Hello there, back again with another article for you. In this fairly long review, we will be looking at the best-selling studio monitors according to Thomann.de! It’s probably going to be a longer review because you can always filter down your selections based on many parameters.
Table of Contents
Note that this article has been updated profoundly, all the discontinued products have been removed and replaced with fresh ones!
The reason I’m working on this is not to only post some content here but also to try to figure out which one I should go for too!
Update: I have already purchased a pair of KRK Rokit 5 G4 studio monitors and already published my review and some sound tests, please see below. 🙂
Check out my KRK Rokit 5 G4 review here
I recently moved to Bratislava and as I mentioned in my “The ONLY Tip For Getting The Best Guitar Tone On Your Computer!“, it is not usual for me to sell my gear to make other gear or life changes possible. Thomann's 70th Anniversary Offers
It also means starting from scratch for gear freaks like me! I have nothing left with me except my RME Babyface PRO interface and Keith McMillen QuNexus control pad to make some noise which is sad.
I’m planning to get back to music by collecting the essential pieces of equipment to make some noise and one of the most important among them is an active reference monitor.
While I’m working on my decision, I also want to give you guys detailed information on how to choose one that fits your goals and budget. Up to now, I have owned a couple of monitors by several brands such as Kurzweil, M-Audio and Alesis. I have also had the chance to listen to Yamaha, Adam, Presonus and Genelec ones.
The funny thing about writing a review of reference monitors is that one can only judge these products based on their personal experience just after having listened to them. So if anyone around tells you a particular brand and model is the best, they are probably trying to sell it to you. 🙂
Other than that, you can only have a look at some of the tech specs and price tags. Even if you listened to a couple of monitors in different rooms, you would hear different sound qualities.
We can actually filter our options down by price range, speaker size, RMS (Power) and brand. But it will be a never-ending article. In my case, since I am on a quite tight budget, have to live in an apartment where I won’t be able to make so much noise and have the possibility of moving soon again, I should be focusing on the price, power and weight (size).
How to Choose Active Nearfield Reference Monitors?
Let’s talk about the options we have here. Note that the “Sales Rank” parameter is based on the number of sales within the active nearfield studio monitors category only. So we are not comparing a particular monitor against a completely different product in a different category. All belong to active nearfield studio monitors!
Before we dive into the comparison tables, I would like to mention some of the important factors and tech specs that will help you to determine your purchase.
Power – How Many Watts To Go For?
Actually, how much power your monitor going to handle is a crucial effect on the overall sound. Don’t just think it only relates to how high your volume will be. It also determines a very important parameter called “dynamic range“.
This is the amount of headroom you will have before signal peaks are occurring during your listening sessions.
The higher the wattage you have, the better you’ll hear the transients in detail. And also it will have a positive effect on being able to make more precise adjustments to your essential effects such as compressors, gates and limiters.
Most people are not aware of the music peaks which are often called transients of snare hits or kick drums (They might demand 10 times more than what wattage you have!). These transients require way more headroom than you could imagine. For example, for a given volume level these might require an average of 15 watts. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
So if you have an amp that can deliver a clean headroom of 50 watts, you would still need 100 watts of power in order for your monitors to produce these transients without any clipping. This does not mean you have to go for the highest wattage possible. But you will definitely have more definition, clarity and dynamic range.
Ports Front or Back?
You will probably bump into many monitors that have ports placed on the backsides of monitors. These ports (let’s say holes!) might help to extend lower frequencies. Think of this as compensation for high energy lower frequencies. But if you only have to place them just very close to walls or corners, you might have problems with lower frequencies and maybe it’s much better for you to go for a front-ported or closed design in order to hear more accurately.
Manual EQ Compensation
Most monitors you will see have built-in EQs which help you to shape or modify the sound based on where you place your monitors. You might also have ones with DSP built-in which also helps you to shape your sound in more detail.
Even though these might help a lot, you should always consider your natural room acoustics in advance in order to have the best results. No built-in EQ or DSP chip can correct a bad-sounding room.
Speaker Size
You shouldn’t take this as the bigger speaker you have the better sound you’ll have. Rather I suggest you should go for the one that fits in your room size. So if you live in a studio apartment and just want to upgrade to active monitors, it makes much more sense to get small to mid-sized speakers.
Frequency Response
As you can see from the tables above and below, there are only ranges of those speakers. It really does not mean a big thing to us since it is just the range! If you ever see a tech spec such as “20Hz to 20kHz ± 5dB @ 100 dB SPL“, this would make a bit more sense since this means at this level (100 dB SPL) given test signal was not louder or softer than the 5dB (amplitude tolerance).
