Which Monitors Should I Go For?

[Creativemind]

Hi All!

Trying to decide between some Mackie Monitor Speakers or PreSonus ones.

Which would you go for and why?

https://www.presonus.com/products/Eris-E35/tech-specs

or

Both the same price and frequency range (80Hz to 20kHz), both come with cables. I like the look of PreSonus ones better but the Mackie ones are louder, I think, 50w vs 25w?

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Those Mackie ones are silver and there is also green outlined onre too. I can't see where it says they have Blurtooth on the silver but as far as I know, the green ones do.

Thanks!

Thanks!

[motuscott]

Ankle monitor.
I fought the Law and ...well, you know

[Creativemind]

Ankle monitor.
I fought the Law and ...well, you know

[PhillipOrdonez]

Those are very small by the looks of it (80Hz? What, are those phone speakers?) If you need something small, cheap that still provides decent low end, I've heard great things about the iLouds by ik multimedia, the MTM ones particularly.

[avasopht]

I got my Mackie CR-4s for £90 off Amazon in March 2020 (they're £95 right now).

I read through all the comparisons of the cr4 and comparable alternatives like those from Presonus, and they're all roughly the same.

The iLoud weren't in those comparisons, but I found a bunch of forums that carry out detailed analysis of the speakers, so maybe you'll find one for the ik speakers.

The cr4 packs a punch, but you notice the difference immediately when compared with something like a Yamaha hs80 or a krk.

I've felt satisfied with mine for use in the home.

[miyaru]

I have Presonus Monitors for 5 years now, the Eris E8's. They are rock solid build, and they sound good. For the money you can't go wrong on both the Mackie and the Presonus ones.

I do ask my self, aren't they a bit small in terms of low freq's? I do not know what music you make, but if you want some low end, these won't give it to you.......

[RobC]

Try looking around on audiosciencereview; they do pretty good and honest tests of all kinds of audio gear.

[Creativemind]

Thanks for all the replies. I've brought the Mackies. Those IK Multimedia sound interesting though.

Just looked them up. Look the shizzle they do. Go lower in the frequency range too at 55Hz. 3 and a half times the price though but have Bluetooth too. May be my next purchase in the summer next year (UK June).

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[Faastwalker]

Thanks for all the replies. I've brought the Mackies. Those IK Multimedia sound interesting though.

Just looked them up. Look the shizzle they do. Go lower in the frequency range too at 55Hz. 3 and a half times the price though but have Bluetooth too. May be my next purchase in the summer next year (UK June).

I bought a pair of those a couple of years back. To be honest I was mainly going for the small size as desk real estate was in demand and I didn't really want to get stands as the monitors would have been too far apart. So, I went for these after hearing good things about them. I've was blown away by the sound considering how tiny they actually are. Far, far more detailed than the Fostex PM monitors I had before and a fraction of the size. Amazing what IK have managed to do in such a small size. I've always wanted a pair of the small, desktop Genelec monitors (Don't remember the model). But even the tiny ones are stupid expensive. If I do upgrade, I may well go for the IK Multimedia iLoud MTM monitors;

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/iloudmtm/

[pushedbutton]

.... Far, far more detailed than the Fostex PM monitors ...

I have some Fostex PM 0.5's. I've got a set of MK1's but one of them needs fixing so I replaced them with a set of MK2's cos it died during the covid lockdown. I really like them but as they're discontinued I can't find a sub for them for love nor money.

[miyaru]

And which one should I get when I want heavy basses? I have KRK 6 Inch right now but they have not enough bass i.m.h.o..

Well you could go for the Eris E8, or another good 8” woofer driven monitor. Or ad a Subwoofer to your setup……

[gkillmaster]

I have been wanting the Presonus Sceptre S8, which went on sale recently for $600 each but by that time I'd spent all my money on xmas stuff. After looking into it for a long time, I settled on those.

[miyaru]

I have been wanting the Presonus Sceptre S8, which went on sale recently for $600 each but by that time I'd spent all my money on xmas stuff. After looking into it for a long time, I settled on those.

Even far better than a pair of E8's.......

[Creativemind]

So I bought the Mackie CR-3X.

How do I hook them up to my audio interface?

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I could only seem to get them hooked up to my comp through the mini jack green comp input. When I tried the red and white RCA's (think they're RCA's), nothing happened and I was selecting the right drivers, the Behringer ones.

I am a tad peed off with the speakers though as the leads are short. The speaker wire that goes between the left and right speaker is only 3 foot long and won't go from the left speaker on one side of my desk to the right on the other and tuck behind my monitors (screens) at the same time. If I use the red / white RCA's from the left speaker to my audio interface, I have to move the audio interface to an inconvenient / awkward position which is frustrating.

[Faastwalker]

Is your interface that Behringer Xenyx Q502USB? The monitors should be connected from the MAIN OUT left and right on the Q502USB and into the LEFT / RIGHT inputs on the main monitor (both the Q502USB and monitors look like 1/4" jacks). Then I gather that monitor is connected to the second with the cable you mentioned. The IK monitors are connected to each other in a similar way. The cable included is also a bit short. But I have the monitors either side of my display so it's not an issue. But it's a very specific connector, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a longer one. Hopefully you don't have the same issue to source a suitable cable.

EDIT: Found this as well. Just the ticket

[Creativemind]

Is your interface that Behringer Xenyx Q502USB? The monitors should be connected from the MAIN OUT left and right on the Q502USB and into the LEFT / RIGHT inputs on the main monitor (both the Q502USB and monitors look like 1/4" jacks). Then I gather that monitor is connected to the second with the cable you mentioned. The IK monitors are connected to each other in a similar way. The cable included is also a bit short. But I have the monitors either side of my display so it's not an issue. But it's a very specific connector, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a longer one. Hopefully you don't have the same issue to source a suitable cable.

EDIT: Found this as well. Just the ticket

Thanks man.

So yeah, you connect via 1/4 jacks then to the main outs on the interface, makes sense. Cool. Nice one.

[jlgrimes]

when I saw that the bass started at 80hz, I kind of got turned off.

That said it depends on genre. But for dance stuff, I would want some thing that can go down to 40hz. So I don't think these will tell you much in the low end department. But with speakers, your room is probably more important than the speaker anyways.


Some 6.5 inch monitors can get down to 50 or 60hz and alot of people like those for less bass heavy genres or as an alternate set. And I'm guessing some of the higher end ones probably are better than alot of the 8 inches in regards to midrange.

For that price and specs I would go with what sounds the best to you if these will be your mains, especially if creating, you will want something inspiring as well as revealing. if these will be secondary, my strategy would be to find a pair of monitors you don't like the sound of (Cheap Pc speakers make a great secondary pair). Actually though a bad sounding pair of monitors can tell a whole lot about your mixes in terms of translating (especially if using reference tracks to mix).