Budget Studio Monitors (Around R2k)

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Ghost729

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The amp on my current set of 10+ year old speakers. At least the left channel gave in. They were crappy Microlabs and didn't have the level of detail of my Sennheiser HD429s or Samson SR850s. So I've decided to invest in some "studio monitors".

I have a budget of R2000, which can be slightly stretched. I know R2000 won't get me proper studio monitors, but I think the speakers labelled at monitors will sound a hell of a lot better than Logitechs or Microlabs, as far as level of detail and a flat response goes.

I have also recently got into music production on my desktop PC and a pair of monitors would make for a good extra reference. I've done my homework in terms of what's needed for a home studio, but I'm starting off and I'm only looking for the monitors for now.

I've also looked at studio monitor reviews for my price range. I thought I found what I was looking for in the Presonus Eris E3.5, but two shops have told me the supplier doesn't have stock. The one store said the supplier did not know when they will be getting stock again and the other gave me an estimate of 3 weeks, but didn't sound too confident.

I've looked at the following, and also looked at the reviews if there were any:

Behringer MS16 - Behringer is not synonymous with quality according to the internet and there are a lack of reviews

Samson Media One 4A BT - a lack of proper reviews, the bluetooth is a nice addition, though

M-AUDIO AV42 - has decent reviews, but I feel it needs balanced inputs, like the Eris, for future audio interface purposes

Mackie CR3 - I think there might not be stock of these. I've seen a video comparison of these vs the Eris E3.5s and these trade mid detail for more bass.

It's difficult comparing these speakers to each other since what ever reviews I find don't compare these speakers to each other.

So does anyone else have any recommendations?

Thanks
 
Ghost729 said:
Do you trust them?

The prices aren't much better than Audio Mart or Sound Select
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I have the Samson Media 4’s you mentioned and they have served me extremely well for almost 2 years now. The sound and clarity is amazing in my opinion.

Granted I don’t do any music production etc but I bought them purely for music listening and as mentioned haven’t had a single complaint from day one.

Maybe try find a shop with them and give it a listen. Or order from takealot and if not happy you can return them within 7 days I think it is.
 
I don't think takealot allows trying it out for 7 days. I think that's just for defects.

I don't doubt that the Samsons or any of the speakers above will sound amazing compared my Microlabs. That said, the Media 4's are not meant to be studio monitors, while the Eris range is, even if the E3.5's fall short of that in practice.

What I am getting at is that none of speakers in my price range are actual monitors and none of them have a really flat response. They are all trying their best for their price to be as flat as possible, but have some sort of colouration to make up for their small size and limited budget. I am just trying to find the most flat and detailed among them.

I was thinking that I would go for the Media 4's if I can't get the Eris E3.5's.

Truth be told, even though my headphones have a great deal of detail, they're not high end studio headphone, so I have actually no reference as to what any speakers should sound like.
 
My choice would be ESI AKTIV 05 or the M-AUDIO Studiophile AV 40, they meant for up close and personal, not for filling the entire room, does have some issues with fast playing instruments but distortions isn't that noticeable, but does really well with bass and voices....;)
 
Ghost729 said:
I don't think takealot allows trying it out for 7 days. I think that's just for defects.

I don't doubt that the Samsons or any of the speakers above will sound amazing compared my Microlabs. That said, the Media 4's are not meant to be studio monitors, while the Eris range is, even if the E3.5's fall short of that in practice.

What I am getting at is that none of speakers in my price range are actual monitors and none of them have a really flat response. They are all trying their best for their price to be as flat as possible, but have some sort of colouration to make up for their small size and limited budget. I am just trying to find the most flat and detailed among them.

I was thinking that I would go for the Media 4's if I can't get the Eris E3.5's.

Truth be told, even though my headphones have a great deal of detail, they're not high end studio headphone, so I have actually no reference as to what any speakers should sound like.
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Yeah agree but as mentioned I don’t do any sort of music production etc - I just wanted a good set of speakers with great sound and these do it for me.

Before I purchased I watched a few reviews of them (think might have also need the media 3’s which are smaller) but end of day I wanted something which I could enjoy my music.
 
wizardofid said:
My choice would be ESI AKTIV 05 or the M-AUDIO Studiophile AV 40, they meant for up close and personal, not for filling the entire room, does have some issues with fast playing instruments but distortions isn't that noticeable, but does really well with bass and voices....;)
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Thanks [MENTION=35412]wizardofid[/MENTION]. I can get the M-AUDIO AV42s from Audio Mart at R2300, but apparently they're not as good as the AV40's were which puts me off. ESI AKTIV 05 is a single speaker and I am looking for a pair within my budget.

