What should I upgrade?

thomasw88

Soo as gigs look like not being on for  a while looking for recommendations for upgrading my  home recording/noodling space.

Currently I have a Presonus Audiobox 96 as my interface.  I also have a  Boss GT1000core and HX stomp which work fine as interfaces.

My pc is pretty decent spec, and I use mainly Studio one Artist (v5) . I have Helix native as well which is good.  Software wise, at the moment I'm fine.

Speaker wise I have an cambridge audio amp, and ancient set of gale mini monitors.
I also have connected up to the audiobox a pair of edirol MA-10A monitor speakers.
I also have a decent set of headphones (Yamaha HPH-MT8)

I'm thinking of replacing the speakers at this time, as the edirols are ok, but lack a bit of oomph.
Eventually I'd like to replace the interface as well,  but I can't afford that outlay at the moment.  
Budget wise I could stretch to around £200-£300 for speakers.

Room wise i'm in a long thing converted office in the garage.  It's about 5 or 6 meters long and just about 2 metres wide. It's not treated for sound and isn't going to be..    

Speaker wise I'd be looking for something that I can use for general PC use (videos, gaming etc) as well as music. 

Interface I'm looking at the replacing the audiobox 96 with a Focusrite Clarett 2 (although as mentioned that's a bit further down the line).

So really looking for recommendations for speakers either new or 2nd hand!  But if the Clarett 2 really is that good I could be persuaded to do that and use the existing speakers for a while.

DuncMan

If you go for speakers in that price range and can maybe stretch an extra £50 a pair of Genelec 8010As are good, small and work fine as general PC speakers. I have a set and for the size they're phenomenal. Used they fetch £350 a pair. I bought a set that were a year old for that.

Danny1969

It's only really worth upgrading audio interfaces if they come with really good pre amps and you mic a lot of things. Just changing them when using line inputs is really just changing AD / DA converters and there's very, very slim margin advantages there. 
If your not doing any mixing that needs to stand up against commercial mixes then the lack of treatment in the room isn't an issue but if you are then I would spend the money on some small monitors that reveal well at low volumes, not something big that will just amplify the bad effects of an untreated rectangle room. 

Musicwolf

May I ask why no to treatment?  £200 - 300 on treatment would yield far better results than spending it on anything else.

Whistler

I will second Musicwolf's comment, which Danny1969 also mentioned, so call that a third voice for acoustic treatment.

spark240

Indeed....room treatment....it’s cheap and DIY if you can screw 4 bits of wood together.....and very effective..

Winny_Pooh

Musicwolf said:

May I ask why no to treatment?  £200 - 300 on treatment would yield far better results than spending it on anything else.

Disagree, speakers in this case would make the bigger difference. 
Then treatment
Then mics (if applicable)
Then interface

octatonic

Winny_Pooh said:

Musicwolf said:

May I ask why no to treatment?  £200 - 300 on treatment would yield far better results than spending it on anything else.

Disagree, speakers in this case would make the bigger difference. 
Then treatment
Then mics (if applicable)
Then interface

Agree.
Treatment is important of course but you need to be able to hear what you are doing.

thomasw88

The problem I have with treatment is that I don't really any room to put much in.  Wall behind me has guitars on it,  and in front is a book shelf and start of the window.  To the left is my keyboard and some more shelving.

Room is under 2m wide.  I can put a few bits on the wall here and there but I don't honestly think it will make much of a difference as I don't have the space.

Speaker wise I was looking at the presonus Eris 7xt.    Is that going to be overkill? 

Legionreturns

thomasw88 said:

The problem I have with treatment is that I don't really any room to put much in.  Wall behind me has guitars on it,  and in front is a book shelf and start of the window.  To the left is my keyboard and some more shelving.

Room is under 2m wide.  I can put a few bits on the wall here and there but I don't honestly think it will make much of a difference as I don't have the space.

Speaker wise I was looking at the presonus Eris 7xt.    Is that going to be overkill? 

In that space, those monitor's probably won't be able to stretch their legs. Personally, I'd reduce to the E5s or even 4.5s. The Eris monitors though, are very very good for the price. 

thomasw88

Legionreturns said:

thomasw88 said:

The problem I have with treatment is that I don't really any room to put much in.  Wall behind me has guitars on it,  and in front is a book shelf and start of the window.  To the left is my keyboard and some more shelving.

Room is under 2m wide.  I can put a few bits on the wall here and there but I don't honestly think it will make much of a difference as I don't have the space.

Speaker wise I was looking at the presonus Eris 7xt.    Is that going to be overkill? 

In that space, those monitor's probably won't be able to stretch their legs. Personally, I'd reduce to the E5s or even 4.5s. The Eris monitors though, are very very good for the price. 

Hmm yeah I think the E7's may be a bit of overkill. 

I'm considering the E5XT's or possibly the Adam audio T5V now.

thomasw88

Update -  went  for the Adam Audio T5V's...

Cheers for the advice peeps.