12 studio monitors that we recommend

We recommend speakers with woofers of a 8″ minimum even if you are in a small room, in order to ensure a better presence in the low frequencies. It is better to use 8″ than 5″ woofers that have to work harder and cannot reproduce the sub frequencies. 

We are aware of the price difference with the entry-level 5″ and 8” but find it fully justified. We recommend that you wait a little longer and buy a good pair of speakers right away rather than investing in an entry-level pair and then buying another more expensive pair a few months later which will ultimately cost you more.

The most important thing is to hear the speakers, preferably in your work/creative environment, so that you can judge from listening which pair you prefer. 

The acoustics of your room remain the most influential element in your critical listening. 

With a little effort we can easily and without too much expense, improve the quality of our monitoring. Most often we will try to strongly attenuate if not eliminate sound reflections on the different surfaces that may conflict with the direct signal from the monitors with the help of absorbent panels or to better control the low frequency response of the room with “Bass Traps” in the corners. 

With this in mind, you’re probably thinking that maybe you’d be better off producing and mixing with headphones.
This is not always the case… Although having a pair of headphones on hand to use as a reference in some cases is definitely useful.
Headphones have several drawbacks such as:
– Not physically feeling the sound,
– Perception of stereophony is very different which will influence, among other things, the dosage of effects such as reverb,
– Biased perception of very low frequencies…

In addition, a pair of headphones does not offer the acoustic reality of cross-listening as a speaker system does in a listening room. In short, our right ear receives the audio information from the 2 loudspeakers, just like the left ear. This is not the case with a pair of headphones. Each ear is isolated (no crossfeed).

So it is still recommended  ideally to have both options. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself that will guide you in your choice of a pair of monitors: 

– What are your needs in terms of precision and power?
– What content will you play most on the speakers?
– Active or passive monitors? (If passive, you will need an amplifier as well).
– Acoustic space settings (A plus, especially if your room is not perfect).
– Materials of the drivers, a ribbon twitter will not sound the same as a different material.
– Frequency response? Dynamic range ? Total harmonic distortion ? Amp power ?
– What is your average and maximum budget?
– What are the reference models of the pros in your main field?

Depending on the answers to these questions you should already be able to refine your research. 

Quested V3110 MKII – 12000 CAD

Adam S3H – 10050 CAD

Focal Twin6 Be – 4500 CAD

Neumann KH310 – 4000 CAD

2-way high fidelity monitors with 8″ woofer:

Presonus Sceptres S8 – 2200 CAD

Adam Audio A8X – 1320 CAD

Presonus Eris E8 – 680 CAD

KRK Rokit 8 G4 – 800 CAD

Yamaha HS8 – 880 CAD

Presonus Eris E5 – 260 CAD

KRK Rokit 5 G4 – 480 CAD

Yamaha HS5 – 500 CAD