Audio Interface For Discrete Monitoring

Iceking007  wrote I'm also seriously considering going with the Yamaha studio monitors.  They seem to be touted as being very flat and great for this type of work, an "industry standard"; plus they are quite affordable.

Hmm... I didn't mention monitors at all, and it's a minefield. Dealing with your point first - flatness as such is the least of your worries; your room will rapidly see to that. Having a suitable room for them, and positioning them correctly within it will make far more difference than the actual degree of 'flatness', which your room will screw around with probably more than you realise.

What monitor speakers are supposed to do, above all else, is to be truthful. And really, that's what you are paying for. And the one thing that the Yamahas aren't that good at, I'm afraid, is absolute truthfulness. What was said about the original NS10's (which did actually have some good technical points) was that if you could get a mix to sound good on them, it would sound absolutely great on anything else! Which meant that they tended to emphasise those things in a mix (mostly in the midrange) that people found disturbing (without actually realising it), and prompted you to do something about them. And this is why a lot of people have them; not as main monitors but as a final check, as they can be a bit painful to work with all of the time. Ear fatigue sets in earlier with them than most monitors!

The other thing about monitors is that ideally, you should try them in your room first, and see what your initial feelings are. The way that everybody 'learns' monitors is to play tracks that you already know sound good, on them. This can be very revealing, and cause people not infrequently to change their minds about them. I had a 'torture test' CD that I used to evaluate speakers and rooms, and I think that if you're serious about this, then create one of your own and at least take it down to your dealer, and ask to be able to play it. Even in an acoustically sub-optimal shop you'll find surprising differences between them. But fundamentally, what monitors are supposed to do is to reveal what's really there, and not massage it away like most hi-fi speakers do.

You will not be surprised though to hear that pretty much, you get what you pay for; there are very few real bargains to be had.

At this point, people usually ask what I use, so I'll preempt you by saying that in post, it's a pair of Neumann KH420G's in an acoustically controlled environment. I also have a pair of old Tannoy Devons downstairs, and Adam P11A's for location monitoring. Indeed, you could do a lot worse than consider the latest version of the Adams - the A7X. They can be picked up for about the price you should be paying for entry-level monitoring. The other monitors that you pretty much can't go wrong with are Genelecs, but they tend to cost a bit.

My serious advice is to save up a bit, and initially get something better than the Yamahas - buy them second!