Where music production is concerned, you cannot just use any type of speakers and expect to hear all the minute details that are so vitally important when making producing great quality music.
You need the best studio monitor speakers in order to get an accurate reproduction of tonal qualities from the audio source. Here are 10 of the best models that will get you hearing and creating better music.
 KRK Rokit 5 Gen. 3 |  Mackie Creative |  JBL LSR305 |  Presonus Eris E4.5 |  Behringer MS16 | |
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| Available As | Single / Pair | Pair | Single / Pair | Pair | Pair |
| Enclosure | MDF with Black Vinyl Finish | All-Wood Cabinet Design | N/A | Vinyl-Laminated, Medium-Density Fiberboard | N/A |
| LF Driver | 5" Aramid Glass Composite woofer | 3" or 4" Polypropylene-Coated Woofer | 127 mm (5") | 4.5" Kevlar® | 4" |
| HF Driver | 1" soft dome tweeter | 0.75″ ferrofluid-cooled silk-dome tweeter | 25 mm (1") | 1” silk dome | 1.5" high-resolution tweeters |
| Freq. Response | 45Hz - 35kHz (+/- 2 dB) | 43Hz - 24kHz | 70Hz - 20kHz | 80Hz - 20kHz | |
| Max. Peak SPL | 106 dB | N/A | 108 dB | 100 dB | N/A |
| Power Output | 50W | 50W | N/A | N/A | 16W |
| Impedance | 10 k ohm balanced | N/A | N/A | 10 k | N/A |
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| Additional Features | |||||
| Dimensions | 230 x 185 x 282mm | 298 x 238 x 251 m | 241 x 180 x 163mm | 15.4" x 7.2" x 11.3" | |
| Weight | 6.4 kg (14.1 lbs) | 4.6 kg (10.12 lbs) | 5.9 kg (13 lbs) | 12 lbs | |
| Price | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** |
 M-Audio Studiophile AV40 |  Presonus Eris E8 |  Alesis Elevate 5 | Behringer MS40 |  Alesis M1 Active 320 | |
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| Our User Rating | |  |  | |  |
| Available As | Pair | Single | Pair | Pair | Pair |
| Enclosure | Vinyl-Laminated MDF | N/A | High-Density Wood | N/A | N/A |
| LF Driver | 4" diameter, polypropylene-coated, magnetically shielded with high-temperature voice coil | 8" Kevlar | 5" | 4.75" | 3” lightweight, magnetically-shielded |
| HF Driver | 1" diameter, magnetically shielded silk cone tweeter | 1.25" silk dome | 1" silk dome | 2.5" high res tweeters | 1” silk dome |
| Freq. Response | 85Hz - 20kHz | 35Hz - 22kHz | 55Hz - 20kHz | 50Hz - 25kHz | 80Hz - 20kHz |
| Max. Peak SPL | 101.5 dB | 105 dB | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Power Output | 80W | 75W (LF) / 65W (HF) | 40W (continuous) / 120W (max) | 2 x 20W | 10W per channel RMS |
| Impedance | 10 k ohms unbalanced / 20 k ohms balanced | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| Additional Features | |||||
| Dimensions | 222 x 152 x 184mm | 9.84" x 11.77" x 15.12" | 22.1" x 18.4" x 26.9" | 11" X 6.8" X 9.6" | 5" x 6.5" x 7.37" |
| Weight | 6.34 kg (14 lbs) | 22 lbs | 5.7kg | N/A | 11 lbs |
| Price | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** | **CHECK PRICE** |
Table Info
- Our User Rating – This is our own opinion based on our product research on our own and other user’s testing and feedback. Click on one of the featured products and you’ll be brought to Amazon’s product page, where you’ll find genuine customer reviews which we recommend you to read.
- Best Value / Top Rated – Products that we feel stands out in a specific area such as value for money or reputation have been given one of our awards.
- LF Driver – The woofer or subwoofer is used to reproduce low frequencies (bass) and works in conjunction with the enclosure design to produce suitable low frequencies.
- HF Driver – The tweeter is the driver that reproducers the highest frequencies in the speakers.
- Maximum Sound Pressure Level (SPL) – This is the highest output that the studio monitor speakers are able to handle without resulting in distortion or damage.
- Frequency Range – This is the range of frequencies the headphones can produce from low bass to high pitch frequencies.
- Impedance – This measures the degree of the speaker’s electrical resistance.
- Price – To find out the price of any of the studio monitor speakers, just click on the Buy Now button or Check Price and you’ll be directed to the official product page on Amazon.com. Prices are not shown in the tables because they constantly change according to the many different sellers making offers.
Do You Really Need A Pair Of Studio Monitor Speakers?
One of the most frequent questions asked by aspiring and upcoming music producers is if it’s really necessary to buy a pair of studio monitor speakers, or can you just use a pair of home stereo speakers or headphones? Lewin from Garageband answers this questions the best.
Mixing On Home Stereo Speakers
“You can’t really successfully mix properly on a set of home stereo speakers, and yes, if you really want to take mixing seriously, you do need a set of monitors in your home recording studio. There’s really no other way around it.”
“So the reason you don’t want to mix on your home stereo is this. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a Sony, Pioneer, JVC, whatever, if you’re mixing on a home stereo system, those speakers, the tuners, everything about them is designed to represent what the engineers at that company want you to hear. So what that means is every speaker company is going to be a little bit different. The tone and EQ shape is going to be different.”
“Most of the time, what you’re going to get out of a home stereo speaker is a lot of extended lows and a lot of extended highs. So if you’re someone who’s currently mixing on your home stereo system, and you take it out of your studio and put it in your car or your friend’s speakers, and you suddenly hear that the low end is crazy huge and the high end is totally terrible like really thin, tinny and trashy sounding, that’s because you’re mixing on home stereo speakers.”
Mixing On Studio Monitor Speakers
“Monitors are designed to do a much different thing. They’re designed to give you the flattest, most accurate representation of whatever it is that you may be recording – Guitars, pianos, drums, your voice, whatever.”
“Now of course, there are several manufacturers and they all sound a little different and they all have different components. However, they’re all basically trying to do the same thing. So when you get a mix sounding good on a set of studio monitors, then you can take it out of your studio and play it in someone’s car stereo and you don’t have those problems like extended lows or highs because you’re mixing on something that doesn’t have those.”
The above transcript covers only the first few minutes of the below video, so you may want to watch the rest of it where Lewin compares two of the studio monitor speakers that he uses in his home studio.
If you want to read more in-depth information about all the different elements that make studio monitor speakers, then I recommend that you check this article out.