Take this as your error margin. But one should have to look for this information as they don’t always release it out there. You should be looking at manuals all day long!
If you do, as a general rule lower amplitude tolerance in dB is better as your error margin would be smaller. According to the tables below and frequency responses, you might think that some very high-end monitors cannot handle bass frequencies as well as entry-level monitors. But it can not be the truth 🙂
Speaker Size
As a general rule, the bigger your speakers are, the better they handle bass frequencies.
But beware those big speakers can overload a small space easily. So again, you should choose your monitors depending on what kind and what size of the room you are going to put them in.
Best Selling Studio Monitors by Price Range
The first thing and maybe the most important thing we normally consider is the price range of monitors. Let’s separate the products by their price range and have a look at our options.
Note that some manufacturers price their monitors per unit. So if you want to compare the prices, always look for the description section when you click on the product links.
Important: All prices below in the tables have been converted to pairs!
Here you will only find a total price of a pair as many of us need a pair of monitors. At the first sight, one can easily be fooled by the unexpectedly low prices of some well-known brands, but if you dig into it you’ll find out that the price is only a single monitor, not a pair!
So if you click on a product link, you might see a lower price on Thomann’s website, but on the right-hand-side table, there’s a piece of information about the item being sold a single unit or a pair!
To be honest, I have spent lots of time on the ultimate comparison tables of studio monitors below and checked everything one by one. 🙂
Here below you will see some comparison tables that list best-selling active studio monitors in 2020 along with tech specs and price information. All are sorted by ascending price ranges which can be seen at the bottom part of the tables (in Euros).
Note that you can directly go to product pages by clicking the model names (Opens in a new tab).
Active Studio Monitors Under €250
*Visitors on mobile devices; Did you know that you are able to scroll the comparison tables horizontally? Try yourself with the below table!
| Brand | Behringer | Presonus | Behringer | Swissonic | Presonus | M-Audio | Presonus | Swissonic | JBL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | MS16 | Eris E3.5 | Studio 50USB | ASM5 | Eris E4.5 | BX5 D3 | Eris E5 | ASM7 | 305P MKII |
| Speaker Size | 1x 4" | 1x 3,5", 1x 1" | 1x 5" | 1x 5,25" | 1x 4,5" | 1x 5", 1x 1" | 1x 5,25" | 1x 6,5" | 1x 5" |
| Amplifier Power Per Unit (RMS) | 8 W | 25 W | 150 W | 60 W | 25 W | 100 W | 70 W | 60 W | 82 W |
| Frequency range min. | 80 Hz | 80 Hz | 55 Hz | 55 Hz | 70 Hz | 52 Hz | 53 Hz | 45 Hz | 49 Hz |
| Frequency range max. | 20000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 22000 Hz | 35000 Hz | 22000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 20000 Hz |
| Magnetic Shielding | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Dimensions | 140 x 150 x 241 mm | 141 x 210 x 162 mm | 254 x 204 x 178 mm | 185 x 278 x 200 mm | 163 x 180 x 241 mm | 254 x 176 x 197 mm | 178 x 198 x 260 mm | 213 x 321 x 230 mm | 298 x 185 x 231 mm |
| Analogue XLR Input | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Jack) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Mini Jack) | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Analogue Input (RCA) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Digital input | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Manual frequency correction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Rank | 20 | 3 | 26 | 69 | 58 | 37 | 4 | 57 | 2 |
| Price | € 72 | € 95 | € 115 | € 158 | € 180 | € 186 | € 215 | € 219 | € 238 |
Products in this price range are often considered to be entry-level reference monitors. However, most people would tell you that it’s not really possible to get a neutral sound out of monitors in this range.
You may also notice that some of them are categorised as multi-media speakers rather than reference monitors. But don’t be let down by the classifications as you might like the options below.
Here on the first table, you will notice some top sellers and best-rated monitors. If you are on a tight budget, you should definitely stick to this table.
JBL 305P MKII, Swissonic ASM7 and Presonus Eris E3.5 easily stand out among the others. I would personally go for a Presonus one. I used it in editing videos & audio for a long time and really like their response.
