About to buy Alesis M1 520 active monitors and cables. Doubts

[IrionDaRonin]

Hi there!
I'm going to buy probably a pair of Alesis M1 520 Active monitors to invest and complete my musical studio, but i have a few doubts yet.
I remember that people loved those time ago, so i will buy those more likely, but maybe there are better choices out there.

Anything i need to know about those that i don't know? I'm newbie in this theme.
Is there anything in the same price range USD 150-240 per pair of monitors out there which are good enough? I'm open to recommendations yet. I will probably buy them next month.
What cables are better to use? XLR or TRS? It would be any difference? My soundcard can manage both in any case.
Any cheap place to get those cables? Do i need any specific size of cables for monitors? I could be ok with just 1 meter cables, i don't need more.

Thanks and have a nice day

[BertKoor]

I think the Alesis M1 520 is what it is: an entry level set of monitoring speakers. Expect to use them for a year (or two) and meanwhile save up for something better costing multiples of these.

Some years ago I bought a set of the passive Alesis MonitorOne MKII, since I already had a good hifi amp. Should be way better than the M1 520, but I think these are already the absolute minimum which is tolerable for a home studio. Not a lot of bass, and for my style of music that's not important.

What cables are better to use? XLR or TRS? It would be any difference?

In theory XLR is slightly better. It has more contact surface on the plugs than TRS. But both are (or can be) balanced (two shielded conductors) so that makes no difference.
In practice even a RCA cable (unbalanced) could suffice for this purpose.

Do i need any specific size of cables for monitors? I could be ok with just 1 meter cables, i don't need more.

With cables it always surprises me that you actually need twice the physical distance, especially with cables shorter than 3 meters. Monitors are fed with a relatively low impedance "Line" level, and cable length has not much influence.

Once I was very curious and I tried to measure weather there was a difference in audio quality between cables.

• Test setup 1: balanced TRS cables of 1 meter long (shortest I had, best quality)
• Test setup 2: TRS-RCA adapter, 6 meters RCA-RCA cable that costed like $2 only, female RCA-RCA coupler, another 6 meters of cheap RCA-RCA cable, TRS-RCA adapter. So 12 meters unbalanced rotten cable and three adapters.

The tests were done with a Maya1010 audio interface, selecting the best input/output pair (yes, they differ a bit) with a S/N ratio of 106.5 dB.
Provided I left the cables alone (and didn't step on it) the RMAA audio test suite could not find a significant difference in frequency response, noise level, cross-talk, whatsoever. NOT SIGNIFICANT !!

So use any cable you can get your hands on, don't worry but make music instead. There are more important things than cables.
The expensive cables should last longer, but cable wear has to do with plugging & unplugging. Not with just time passing by.

Oh, and don't buy that Monster bullshit, but I think you already understood that

[IrionDaRonin]

I think the Alesis M1 520 is what it is: an entry level set of monitoring speakers. Expect to use them for a year (or two) and meanwhile save up for something better costing multiples of these.

Some years ago I bought a set of the passive Alesis MonitorOne MKII, since I already had a good hifi amp. Should be way better than the M1 520, but I think these are already the absolute minimum which is tolerable for a home studio. Not a lot of bass, and for my style of music that's not important.

What cables are better to use? XLR or TRS? It would be any difference?

In theory XLR is slightly better. It has more contact surface on the plugs than TRS. But both are (or can be) balanced (two shielded conductors) so that makes no difference.
In practice even a RCA cable (unbalanced) could suffice for this purpose.

Do i need any specific size of cables for monitors? I could be ok with just 1 meter cables, i don't need more.

With cables it always surprises me that you actually need twice the physical distance, especially with cables shorter than 3 meters. Monitors are fed with a relatively low impedance "Line" level, and cable length has not much influence.

Once I was very curious and I tried to measure weather there was a difference in audio quality between cables.

• Test setup 1: balanced TRS cables of 1 meter long (shortest I had, best quality)
• Test setup 2: TRS-RCA adapter, 6 meters RCA-RCA cable that costed like $2 only, female RCA-RCA coupler, another 6 meters of cheap RCA-RCA cable, TRS-RCA adapter. So 12 meters unbalanced rotten cable and three adapters.

The tests were done with a Maya1010 audio interface, selecting the best input/output pair (yes, they differ a bit) with a S/N ratio of 106.5 dB.
Provided I left the cables alone (and didn't step on it) the RMAA audio test suite could not find a significant difference in frequency response, noise level, cross-talk, whatsoever. NOT SIGNIFICANT !!

So use any cable you can get your hands on, don't worry but make music instead. There are more important things than cables.
The expensive cables should last longer, but cable wear has to do with plugging & unplugging. Not with just time passing by.

Oh, and don't buy that Monster bullshit, but I think you already understood that

I'm really grateful for your long reply. Thanks for your time.

So basically, any cable is ok. Check.
And i should be careful with low frequencies. Hm, my music is mostly electronic, so i need to listen the low freqs too. Thanks for the tip!

