Monitor / Headphone recommendations

Gidday all; Originally I asked this question in the PLAP Stalkbook group, but have wound up more confused than inspired. Currently I have Alesis Elevate 6 monitors, which I like, overall they are pretty good for the money. Have no intention of getting rid of them. I am looking for a way of listening to mixes on something other than the Elevates. Currently that is limited to the Focusrite headphones (more on them later) that I got with the original Solo studio pack. I don't have a mini Hi-Fi, boombox, Ghetto blaster whatever you want to call them, nor do I have a car stereo. The Elevates are it. So I was looking at adding a second set of monitors, which I've narrowed down to: Yamaha HS8 Adam T7V JBL LSR308P MkII Price is the one common denominator here, they all fall within roughly the same price bracket here in Australia. Add to that, a large number of audio/music shops sell them - importing speakers is out of the question due to the cost of freight. Has anyone had experience with any of these models, if so what are your thought's on any or all of them? Why do you like a particular model over the others? Even though the Adams are a little bit more expensive than the other two, the ribbon tweeter was what drew me to them, as by all accounts they are not as harsh in the top end. Headphones: Monitors will be purchased before headphones, although down the track I am looking to upgrade the headphone department as well. So would like to know peoples thoughts in this area so I can start seeking out the recommended headphones with the vision of listening to them myself. This is a little more up in the air. I have no candidates narrowed down. Only preference is for closed back (not a deal breaker though, open to all models), headphones. I can't use earbuds just in case anyone is thinking of suggesting them. I have listened to the Bose 35's, although the 'listen' maybe might not be very subjective. It was at a retailers display stand where you had three songs to choose from and no way of playing something on a USB stick you took with in with you. Call me paranoid, but I'm not so convinced these 'three' (very good sounding) tracks have not being mixed/mastered in such a way as to highlight certain aspects of the headphones and hide other not-so desirable aspects. Not even sure if the Bose 35's would rate as a 'studio headphone', just mentioned them as I seen them on display and listened to them. Whilst the Focusrite's are an okay headphone, they are definitely not stellar in performance. So any thoughts and recommendations on headphones would be great. Would appreciate any and all feedback. Or even suggestions on other monitors within a similar price bracket you think are worthy - tell me why too. Thanks.

Kali LP-8 Same price the LSR308 and designed by the same (now former JBL) engineers. IMO they are an improvement over the JBL's. I have the LP-6 and IMO (and many others) they are by far the best monitors in their price range.

If you have the budget, any of the monitors you mention will serve you extremely well. You had mentioned you don't have a smaller consumer grade speaker to check mixes on. Is this a factor in your choice? If so, it might not hurt to explore the Avantone Mixcube or the real-deal Auratone 5c. If I were in the market for a second pair of speakers, this would be my choice. YMMV, I'm a home studio enthusiast, nothing more.

I'm going to throw in another recommendation for Auratone 5c cubes. I have eight of them here arranged in a third order Ambisonic cube array and they have been my main monitors now for a few years. I have them paired with four Electrovoice DL15W subs (from a Village Roadshow cinema) and all calibrated with Sonarworks Reference 4 Studio edition. My mixes translate very well now with little effort and they are great to mix on for extended periods. As for headphones, I purchased a pair of Beyerdynamic DT1990 Pros and absolutely love them. When paired with Sonarworks, they sound extremely neutral and very detailed with a bandwidth much wider than any human ear will ever hear. These are open backed but if you prefer closed back, the DT1770 Pro are the ones.

A thought: Before you opt for anything with 8 inch bass drivers, think about the dimensions of your room and you most typical music genre. I made the mistake a few years back of buying a pair of powered 8" Yamahas to go with my old but excellent Tannoy 6 inchers. Kept them for a week. I had bought them to add a little more bottom for when the band was rehearsinfg in my small home studio and the bottom end even with decent treatment on the walls, etc., was uncontrollably boomy. I have gone in the opposite direction & have a pair of Unity Audio The Rock IIs with FIVE inch drivers in sealed cabinets. In my room, rthey sound great & have all the bottom end I will ever noeed. Re your choices I would opt for the JBLs too, even though I never liked the full size & midfiled JBLs back in the day. All were very bass light in every studio I heard them. Litlle ones seem to be pretty good.

About headphones: for narrowing down to a (one possible) subset out of ALL possible ones... a) see this collection in the categories relevant to you: b) note on the product pages of which ever phones interest you if they are aimed more at the hi-fi end user or studio use :) I'm not saying Innerfidelity's lists are the be all end all tome of best headphones out there, especially for music making vs. listening (this whole thing is also quite subjective, and all that), but as a knowledgeable overall resource of everything headphone related, Tyll's input is something I value very much. He lives and breathes headphones and strives to make the most out of measurement techniques and the like. For the record, my own tried and tested headphones for studio use have been Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro and Audio Technica ATH-M50 for years now :D ... They suit me well, but everyone should just try many pairs of potential candidates and decide which ones suit them. The same goes for speakers, but I don't have recommendations that relevant to this thread on those.

Whatever headphones you get, make sure the headphone amp has the ability to drive the impedance of the headphones. 100 ohm headphone amp will make 30 ohm headphones sound bad.

Cranky Emu, whereabouts in Australia are you? If you are anywhere near me, you're welcome to come over and have a listen to my DT1990s and the Auratones. I can show you with and without subs and with and without Sonarworks. BTW - Icehouse were one of my favourite bands back in the day. Still love their work.

I would go for something like.. Small budget: Open Headphone - DT880 Pro for tracking/mixing, AKG K712 Pro for Soundstage evaluation Closed Headphone - DT770 Pro, ATH-M50X, Shure SRH840, Steelseries Arctis Pro Monitors - Mackie MR824 Medium/High budget: Open Headphone Dynamic - Beyer T1, DT1990 Pro, HD800s, Focal Clear.. Open Headphone Planar - Hifiman Sundara/Ananda/Arya, LCD2/4, MrSpeakers Ether Flow, HE1000V2, Meze Empyrean.. Closed Headphone - DT1770 Pro, LCD2 Closed, Meze Classics (just for fun) Monitors - Mackie XR824

I don't know about Australian availability (they're tough enough to get in Canada), but the new buzz is that Kali Audio are the tits, both tonally and wallet-wise.