Active Studio Monitors Under €400
*Visitors on mobile devices; Did you know that you are able to scroll the comparison tables horizontally? Try yourself with the below table!
| Brand | IK Multimedia | M-Audio | Presonus | Behringer | KRK | Adam | Tannoy | Yamaha | Adam | Tannoy | KRK | Yamaha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | iLoud Micro Monitor | BX8 D3 | Eris E5 XT | B2031A Truth | Rokit RP5 G4 | T5V | Gold 5 | HS 5 MP | T7V | Gold 7 | Rokit RP7 G4 | HS 7 |
| Speaker Size | 1x 3", 1x 0,75" | 1x 8", 1x 1" | 1x 5" | 1x 9" | 1x 5", 1x 1" | 1x 5", 1x 2" | 1x 5", 1x 1" | 1x 5" | 1x 7", 1x 2" | 1x 7", 1x 1" | 1x 6,5", 1x 1" | 1x 6,5" |
| Amplifier Power Per Unit (RMS) | 25 W | 150 W | 80 W | 225 W | 55 W | 70 W | 200 W | 70 W | 70 W | 300 W | 145 W | 95 W |
| Frequency range min. | 55 Hz | 37 Hz | 48 Hz | 50 Hz | 43 Hz | 45 Hz | 70 Hz | 54 Hz | 39 Hz | 65 Hz | 42 Hz | 43 Hz |
| Frequency range max. | 20000 Hz | 22000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 21000 Hz | 40000 Hz | 25000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 30000 Hz | 25000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 40000 Hz | 30000 Hz |
| Magnetic Shielding | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Dimensions | 180 x 135 x 90 mm | 384 x 250 x 302 mm | 203 x 228 x 279 mm | 250 x 400 x 290 mm | 285 x 190 x 241 mm | 179 x 298 x 297 mm | 294 x 183 x 252 mm | 170 x 285 x 222 mm | 210 x 347 x 293 mm | 357 x 221 x 288 mm | 339 x 225 x 284 mm | 210 x 332 x 284 mm |
| Analogue XLR Input | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Jack) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Mini Jack) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Analogue Input (RCA) | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Digital Input | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Manual frequency correction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Rank | 36 | 60 | 59 | 44 | 1 | 13 | 45 | 54 | 7 | 68 | 11 | 6 |
| Price | € 258 | € 266 | € 288 | € 289 | € 298 | € 310 | € 316 | € 366 | € 370 | € 390 | € 396 | € 398 |
In the second table above, you will notice the number 1 bestseller, KRK Rokit RP5 G4. KRK is a very well-known and trusted brand among modern guitar players who solely base their guitar tones on the digital domain. If you can afford it, there’s another great product by Yamaha HS 7 and Adam T7V which features a bigger speaker (better bass response).
Active Studio Monitors Under €700
*Visitors on mobile devices; Did you know that you are able to scroll the comparison tables horizontally? Try yourself with the below table!
| Brand | Focal | Tannoy | Adam | Adam | Focal | Genelec | Yamaha | KRK | Fostex | IK Multimedia | Genelec | Adam |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Alpha 50 | Gold 8 | A3X | T8V | Alpha 65 | 8010 AP | HS 8 | Rokit RP8 G4 | 6301NX | iLoud MTM | 8020 DPM | A5X |
| Speaker Size | 1x 5" | 1x 8", 1x 1" | 1x 3,5" | 1x 8" | 1x 6" | 1x 3" | 1x 8" | 1x 8", 1x 1" | 1x 4" | 2x 3,5", 1x 1" | 1x 4" | 1x 5" |
| Amplifier Power Per Unit (RMS) | 55 W | 300 W | 50 W | 90 W | 105 W | 50 W | 120 W | 200 W | 20 W | 100 W | 100 W | 100 W |
| Frequency range min. | 45 Hz | 54 Hz | 60 Hz | 33 Hz | 40 Hz | 74 Hz | 38 Hz | 36 Hz | 75 Hz | 50 Hz | 62 Hz | 50 Hz |
| Frequency range max. | 22000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 50000 Hz | 25000 Hz | 22000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 30000 Hz | 40000 Hz | 15000 Hz | 24000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 50000 Hz |
| Magnetic Shielding | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Dimensions | 313 x 220 x 258 mm | 429 x 274 x 336 mm | 150 x 252 x 185 mm | 250 x 400 x 335 mm | 348 x 252 x 309 mm | 195 x 121 x 116 mm | 250 x 390 x 334 mm | 400 x 266 x 309 mm | 188 x 120 x 118 mm | 264 x 160 x 130 mm | 230 x 151 x 142 mm | 170 x 280 x 220 mm |
| Analogue XLR Input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Jack) | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Analogue Input (Mini Jack) | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Analogue Input (RCA) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Digital Input | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Manual frequency correction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Rank | 49 | 50 | 56 | 24 | 16 | 25 | 8 | 9 | 85 | 40 | 17 | 29 |
| Price | € 444 | € 466 | € 498 | € 514 | € 518 | € 518 | € 538 | € 576 | € 594 | € 698 | € 698 | € 698 |
This third table includes a bit more expensive, mid-segmented models by leading brands. Not so surprisingly, Yamaha and KRK lead the way again even though there are way more expensive than the step-back models in the previous table. They both feature 8-inch speakers which will give you the optimum bass response in many scenarios.
