Monitors under £700

[spyder]

This isn't my advice, although I think it is sound; In Mike Senior's book Mixing Secrets, he specifically highlights avoiding monitors that are ported (have a hole that allows woofer energy out). This is very common on monitors today and his arguement is that it produces very inaccurate bass response.

I read this after buying a pair of Yamaha HS5s. He also suggests stuffing it with socks if you do have ported monitors. Something to think about.

Mike is a smart guy and I haven't read that book but the key issue is not to use rear-ported monitors against a wall because it will affect the bass response. So if you have a small room where the monitor needs to be placed less than 12 - 18" from a wall then choose front-ported or sealed monitors. Focal, KRK and most Adams have front ports.

 

[Pantonal]

The advice to bring your music to the store to listen is spot on. I brought a bunch of classical CDs to Guitar Center (weekday morning) and had a good listen to JBL, KRK, M-Audio, Yamaha and Tannoy (and maybe more I just don't remember them all). I was listening for natural sound, something that sounded like an orchestra and the winner by a wide margin was the Tannoy Reveal 501a. The current model is the 502 which I'm sure doesn't sound a whole lot different. Both have ports on the front and amplifiers built in. For a small monitor the bass is pretty darned good. What surprised me is that I actually bought them, because I used to work for Celestion USA (US distributor for UK speaker company and a direct competitor), but that was a long time ago and Celestion's monitors were always a bit weak in the low end. My point is I didn't want to like them, but they just sounded too good (to my ears). YMMV.

FWIW, I brought orchestral music because it has less processing that changes the character of the sound. I did bring in a few rock CDs that are renown for being well produced, but it was the orchestral music that made the decision. Once I knew a speaker had a punchy bass without being boomy and a reasonably bright but not harsh high end I was listening for open natural sound with good imaging.

 

[jaketanner]

This thread should be under "gear" not Sample Talk so more people can chime in. However...I mix professionally for a living, and can tell you...I am sure it's been mentioned before...no monitor is going to sound good unless you have a decent sounding room to begin with...so let's assume you do. The monitors I would get are the JBL 305 MKII along with a sub. Perhaps stretch to the new 306 models for a bit of extended low end, and should still be well within your budget. Anything bigger, you will need a truly treated room...the smaller monitors are more forgiving in less than stellar rooms and don't require that much volume to flatten out. You also mentioned "high-quality"...that comes with a price...you are looking for the best quality for that budget, but "high-quality" is a loose term at this price range. But having said that...you want accurate...and that does not always mean high quality. As long as YOU know what you are hearing, nothing else matters.

So the next step is, is to know them well. Play lots of music through them that you are familiar with , and that translates well...then use those as a guide for overall tone. Match the highs, mids and lows of the references.

Good luck, hope this helps.