy with a Subpac S2. If I want more I trust my Ultrasone Pro 900.

 

personally I don't like to work with a sub bass, in a flat, if it's the case, you can't really "send the sound", and placing the sub is not so easy, I have a sub on the hifi system, for listening it's perfect and balanced, for production I prefer 2 good monitors, the choice and the price is really wide, well placed, I live in a flat and it's more than enough!

 

One very important thing to consideis.

IS YOUR ROOM ACOUSTIC OPTIMIZED ?

If no do so first, it is more important that a SubWoofer

 

thanks for all these answers! no, the room is not yet treated! i will take some krk or tannoy 8", later I will treat the room and get some decent headphones! which headphones do you recommend? flat or DJ with more pronounced bass?
ps. with the 8" monitors will I hear the sub-basses at least a little? (krk 7" and tannoy 8" declared frequency range: 42 Hz - 40\43 kHz)

 

Sennheiser HD 650

 

I have tried 3 different subs with my A5X to eventually find that I've enjoyed listening without a sub the most. It's fun to feel the bass on a live concert but for monitoring, I find it rather annoying.
I wouldn't have expected that at all, the A5X are really small monitors but reality proved otherwise.

 

I use Fostex pm1 mk1 for 15 years
Don't over think things : take a good compromise and mix

 

You could always buy a fine working pair of used monitors and possibly get some better bang for your money. Ten years ago I bought a pair of KRK V6 Series 2 for something like 300 Euros and they are fantastic...and I don't feel I ever needed a sub although they are only 6" bottoms.

 

An aside, I've got an older pair of KRK Rokit 5s on my work (non-audio) computer. They've got plenty of bass, it's just that you won't "feel it".

I've still managed to knock out decent mixes outta these, but you have to train your ears whatever monitoring you've got (speakers, headphones). Listen to your favourite tunes to get the feel, and I mean listen, repeatedly.

For me, in a not treated room subs are a hassle (mainly because I don't know this shit well enough), you have to set up and measure your crossover point and then adjust the phase. And oh how a sub will bring your room resonances to life! A couple of resonators won't help you here mate.

But good luck!

 

ok
Size

if you are a true beginner JBL LSR2325 should be very cheap now
5" bass but!
has great tuning and subs are easy to understand
Defined Freq Spectrum & wide Sweetspot.
Dynamics suffer at bit @ high volume but since you have Tinnitus
If they sound bad (while loud) YOU are too loud!
ALSO the successors are the JBL 305
i recommend them (blindly) to anyone
Work well !low Volume! & in untreated room


if its a good speaker untreated room: 8" will give you a good feel for subs
can be headache with bad speakers though

great speaker 8"
used adam P22 is one of the best in that regard
i use them, best mix of clarity, attack and sub.
400-600 they go for these days

Medium (for you dont buy)
Yamaha HS80
Less defined Low end (than p22(used to cost 4x as much)
Why not buy for you?
High Freq. too aggressive for my taste
Fatiguing to my Ears, and i have Tin. too ;)
for everyone else good buy!

thats it no more. ......exept
if you find KRK 6" @ great deal (200 or less)
they are FUN! dont worry about bass, room, and tin.
Cool sound, warmer and softer overall "sound"
nice enough to learn

Finding out the placement of sub
is "easy":

Put the sub in the Place of your head in the
Sweetspot of your Listening Position. play sound/Music

Go around the room (crawl) till you find the "Strongest" Natural sounding Bass
NOT Resonance! and thats the Ideal place of your sub ;)

normally it is somewhere off center between you speakers
you can use cheap actives like this used 20-40 bucks
the most important bit in the picture is the freq. dial
thats the crossover
mix the overall volume in till you barely hear the sub
and slightly feel it.


but you dont need them in the beginning. also
I didnt buy good Mixing headphones
I bought "nice" ok ish headphones for Recording singers, instruments and noise /samples
fuck em, speakers are better anyways, and def easier to learn than headphones mixes

when you figured the above out
come and ask again

 

thanks for all the help! i received a lot of useful advice and opinions!
@dondada i will stay on the krk 7" or the tannoy 8".. and i will try to learn their strengths and weaknesses! ps. with my tinnitus i don't have much interest in mixing and mastering! i am mainly interested in production, remixes and mash up!

 

A client of mine has bought those new KRKs. They do sound better than the previous Rokit models and they employ a digital eq with a small screen in the back for fine tuning them in your room. I did notice a slight constant hiss around -48db which i found quite disturbing and although it's unnoticeable when music is playing, you can clearly hear it when pumping the volume higher without any content playing. I hope this defect will be fixed from KRK, i believe my client bought a pair from the very first batch Thomann had. I have to also say here, when Thomann was contacted about it, they said there was nothing they could do and they would not take back the pair as a "faulty" one. So although these sound very good for their money, do not buy them before you can actually hear them, or the seller can vouch in writing that they do NOT have this hiss i mentioned.
Cheers
PS: And yes you don't need a sub with these and if you want one, KRK has one to go along with those that you can add later as well And in general most brands have "matched" subwoofer monitors to complement their nearfield monitors, although as mentioned many times before and in this thread too, you need a well treated room to add a sub to your system.
EDIT:

If you need more proof, a quick search found this, which is exactly what i experienced when testing those speakers:

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2021

this is bad news! i don't have the chance to try them in the shop! however, online stores "for example amazon" allow returns within 14 days! is there any other information on this issue? i can't find anything!

 

Mine have the same issue and nothing I have ever tried to do in order to stop it has worked, and these are now probably 12 years old. KRK, Wassup wit Dat? Other than that they sound great and once the signal is above that threshold all is golden.

 

@Lois Lane Bro, i have a pair of the first white KRK Rokit 6s released (G2 series), these are 15 years old (and actually my wife's lol). They have no hiss whatsoever. My bestman has KRK G3 5", no hiss. I dunno what KRK did, i was so furious when i tested that speaker that i disconnected everything but the power plug and they still had that obvious hiss when cranking up the volume. My thought without opening the speaker enclosure was that somehow they fucked up the analog audio path with the new addition of the digital graphic eq (bad D/A ?) but now you come and say the very same thing for an older model i am stunned. I checked with some of my clients who also have the previous line (G3) and they have no hiss either, one of them has the 10" model. It seems to me, although farfetched, whoever bought these online got a pair of faulty speakers. I mean i 've been to the official local KRK distributor many many times (for other purchases, it's a big music instruments store) and everytime the dude in the speakers+mixers section was eager to demo me the -whatever new at the time- Yamaha, Neumann and KRKs, i experienced no hiss from a KRK pair there either. I will consult with them and investigate further...
Cheers

 

Last edited: Jan 28, 2021