What do you mean with the "monster" thing? I got a bit lost there, hehe.

Have a nice day

[BertKoor]

What do you mean with the "monster" thing?

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=monster+cable

[Septimon]

I won't recommend 5'' speakers. If you don't use a subwoofer with them, you will be lacking low end.
You might get used M1 actives with 6.5'' speakers. Also consider getting used M1 passives and use them with a quality HIFI amp.

[JCJR]

On the other hand, if you DO plan to use a good subwoofer, soon if not now, then a 5" or 6" monitor MIGHT be better than an 8".

I'm no expert on anything, but even some really good midfield three way pa cabinets, delightful to use for stage monitoring, have (very potent) midrange speakers in the 6" size ballpark. The engineers could as easily have picked 8" or 10" for the midrange element, so that 6" size may have some advantage in midrange.

For instance, using a very nice front firing sub, anywhere from 12" up to 18", crossed over pretty high, 150 or 200 hz, along with studio monitors-- Possibly for instance choosing between jbl lsr 305 vs lsr 308, or yamaha hs6 vs hs8-- In such cases the tweeter and tweeter crossover freq appear near-identical. So if you only expect the monitors to handle mid-bass thru highs, then the smaller woofer may be slightly more accurate than the larger.

One thing to consider is look at the listed peak spl figure. I probably wouldn't buy a monitor which does not list that spec at all. It is desirable to do the majority of listening below 90 dB, perhaps below 85 dB, to preserve your ears. I follow that advice, but still would be reluctant to buy speakers that can't peak at least to 110 dB. For one thing, the specs might be "optimistic". For another, sometimes you want to occasionally crank up to get a feel for what it sounds like loud.

Some of the monitor lines where different sizes are offered, the woofer size and cab size changes, but they use the same tweeter and power amps in both. That kind would be best if intending to buy a small monitor to match with a subwoofer (IMO).

Some other lines, the smaller speakers have smaller amps and possibly different tweeters in the smaller speakers. I don't think that would be as good a bet to match small monitor with subwoofer, because the small monitor may not be able to deliver its part of the bargain against the subwoofer.

[IrionDaRonin]

Thanks for the suggestions and infos to everyone.

Finally i think i won't get the Alesis, neither 520, either 620, i have been reading that those get broken in one year maximum and then you have to repair them. (Cheap repairing, but i won't get dirty for this)
So i think i will continue looking for any other monitors.

For example, M-Audio BX8 D2 which are 8" cone and seems people love too.

Now i'm looking for the cheapest price.
Where do you usually buy this kind of hardware?

If i get tired of this, i will get my field recorder and i'm done. I have passed 3 days looking for prices, possible problems, out of stock items. Argh, didn't remember that buying stuff with a good quality when you know nothing about what you are going to get was so overwhelming.

Have a nice day and thanks again everyone

[JCJR]

Irion, even though many of these are above your price range, this company has made many well-done monitor comparison videos. Go to this link and open the link into youtube, and you can find a playlist of all the comparisons

http://www.sonicsense.com/blog/category/studio-monitors

Listen with as good headphones you have. It will play a sample song, switching between the straight signal, and at least two monitors under comparison. In some cases the differences are subtle, sometimes not.

Here are a couple "almost in your price range" that I might pick, if needing a monitor in your price range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E70NLxmOKJI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_N5sszZ-o

Jbl lsr 305 have been on sale for a month or so, you can get a pair about $255 at the moment but maybe the price will rise again, or not.

Yammie hs5 seem to go about $400 per pair. Both companies sell 8" models of the same thing, with the lsr 308 slightly less expensive than the hs5.

This video compares the "big" model of each line. Given all three comparisons, one might make better guesses comparing their two little brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riXAOTRdTNA

Edit: Making editorial comment, the lsr 305 sounds remarkably similar to the lsr 308, but rather noticable audible difference between hs5 and hs8. In the comparison of lsr 308 against hs 8 and rockit, to my ear the lsr is much closer to the source than the other two monitors. On my headphones, with my aged ears, assuming this test is unbiased.

Therefore, I'd be sorely tempted to the lsr 308 if I needed monitors and had $375 to spend. Otherwise I'd pop for the lsr 305.

[Wormhelmet]

I had a pair of M1 Active MkII's. Nice to mix on but one of mine had amp go out after 7 years. Problem I had was the rooms I mixed in. Always not ideal for the Bass I like to mix in my music, so mixes would come out bass-heavy because I was trying to compensate for the loss of bass I heard because my mixing room wasn't optimal for the bass wave to hit me at my desk. After the amps went out in the one, I replaced them with a 2.1 setup. 120W sub does the trick so I hear plenty of bass and my mixes come out better and less bass-heavy.

If your mixing room is optimized for the bass sweet spot to be right where you sit, then they would be good, but I don't think the 5" ones will do as well unless you get a sub or you mix music that has little bass in it.