I am starting to think, I should maybe go with the Samsons for now and get something better later on.
 
Ghost729 said:
Thanks [MENTION=35412]wizardofid[/MENTION]. I can get the M-AUDIO AV42s from Audio Mart at R2300, but apparently they're not as good as the AV40's were which puts me off. ESI AKTIV 05 is a single speaker and I am looking for a pair within my budget.

I am starting to think, I should maybe go with the Samsons for now and get something better later on.
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So buy two :D

audio mart does have the v40.
https://www.audiomart.co.za/product...j_wo030UPp55ax64-_JE_0nPB3_tmW7BoCJt8QAvD_BwE

Alternative
https://www.soundselect.co.za/presonus-eris-e3-5

Honestly this isn't a bad deal, speakers does need to be broken in though....retail price is a lie though, price is around 1.3k ish on amazon.
https://www.audiomart.co.za/product...-powered-desktop-studio-speakers-pair-p-13575
 
Last edited:
No stock of AV40 and I doubt they will get since they've been succeeded.

Soundselect says their supplier does not have stock, despite what their website says.

I was looking these.
https://www.audiomart.co.za/product_info.php/alesis-elevate-powered-desktop-studio-speakers-pair-p-13576

They aren't MKII's and I have no idea how they compare to the Elevate 3 MKII, especially with the generation gap. What I can say is that there are a lack of reviews for either, which puts some doubts in my mind.
 
[MENTION=388945]Ghost729[/MENTION]

The best bet, is to go to audio shops and take them for a test drive, considering how vital the audio will be I wouldn't muck about.The alesis are pretty sweet, even though they would still only be my second or 3rd choice....they perform similar to the other two I mentioned, and will have some issues with 100khz bass....

.https://www.audiomart.co.za/product...-powered-desktop-studio-speakers-pair-p-13576
 
ponder said:
Look at the Mackie CR4
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They are good and I could stretch my budget, but audio mart doesn't have stock. Thanks for the recommendation.

It seems like the Eris E4.5 have a tighter low end, which I like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW78fyPnkUM

I could get the Eris E4.5's at 12.5% off Takealots price. I could stretch my budget to accommodate R2625.00.
https://www.takealot.com/presonus-eris-e4-5-speaker-pair/PLID42507569

What do you think, [MENTION=35412]wizardofid[/MENTION]?
 
Eris E4.5 is good, but like the others will likely struggle a bit with lowish frequencies, not terrible distortions, so you would need to tweak the overall volume a bit.Generally like to go full volume and tweak from there I use sonic foundry ACID Pro 8, which allows much better control overall. Got two JBL LSR305 Studio Monitors with a SE Electronics mic as I do Foley recording and some quick sound mix for games and 3d content I create, I found them best for voices and simple tracks.

So it depends entirely what you are going to do with them, lots of bass, synths ect it does a good job but not brilliant.I would much rather get a decent cheapy and save up for what you want, would much rather get a monitor with an additional front port, as it helps with certain things especially bass.
 
For now I think I'll go for the Eris E4.5. If my new hobbie becomes some more serious, then I'll invest in something like the Yamaha HS8. If not, then at least I have a nice pair of bookshelves.

One last question. Lets say I want to add a bluetooth receiver later on, the receivers available at the moment either support bluetooth 3.0 or 4.1. How does BT3.0 compare to BT4.1 in terms of audio quality (not talking about AptX or other proprietary codecs)?

The reason for my asking is that I can get the Logitech receiver with BT3.0 for the same price as a Ugreen receiver with BT4.1. If there is no audio quality difference then I would probably go for Logitech, since they would probably use better quality components.
 
Ghost729 said:
I did look at the Elevate 5's initially and decided to remove them from my list when found the video below while looking for reviews. Read the pinned comment for info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYrw3B7PxEI

They're still a good pair of speakers though.
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Ye they're not perfect but I got a good deal on mine a while back and use them only for PC speakers and they can get quite loud.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Ye they're not perfect but I got a good deal on mine a while back and use them only for PC speakers and they can get quite loud.
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And they're probably way better than Logitechs. Raru had a sale on Eris E4.5 in May for R2399. I wish I could get them for that price now.
 
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