I think I'm gonna finally invest in some active monitors now that my interest in recording etc seems to have returned. I was looking at the Mackie MR5s last time, but they were out of my price range at the time. When I get my next pay packet, I can probably push the budget up to about £300 (around $500?). Not any more than that really as I have a seperate fund for a new downhill bike

Whilst I want some level of transparency I don't want it to be really clinical or unforgiving as I would like to listen to normal music through them as well. As a compromise I was thinking about getting the Audioengine A5 - ok so they're not really made to be monitors but would certainly be better than using computer speakers, and should still be good for listening to music

One with adjustable bass/treble frequencies might be good as the room I'm in now seems quite bassy/dull compared to my old one, so I would like to be able to tweak it to suit without using EQ on the 'puter. Also a sub output might be nice so I can hear my low end properly, but I probably can't afford a proper sub right now.

Are those auralex isolation pads/stands worth it?

Yamaha ns10. THeyre expensive but you might find a good deal on some local classifieds site.

Aren't they the really unforgiving ones that will expose any weakness in a mix and make normal music sound like crap?

Some people swear by them, some dont.....

hmm... the Mackie MR5s are down to £250 now. A friend has some and they sound pretty good to me, although I've only used them for listening to music, nothing involving mixing 'n' shit. I'm tempted to just buy a pair.

I honestly dont know shit about monitors, but if they price is high, that means theyre good so Ill buy buy buy!

Fair enough. For a few days I actually had some Tapco S5s which are just a cheaper version of the Mackie MR5. Pretty good but the tweeter of one was damaged in transit and Tapco's customer service was really shit.

btw what "first" downhill bike would you recommend? You're a freeride/downhiller kinda guy, right?

I love dhmtbing dude. I got rid of my specialized demo 8 a month or two ago ( gettin another one soon though ). I regret it but I have a 2 cr250s and a quad in its place, but thats another story.

I would go with anything by santa cruz, specialzed, gary fisher. Just check local classifieds for a specialzed demo or custom build your own Wernt you talking about doin that before?

Yeah I'm just riding a "custom" DMR hardtail at the minute but now I'm properly getting into DH, it's fucking torture over roots and getting worse now I'm building up to bigger drops I wasn't gonna bother going FS as I heard hardtail makes you a better rider in the long run... but I figure I'm riding to have fun not be the best, and a FS will allow me to have the most fun by being able to hit everything faster and hopefully stop me falling off so much.

Full suspension is always a plus. I had a full suspension..



You will deff feel a difference. It will also give you more confidence and trust in the bike to hit gnarlier shit.

Oh that looks noice. I had a go on a mates Intense Uzzi last time I went on an uplift day and I felt about a minute faster down the runs

To get this a bit back on topic, I think I've just decided on the MR5s after reading nothing but good things about em. Now do I need some Auralex MoPads?

I like those bikes as well but the frames look a bit too small. The specialzed demos have fat frames , pretty much handle any drop you can do without contorting.

I ride this to school everyday:

Take it off any sweet jumps recently?

Kinda.

I hit roots going pretty fast.

Turns out that happiness is a set of good monitors and well produced music



They're making my mixes sound boxy as fuck though I also need something to raise them to ear level, since they sound a bit dull as I'm sat quite high over the tweeters

No offense, but your mixes kinda do sound boxy as fuck.


I can attribute that to you using something shitty to mix them on, though.

How do you stop that boxiness? I never noticed it before listening to them on something proper. Reducing the lower mids and boosting treble seems to work ok. Gonna have to re-do everything I've ever recorded

Out of curiosity, what do mine sound like on real monitors? I have three or four different speakers to listen on, but none of them are actually good, so i generally just try to find a spot in the middle where none of them sound painful, and let it go. Which isn't to say that the mix won't sound terrible elsewhere...



But of late, i have been increasingly curious as to how things sound to others.

Unfortunately, if no one says things sound fucked up, a person with no way to hear the mix on decent monitors, will never know.

tl/dr: If you hear something fucked up, say something!