Active Studio Monitors Under €1700
*Visitors on mobile devices; Did you know that you are able to scroll the comparison tables horizontally? Try yourself with the below table!
| Brand | Neumann | KRK | Focal | Genelec | Adam | Neumann | KS Digital | Focal | Genelec | Genelec | Adam |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | KH 80 DSP | Rokit RP10-3 G4 | Solo 6 Be red burr ash | 8030 CP | A7X | KH 120 A Iso Pad Bundle | C5-Reference | Shape 65 | 8330 APM | 8040 BPM | A77X (a) |
| Speaker Size | 1x 4", 1x 1" | 1x 10", 1x 4.5", 1x 1" | 1x 6,5" | 1x 5" | 1x 7" | 1x 5,25" | 1x 6", 1x1" | 1x 6,5", 1x 1" | 1x 5" | 1x 6,5" | 2x 7" |
| Amplifier Power Per Unit (RMS) | 140 W | 300 W | 150 W | 100 W | 150 W | 100 W | 175 W | 105 W | 50 W | 90 W | 250 W |
| Frequency range min. | 57 Hz | 26 Hz | 40 Hz | 54 Hz | 42 Hz | 52 Hz | 48 Hz | 40 Hz | 58 Hz | 45 Hz | 38 Hz |
| Frequency range max. | 21000 Hz | 40000 Hz | 40000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 50000 Hz | 21000 Hz | 22000 Hz | 35000 Hz | 20000 Hz | 21000 Hz | 50000 Hz |
| Magnetic Shielding | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Dimensions | 233 x 154 x 194 mm | 546 x 329 x 371 mm | 240 x 290 x 330 mm | 285 x 189 x 178 mm | 201 x 337 x 280 mm | 277 x 182 x 220 mm | 245 x 200 x 220 mm | 218 x 285 x 355 mm | 299 x 189 x 178 mm | 350 x 237 x 223 mm | 235 x 530 x 280 mm |
| Analogue XLR Input | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Analogue Input (Jack) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Analogue Input (Mini Jack) | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Analogue Input (RCA) | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Digital Input | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Manual frequency correction | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Rank | 51 | 70 | 46 | 18 | 15 | 38 | 94 | 55 | 75 | 33 | 62 |
| Price | € 918 | € 938 | € 955 | € 1,018 | € 1,076 | € 1,159 | € 1,376 | € 1,398 | € 1,466 | € 1,554 | € 1,648 |
Last but not least, you have your fourth table this time listing monitors between 900 to 1700€ in price. They are very pricey in comparison to others but still, we have great sellers by leading pro audio brands such as Genelec and Adam. I have also included a great value option by Neuman which features a bundle that contains isolation pads in the box.
Are You Still Confused?
I think we all should be 🙂 Having told that it would not make sense to recommend a particular reference monitor to anyone as it’s all about how you hear it. Some people can do magic with quite shitty speakers. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
In my current financial state, I would avoid the last 2 tables. But there are still “very good value for money” items on the first 2 tables.
PreSonus Eris E4.5 or the best-seller KRK Rokit RP5 G4 would be my personal choice. I hope to get them soon and review them there one day!
My reasoning would be first the limited budget and having to live in a relatively small room with no acoustic treatment. It wouldn’t be wise to go for bigger speakers as the volume would be an issue for me. Also, I would like to use them as my guitar speakers in a virtual guitar setup.
Believe me, if you are like me and using virtual guitar amps, you should definitely have a decent pro audio setup. Today’s standard in virtual guitar amps and plugins has gone too far and will give you all you need in a guitar tone!
Along with this article, I suggest you check out my long-term review on RME Babyface Pro USB Audio Interface and my “The Best Selling Professional Studio Headphones Buying Guide” article for a complete digital guitar setup. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
I would also like to introduce a recent article on “50 Best Selling USB Audio Interface Buying Guide” for you to choose your USB audio interface easily!
Lastly, as I had almost decided as shown in this article, I just got myself a pair of KRK Rokit 5 G4 reference monitors along with IsoAcoustic ISO-55 monitor stands.
Check out my IsoAcoustic ISO-55 monitor stands review here.
Check out my KRK Rokit 5 G4 review here
Don’t think that I am affiliated with any musical instruments manufacturer, it’s just my pre-G.A.S. diaries and I also like to help you guys out there by having gathered all the information you need in order to buy your active studio monitors finally!
Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
Osman Cenan Çiğil – cigilovic.com
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