Who does all their best work on
Gettign a subwoofer, hence my interestā¦
And have some quasi decent headphones, but more from a retail music listener sense, with one decent pair, than proper studio ones.
I mean most important is to have properly treated room, especially if you go with sub.
I use my monitors and sub mainly when i am jamming with a friend. And to check what i did on headphones.
Another reason is neighbors, canāt be blasting sub all the time. And my room isnāt treated that well so i donāt trust them 100%
Also in my case i learned my headphones well, and i trust them.
But i would always recommend sub to be pared with monitors. It gives that nice oomph especially for electronic music production.
One thing i can also recommend is going with Adam Audio monitors. You can get sonarworks with measuring mic, and it kinda fixes room irregularities a bit. And that measurement can be baked into speakers.
most of my tracks these days are made almost entirely using the built in speakers on the op-xy or ep133, then through my iPod HiFi for finally level adjustments. not like im making crystal clear mixes but just to reiterate a point ive heard throughout my life: the speakers/headphones dont matter if you are familiar with how they sound in relation to other systems
It depends ā I use both.
As mentioned, the room has to be treated first. If it isnāt, a subwoofer doesnāt make much sense: everything will just sound boomy and uncontrolled.
But if the room is in good shape, nothing beats a solid pair of monitors ā plus a sub if you actually need it ( if your monitors donāt reach low enough). You get a real stereo image, you can place instruments much more accurately, and you can judge the low end with far more confidence.
For detailed sound design, though, headphones can be excellent too ā theyāre great for hearing fine texture, clicks, tails, and tiny modulation details. Ideally, Iāll use monitors for balance and space, and headphones as a second perspective for micro-detail.
And your advice is also one of the most important ones !
You missed laptop and/or built-in instrument speakers.
Also, are iLouds high quality studio monitors? 
Itās your poll, not trying to mess it up for you. But I would bet the vast majority of users here are using a midrange option of monitors and headphones, not just high quality vs consumer grade. But maybe I have misunderstood. Terms can be vague and mean different things to different people.
But, when I see āhigh quality ____ designed for audio production expertsā I think multi thousand dollar items used by pros.
And when I see āretail ____ not designed for audio production expertsā I think something very affordable used for listening, not production.
Iām in that midrange myself, so not sure if I qualify to answer the poll. Maybe others might not answer either. Anyways, just trying to help you get more feedback.
I have the VSX headphones and I love them.
I like working with my monitors just fine, but Iām in an apartment and a lot of my music making happens late at night, so headphones are clutch
it took me a while to really understand the concept but now i feel like my frame of reference is well balanced between the built in speakers, the hifi, my phone speakers and my car speakers. now, more often than not, my tunes turn out how i expect them to on each different speaker
Yes, because you know how your mixes translate through different devices. Thats experience.
2-3 headphones, phone, TV speakers, monitors.
(In an ideal world where I get back to actually record something and not only jam for an hour)
Headphones I know well (can be 2 for ab comparison) and monitors (near field, Adam t5v)
No sub: Iām in a room in a flat shart. Canāt bombard the neighbours with bass, so why bother. And in terms of room treatment: there is none.
Itās my living space, sleeping space. Home office. Not enough space to dedicate any of that to treatment.
Iām not doing commercial stuff, or I would need a different setup, and for my personal stuff, if it sounds good on the phones I know and like, and not actively wrong in the speakers, Iām fine.
i never thought of that option, but the OP speakers are pretty good indeed
thaanks
good point - I should have put an āup to $250ā maybe for prosumer vs āabove $250 to skyās the limitā for pro
And probably the more significant, regardless of the price, is preference for headphones or speakers in general.
I used to be 100% headphones, but am going to try mostly speakers for a change. With just a little bit of heft it can be a very different experience.
I want these! Iāve only heard great things about them.
The (in)famous Four Tet setup:
Iād be curious as to whether or not there was any treatment on the back wall, but iām going to guess its minimal to nil
Full disclosure: I have the same Mackie monitors (and Iām OK with them lol)
Both are important in my opinion. Especially if you dont have an ideal room, headphones are an useful tool to check your mix. I often start a mixdown on headphones, its an Audeze pair I also do most of my at-home music listening on, so I do know what the music I like is supposed to sound on it. But I wouldnāt want to just have headphones either.
Also, subwoofers are underrated if you make club music in my opinion, but good practice to also listen with them off. Especially for production, its really fun though and can in some cases even keep you from adding too much bass
Way back when i actually used to be productive, I was always unpleasantly amazed after producing something at home, and being pretty obsessive about getting it right, when i played it at the venue (a) amazing difference moreso in the sense or separation or lack of separation, EQ errors (b) even worse, I had gone for a faster BPM than suited the piece (c) composing errors of too quickly adding the sweetstuff into a progression, rather than allowing it develop longer
Itās psychologically interesting how your approach changes when have the chance to roadtest different settings. (b) and (c) above (composition errors) are arguably worse than the production/mastering side.
Sometimes its not so much the different venue, than it is playing your piece to an audience or even a small group of peers. You know as you listen with them mistakes you hadnāt noticed are going to come up because they are there listening, even if you thought you had already perfected it by yourself.
āoh, thatās a strange next bit ā¦ not sure if it fitsā
I get less weird surprises when I record and mix using my monitors than when I use headphones but I donāt have very nice headphones and I have a couple of pairs of reasonably nice sounding monitors. Mostly those mixes sound fine when I listen to the master with my headphones, but mixes that I did with headphones often are less friendly to being played back in an open air sound system like with monitors or through my stereo.
I also just donāt work well with headphones on or earbuds in because the sensation of stuff on my ears triggers some of my more neurodivergent tendencies and I canāt think clearly or make/act on decisions. Since playing music is more important to me than it sounding perfect, I prioritize a no-headphone experience unless the only way to monitor myself is with really bad built-in speakers or something.
