[Theowne]

Where did you hear that? I've looked all over the net, so far I've only seen good reviews about the sound (except for ones about malfunctioning and such)

So what kind of monitors you reccomend, that don't cost five hundred bucks?

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

I heard that from bLiNd actually. I think some of the responses from certain frequencies are weak.

If you want some serious monitors for under $200 each check these out:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMHS50M

These are made supposedly in the tradition of the NS10M's. The saying goes, if you can get your music to sound good on them, you can get it to sound good on anything. There is also a larger model available if you're on a higher budget, the YAMHS80M'S, for $350.00 each: http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMHS80M

I wouldn't really see anything wrong with the cheaper ones, unless 70 watt speakers are too weak for you (if you're in a quiet room using near-field monitors they should be perfect though).

I don't use speaker monitors yet, so I would recommend doing more research or asking someone else (bLiNd is a great person to talk to on the subject though).

[Nineko]

Headphones: I use this, and it's great.

[Legion303]

If I wanted to buy either headphones or monitors, would people consider it acceptable to buy mail-order if I audition the real thing at a music store first? I would never buy a guitar online because of the vast differences in tone and playability in each individual guitar even of the same make and model, but I don't know what kind of manufacturing tolerances there are in headphone/monitor production. Thanks.

-steve

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

Retailers have to get their stuff shipped from somewhere. I would think the quality in headphones/speakers would be the same as buying them from a store; and in any case, why would you buy a display product, if everyone who goes in the store uses it?

I see no problem at all with buying online. I bought my Sony MDR V600's from amazon. They were in the same package you'd find in a retail store anyway.

If you get into delicate or hand-made items like violins or guitars I could see why you'd want to try before buy, but well-built manufactured items like speakers it should make no difference.

[Legion303]

Cool, thanks. I've had my eye on some AKG K-171 studio phones for awhile now (thanks for the recommendation, Compy), which I feel would suit me better than monitors right now because of the noise levels where I do most of my music. Now I just need to wait for my bonus to hit the paycheck and I'm all set. :)

Edit: whoa, K240 phones are going for $80-$100 on ebay from "authorized dealers" with 100% positive feedback. There seem to be a couple of different versions of them, though...for laptop mixing and production, I would want the low impedance model instead of the high impedance model, right?

-steve

[zircon]

As I understand it, you need to match the impedence up with the rest of your signal processing stuff.

[lazygecko]

* Ideally, you want closed headphones that cancel out noise. The reasons for this are pretty obvious.

I tried one of these, and it felt more or less like the equivalent of putting two seashells on your ears.

[Liontamer]

What's the consensus on the analoq-endorsed Grado headphones? Are they too impractical due to being open-eared? Aaron mentioned the sound quality was pretty good.

[Fridge]

From everyone I've heard, Grados are consistently ahead of their pricepoint as far as sound goes - but this is in terms of listening enjoyment, can't say anything about flatness or how good they are for mixing. The greater portion of high end headphones are open, so as long as you have a quiet listening environment this won't be an issue.

http://head-fi.org/

Excellent forums for headphone/amp/etc info, several manufacturers (including grado) have put out special models just for the members there...