Home Stereo Speakers for Reference monitors

[Ron Muse]

Would a pair of cheap 5" Kenwood home stereo speakers be good as a second pair of reference monitors next to my KRK 8s?

[bats brew]

nope.

only as good as someone else listening to exactly the same speakers in a similar room,

will hear.

[pwal³]

it's always good to hear your stuff on other monitors/systems, as many different combos as possible really (studio monitors, home speakers, car stereo, phone speaker...) so if they're cheap cheap, nothing to lose surely?

[Starship Krupa]

Sure, why not?

As one who has a dedicated switch box so that I can try my mixes out on all 4 of my sets of monitors, I say the more the merrier. The more speakers/systems you listen on, the more likely you'll flush out EQ issues.

[John Nelson]

I would also say, why not? But I'd think some larger sizes would bring you more satisfaction. 10" or 12"...think JBL L100.

[Glenn Stanton]

definitely try them out. currently, i'm routing via speaker switching and some direct outs on the I/O - my main monitors + sub, an active cube, Bose 901+sub, Fisher 12" speakers (full range setup), and 5.1 via optical out to JVC receiver and 5 JBL speakers + the sub. and occasionally a few bluetooth speakers (Jambox, Bose, and some no-name brand), headphones (Dr Dre, a couple of AT headphones, SA headphones, a Samsung earbud, and some no-name light earphones), and lastly sometimes via my phone speaker. i don't go through all possible options for my stuff (maybe 30% of the non-switched outputs), but with other peoples mixes i'll do probably 90% of those before thinking its ready. i found my old PC speakers w/ sub (the Altec setup they were handing out with Dell back in, erm mid 1990...) so i may connect those soon as they have a completely different operation than the other speakers and are easy to switch too, and are unforgiving... 😉 

[bats brew]

stereo speakers were never designed as a 'reference monitor'.

 

the whole point of mastering your songs,

is to get them to translate over the majority of systems.

 

if you are starting out referencing using speakers that were designed to tweak your sound to begin with,

then you are chasing your tail.

 

 

there's nothing wrong with listening to your mix thru stereo speakers,

but it will not tell you what you need to know.

 

you will realize this fully, the next time you play your songs that were deteremined thru home stereo speakers,

on someone else's home stereo speakers by a different manufacturer.

 

been there, done that.

[jesse g]

On 3/5/2022 at 3:37 PM, Ron Muse said:

Would a pair of cheap 5" Kenwood home stereo speakers be good as a second pair of reference monitors next to my KRK 8s?

I recently had that though, as I had a pair of KRK V6's, KRK Rokit 5's and KRK V4's monitors.  I loved switching between them using my Mackie Big knob (Original).   I decided I wanted to move onto  a better pair of monitors and sold the KRK V6's and purchased a pair of Frontier Monitors by Output ~~~~>  Output Frontier
These monitors are designed by Barefoot, one of the best monitor companies in recording.  ~~~~>   Barefoot Sound 

So now I use the Output Frontier's, and  alternate between the KRK V5's and the KRK V4's .  I can clearly hear my mixes which caused me to remix a lot of my stuff using the Output Frontier's.  I'd say get a great set of monitors and sell off the other monitor to get an excellent pair of primary monitors.

[RBH]

The monitors are only half the story if you're checking for mix quality. The room you monitor in is equally important. I've recently changed to doing tracking and editing and majority of the mix through Sennheiser HD 650's. Just because they are a consistent reference.

l check finished mixes on JBL LSR308's and Tannoy Reveal  8D for low volume checks. Then I take the Mix to a big and cranked live sound set-up to try and cover a few more basses. I moved recently from a decently treated home studio - to basically a dungeon basement room. The sennheisers  have made it possible to keep working.