Studio Monitors of Interest

 

This post belongs to the main article ‘Focal Alpha 50, 65 & 80 — Review and Comparison.’ It is a quick over-view over alternative speakers I considered for my last monitor acquisition. My requirements were:

 

1.     Speakers must give a reasonable impression of bass-levels. Driver size should preferably be in the region of 7 to 8 inches.

2.     Mid range clarity. Vocals should be crisp and clear and be easy to position in a mix.

3.     Open and balanced sound that transfers easily to other systems.

I ended up buying a pair of Focal Alpha 80 that you can read about in the main article. The following monitors were the remaining contestants:

Adam A7X

-       My favourite. Was initially opting to buy these

-       Adam went bust (now back in business again) just when I was buying

-       I always liked the sound but also know there have been a few issues with consistency of build quality

-       I’ve reviewed them before, click here to read

Genelec 8040

-       Love these very much

-       They sound a little bit ‘narrow’

-       Solid bass

-       A little more than I planned to spend

From the lower price range:

JBL LSR 308

-       Quite new product with promising price/quality ratio

-       For a brief stint I also considered Yamaha’s HS7 or HS8 as a temporary solution (these don’t really fulfil the requirement of tidy mid-range clarity)

-       JBL and Yamaha were presented in a revealing shootout video on Youtube, find it here

-       JBL was clear winner to me in the video as expected, really keen to try them in real life
-       (Find BBC Music Magazine’s review of the smaller LSR 305 through another blogger here)

Tannoy Reveal 802

-       Clarity, over-all sound and price/ performance ratio has received a lot of praise

-       Several users complain about hiss and low-level noise. Customer service has proven to be good and handles issues with no problem

-       Very keen to try out next generation when bugs are gone