Spend any time making music at home or in a studio and you’ll appreciate the importance of arming yourself with the best studio monitors you can stretch to. It’s a familiar scenario; you spend hours working on a track, and after fine-tuning the mix, you’re pretty happy with how it sounds. But then you listen to it somewhere else – in a different studio, through your phone, on your car stereo, over PA speakers in a club – and the mix sounds utterly awful.
If this is a fair description of your experience to date, then it could be time to upgrade your studio monitoring setup. Sound like you? Our expert guide to the best studio monitors is a great place to start.
Studio monitor speakers are essentially designed to reveal a true picture of the audio you’re creating. You might not love this warts and all approach, but this uncoloured picture of your mix means you can make informed choices about what might need changing, confident that what you’re hearing in your studio will translate to the methods of playback described above and beyond.
Of course, we have to point out that studio monitors can be less pleasant-sounding, and in some cases more fatiguing to the ears, than standard hi-fi speakers, where the tonal balance is designed to enhance music for the average listener. While a decent pair of studio monitors may reveal some of the less optimal elements of your mix, they’ll also help point you in the direction of things that need fixing. If you’re looking to enhance your abilities as a producer this can only be a good thing.
With this in mind, we’ve rounded up what we consider to be some of the best studio monitors currently on the market, from budget options to pro-quality monitoring setups. We’ve also found the best prices online right now. If you need further guidance, hit the ‘buying advice’ button above where we can answer all your burning questions.
Best studio monitors: Our top picks
Monitor speakers vary immensely in terms of price, performance and design, so it’s not easy to pick out one set that can truly be called ‘the best’. In addition to our handy top 5 video above, we can guide you to a couple of models we’ve tested which performed well above the mark for the price.
First up, we were hugely impressed with the on-board graphic EQ of the KRK Rokit G4 series. Often, bedroom producers, or those with small studio spaces, can suffer from poor acoustic treatment. Sound waves bounce off walls, making it hard to get an accurate representation of the mix. By using the accompanying KRK app, and then making subtle alterations, you can give yourself a fighting chance of getting a balanced, accurate sound.
Elsewhere, the new IK Multimedia iLoud MTM speakers offer great all-rounder performance for home and bedroom studios, and for not an awful lot of cash.
Best studio monitors: Product guide
If you’ve ever stepped foot inside the studio domain of an electronic music producer, the chances are you’re familiar with the famous yellow speaker cones of KRK. The Rokit series – now in its fourth generation – is the Gibson-owned brand’s affordable nearfield range, and has a selection of neat features which make it worthy of note.
For starters, the G4 range is among the first monitor series at this price bracket to include a graphic EQ function on the speaker itself. In-built digital signal processing (DSP) offers a suite of tools, including a room analyser, to ensure the speakers’ output compensates the space you’re mixing in for any dead-zones or sonic blind spots you may be unwittingly harbouring. Some of the best studio monitors for smaller studios, and ideal for anything bass-heavy.
Read the KRK Rokit G4 review
Available in 40, 50 and 65 flavours, the latter of which we’re reviewing here, the Shapes, from Focal, now sit between their budget-friendly Alpha series and the Solo6 Be – another 6.5″ two-way monitor – in terms of price.
Aesthetically, the Shapes are an interesting departure from Focal’s other designs. The main speaker cabinet is black-painted MDF with a luxurious walnut veneer, appearing less ‘studio spaceship’ and more ‘hi- connoisseur’ – in fact, they’d look just as at home in a domestic cinema setup as in a production environment.
Interestingly, the Shapes are non-ported, with dual 6.5″ passive radiators (one on each side of the monitor).
Read the Focal Shape 65 review
As a newcomer to the studio monitor marketplace, the Berlin-based HEDD Audio – set up by ex-Adam Audio MD Klaus Heinz and his son Dr Frederik Knop – is quickly gathering a buzz. The Type 20s have a sleek, futuristic, somewhat dinky look – but their ‘cute’ size is in no way indicative of their sound!
With a frequency response of 32Hz to 50kHz, their front-ported three-way design (7.2” woofer, 4” midrange driver and 1” ‘Air Motion Transformer’ tweeter) kicks out a scrumptious full-range presentation that completely blew us away. The best studio monitors out there right now.
Read the HEDD Audio Type 20 review
At the smallest end of the Genelec 8000 bi-amplified monitor series is the 8010A. Though relatively light (1.5kg each), the 8010As are solid thanks to the die-cast aluminium enclosure, with metal driver grilles to prevent damage in transit. Portability is key, with power and input sockets neatly tucked in at the rear.
They come with tiltable Iso-Pod rubber stands attached, simultaneously taking care of axis angle and transmission reduction. They feature standard 8000 series mounting sockets for a variety of options, from truss hanging to floor stands. These are rear ported (bass reflex) enclosures, and just beneath the port is a recess housing five dip switches. Three contour the low-frequency response: -2dB and -4dB bass tilts which combine for -6dB, and Desktop Control which dips -4dB at 200Hz.
Read the Genelec 8010A review
