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I am on a budget and half deaf in one ear $169 for a pair at Guitar center...are these monitors used by anyone here? I have read that they are pretty good but can develop amp issues over time.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis-Moni ... =103116893

Plus $15 off with coupon HLDY15

they are ok.

my Blue Sky System One are what you'd call cheap hi-end semi-pro/professional monitors at about $2500 including sub. the Alesis are pretty poor in comparison.

on the other hand, if your budget for your music production is a $170 one, you should be able to do everything that you need to with those speakers. they are just fine.

any speaker will have it's weakpoints. the idea of a monitor is not to sound good, it's to be accurate. a mix that will sound good on any system is one that is balanced in frequency response. being able to spot areas were a frequency may be too hot or just lacking is hard to do if the speaker's response has hot spots or dips. since no speaker is perfect, you need to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the ones that you use. you do this by listening on many different systems and then noticing what always seems to be missing or too much. you'll notice that "the mix always sounds right when it sounds like this on these speakers". go with that. dom't forget that the room has a lot to do with how you experience the speakers. the best speakers in the world will tell lies a bad room.

good points, Gary - in particular the note about the room.
I never heard the the Yamaha NS10 but Alesis M1 have been called their modern re-incarnation occasionally
(usefull midrange, no boom)
BUT that pair on offer is a passive one - you'll need a decent amp to drive them.
In Germany passive ones go frequently for less than 100 Euro/pair on eBay (in good condition).

cheers, Tom

a $170 pair, or anything in that weight class will only give you so much.. Probably okay for material to playback on line, like websites, web games and such, but I wouldn't trust it for material to be played back on anything much different than what looks like your monitors. (mainly multimedia speakers) It's still good to have, if you have no monitors at all.

Instead, if you're on a budget, I'd suggest saving up for a pair of great headphones, and then get the monitor speakers after that. With just the low range speakers, you can't do tight eq and certainly no dynamics or spatial (reverb / stereo imaging) tweaks. A good headphone will be much better for that, at a fraction of the cost of heavier weight class speakers. Pair the headphones with something like focusrite VRM (simulates speakers) and it'll get you pretty far in terms of comparing mixes on different contexts. It's still not the "real" thing, but will get you 50% way there. Pair of kick ass cans could be $200-500, and VRM-box is $100, so you'll still end up much cheaper than 1 serious monitor speaker. (that's 1, not a pair) Throw in the $170 alesis, and you're still less than half price of a speaker, but can get a lot accomplished. Kick ass cans, VRM, and moderately accurate speakers can be a pretty deadly combo. It's good enough to do music for work if you use them wisely.

As astroman pointed out, since they're passive, I'd definitely pass. You don't want to get budget speakers AND a budget amp since they'll both be replaced later on anyway. I used to use ns-10ms, back when everyone was sort of "required" to have them (as a standard benchmark) but got rid of them very quickly because their sound was so particular that I started to mix compensate, and all my stuff started to sound like shit. Those were the only monitors I had at the time, but apparently everyone else was mixing on some other pair, and then checking on the ns-10ms as just a check.

Coincidentally, I found out that I was half deaf in my right year only a couple years ago. I went over 10 years of composing and mixing from hobby projects to substantial commercial projects without knowing that I has half deaf. I guess my brain was attenuating the audio or whatever, and I was completely not aware of it. So I don't think it should have any implications on speaker choice or budget. Your ears still deserve the best.

Oops the active M1's are $260
Thanks Gary good advise. I have just spent $500+ on rigid fiberglass to treat my room I may just go the whole hog and spend some money on good monitors. I am currently using M-audio SP5B so anything pretty much will be an upgrade maybe the Dynaudio BM5A mk2 I can get a new pair for $670 that's a good deal

ShogunSpy wrote:I am on a budget and half deaf in one ear $169 for a pair at Guitar center...are these monitors used by anyone here? I have read that they are pretty good but can develop amp issues over time.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis-Moni ... =103116893

I own a pair of Alesis Monitor One mk II, passive,- and drive ´em w/ an Alesis RA150 power amp.
It´s not my main monitor system which is a pair of Tannoy DTM-8 dual concentric and Bryston 3B Pro.

My main monitoring system is WAY better, but the Alesis setup is cool for programming and playing keyboards/synths and operating at unexpected hi levels coming up by whatever error of software or hardware.
I once destroyed the rubber surrounds of my other pair of Tannoy speakers by programming NI Absynth and Yamaha TG77 FM,- so I´d liked to be prepared.

So, I use the Alesis w/ keys and arranging/ composing and when it comes to the more sophisticated tasks, I use the Tannoys.
When recording vocals or other instruments, I´m uing the Tannoys throughout because for listening to music I prefer lower levels anyway.
When I shred on my keys controlling hardware or software @home, the risk of damaging speakers is much higher and the Alesis will be easier to replace.
I buyed the Alesis pair for EUR 80.- though which makes ´em somewhat "throw away" speakers to me in case of failure.
Surprisingly, these little 6.5" woofers and silk tweeters handle high power signals very well and for me it´s worth to have ´em in addition.

For the record,- there were also good mixes made on Alesis monitors, even they are not as good as other monitor speakers.

Bud