Tiny, active near-field monitors for a small bedroom studio space

The Lounge Other Gear
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Hey all-

My 13 year old son has started to dork around in Logic over the summer break and I’ve cobbled together a little setup for him to learn on. The only thing I don’t have is a simple, small set of near-field monitors. If I had active computer speakers I’d just use those, but since I don’t I figured I might as well take a look at the current crop of small active monitors. I just looked on Thomann and they seem to have developed a lot in the last decade.

I’m curious if anyone has recommendations of a set that are fun to listen on and overall decent. Inexpensive is a plus.

My worst case scenario is he ultimately isn’t very into it and I end up with a small set of speakers to use when I build little mobile setups. It’s pretty win/win.

I’ll note, I did use the search function and the threads are all a few years old, so I thought I’d ask and get a current overview of what folks are having good experiences using.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

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Look into the iloud micro

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totally agree :+1: iLoud micro … tiny speaker with great sound … good price.

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Presonus 5 inch are good too. E5s.

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I like the iLoud Micros as well and use them on my small portable setup.

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I loud micro is surprisingly good. Use them as a second reference. How they are able to produce that much bass is still baffling to me.

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Awesome! Thanks for all of the feedback. I’d never heard of the iLoud Micros. I’ll check them out right now.

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Presonus Eris 3.5 are great little active monitors for the money, either standard about £75 for the pair or £100 with Bluetooth

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I just restocked speakers on this side of the Atlantic: Eris 3.5BTs in the bedroom where the synths are, iLoud micros in the living room.

(edit: iLoud, not iCloud, nice try, iPhone autocorrect)

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iLoud Micro are fine, but iLoud MTM are better.

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I would recommend you the JBL LSR305 which are to this day my main pair of monitors (8 years). These are an absolute steal for the money. Insane soundstage and very pleasant to listen to, while being mostly flat. But what you are looking for is not it. They are as bulky as monitors come.

I happen to also own the original iLoud Bluetooth speaker, which I believe the micros are based on. I can tell you this thing is gold. How they managed to create a mini monitor with solid bass reproduction is beyond me and probably many other prople. Just a recommendation to try it. Thomann has a very good return policy. Sadly the OG bt speaker is not made any more, but the micro is for sure based on it to my ears.

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KRK GoAux 4

Some impressions from me here:

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I agree. I was surprised how good they were for the price and size.

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Like a few have said already: iloud micro! Sounds awesome, small footprint, good value.

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+1 on the Presonus Eris 3.5…have a super small music area here and these work perfectly.

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I like the Eve sc203.

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The iLouds are awesome. Sometimes you see the small Genelecs in local classifieds for around the same money, also an option.

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Keep a lookout on eBay too. That’s where I found mine for a steal!

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Adams a3x are really cheap now for what they are… great monitors, and really small.

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I am a fan of the iLoud Micro’s.

Geez, I can’t believe no one has mentioned these yet.

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