KRK RP8's

[elwoodblues1969]

In a desperate attempt to replace the horrendous Wharfedale Pro 8.1's I had been mastering with,I discovered that KRK lowered thier price on thier Rokit series and since Zzounds.com offers an installment pay plan,I had to jump on them!

I read through an overwhelming amount of good reviews on them on how well balanced thier sound is and here are my initial impressions of them...

After spending a couple of hours with them listening to various songs off of my Zoom recorder,commercial cd's & playing my keyboard through them,I was very impressed with how evenly spread out the entire frequency range is and in fact,I have a distinct impression that these monitors are going to be a breeze to mix & master on.

For $400(USD),I think they are a fantastic buy!

Apart from the painfully loud yellow woofer,they're some nice looking monitors...only problem is though,is that unless you have a black floor & yellow walls,they will not match with anything!

[Oren]

Schweet!

I'm going for black walls and a yellow floor, so when you get tired of them, they'll have a pre-approved home....

(the more I work with audio, the better I like these little Cambridge Soundworks PCWorks - $50 U.S.
             http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/category.cgi?category=spk_multimedia&item=c1pcwzzzz  )

[Moon]

Apart from the painfully loud yellow woofer,they're some nice looking monitors...only problem is though,is that unless you have a black floor & yellow walls,they will not match with anything!

Actually, when speaker manufactured started to produce kevlar speakers, the produced only yellow drivers (e.g. the famous B&W studio high end monitors). This color was typically for high-end speakers, so yellow means "expensive and quality". It wasn't for year laters when other drivers took this color. So.... they kind a look "expensive" and "quality" speakers to me ! 

Moon

[Oren]

I have the B&W monitors, from before they went yellow... 

  (they make a better plant stand than they do a studio monitor )

[elwoodblues1969]

Moon,

They are actually not Kevlar,but rather they are a glass aramid composite(fiberglass),which is very comparable material,in that you get basically the same lightweight & rigid properties that provide that snappy punchy sound.

Oren,

If for instance,you were in the market to get these monitors and since they are made in China,as supposed to being made in North America,what would be the amount of "duties" you would have to pay?

I just recently was made aware of this and I am very curious about it.

It seems that Canadians really get a raw deal when it comes to products that are outsourced to other countries.

Thom

[Oren]

Thom,

We have a free-trade agreement with you folks, so if I can't find a Canadian product, I "buy American". Third choice is Europe and Great Britain.

A lot of the Chinese stuff is "outsourced" by a North American company, and therefore not subject to our high import tariffs. Those little PCWorks are an example. I wish a domestic operation made something equivalent....

And yes, my boots are made in Canada. 

[folderol]

They come out at ukp 292 here. I had thought about these myself but am reluctant to part with that much money for powered units. I'm more likely to get unpowered speakers to use with one of my existing amplifiers. Then again, it might just give me the shove for me to build one of those valve amplifiers

[Oren]

Yo !

[elwoodblues1969]

Will,

I don't mean to push you into anything,as rather this is just some food for though-something that I would like to point out to you...

When it comes to achieving the most optimum of quality on a budget,there just is no substitute to be on par with a monitor/speaker system that employs electronic crossovers,individual amps for both drivers that are custom tailored and a cabinet with a tuned design.
A well engineered active monitor is the epitome of optimal conditions to produce balanced,accurate & detailed sound.

Case in point,in order for you to achieve the same amount of fidelity using a separate amp & speakers,would cost you at least twice as much.

Assuming that you wanted this level of accuracy,that would mean that you most likely have to dump the current amp you have,spend a few hundred bucks on a new amp,and then a few hundred bucks more for speakers.

I am certainly not suggesting that you need powered monitors,but rather,I am saying that if you want the aforementioned level of fidelity to make it easier for you to achieve accurate mixes,then this is the most cost effective way to do this-which is ultimately a very good bargain.

If you have any interest in my input,then at the very least,go to a music retailer that has them on display & have a listen and then buy them on the contingency that they have a good return policy if you feel they're not for you.

If your budget is simply too tight to even consider this route,then ignore my input altogether.

[rharv]

First guy I knew that had these for about 1 year had this to say (after they started humming)-

"I called KRK this morning, and talked to the tech support people there. The guy's comment was 'Yeah, the Rokit's are the cheap speakers. Sounds like you have a problem in the power supply. It isn't worth fixing them. Ninety bucks for a new 'back plate' (which contains everything except the speakers and the box!)."

And, of course, it's out of warranty.

So, just for S&G, I popped the back off it, and took a look. I figured since it was passing a signal, it couldn't have anything burned, but there, in all it's glory, was a 1000uF, 50v cap with a very convex top on it. I'll have to see if I can't scrounge one of those up somewhere. That'll probably solve the issue.

So, on that note, I retract all my support for KRK and the Rokits. Ppppphhhhhhtttttbbbbbbb on them!

Gary "

..so I avoided these...up until then he was very impressed with them.
I can't verify support's response but the guy has been very honest and helpful on the PGMusic forums.  Sorry to be a bummer.  Hopefully yours will last much longer.

BTW the whole thread is here-
http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB4&Number=135113&Searchpage=1&Main=135043&Words=krk+Gary+Curran&topic=&Search=true#Post135113

[elwoodblues1969]

Bob,

I appreciate the info & I am sure Will will be glad to be aware of this,but several months back,I had a similar problem with a pair of Samson 40a's and I sent them in for repair at a local shop & the guy fixed them,but did a piss poor job of re-assembling them,so the speaker terminals were inoperable as a result.

I then had to send one of the monitors that had the amp in it directly to Samson,to repair what this other repair man screwed up.

But instead of them sending me back the original monitor,they sent me back another pair that was refurbished.

Needless to say,I waited quite a while to have the issue resolved & I was very pissed,but I did not condemn the entire company,just because of that incident.

For you to boycott a company altogether just because of this one incident seems unrealistic & a little too drastic-it's not something I'm prepared to do.

Alesis has had a world of problems with several different products within thier company,but sometimes,even amidst all this chaos,they do have products that are built to the contrary & work fine.

If I had the same mode of thinking as you do,I would have missed out on a golden oppurtunity to own a beautiful keyboard that is the Alesis Ion.

To further define my point,most of what's out there,expensive or otherwise,is made in China,so there is always the possiblity of something to go wrong,as even my $1,000 Adam A7's are made in China as well and I don't really have a choice but to buy China made products-as I'm sure is the case with most everybody on this forum.

If you dig deep enough into all of the forums on the internet,you will find dirt about a surprising amount of products on just about anything that's out there.

If I condemned every company that ever had a flawed product here & there,what options would I have?

It's nice that you warned us,but your level of caution is a little too much for my taste.
I know you meant well,but I just don't totally understand your thinking,is all.

Thanks for the heads up though,

Thom

[Moon]

If your budget is simply too tight to even consider this route,then ignore my input altogether.

If you're on a limited budget, check out the Samson Resolve monitors. They're great value for money. I don't think they much more expensive than passive speakers.

Moon

[folderol]

This is turning out to be a very interesting thread, but my circumstances are a trifle unusual - as the actress said the the bishop

In the first place I actually have a number of amplifiers already kicking around at home (some designed and built by me). Also, in the past I've built speaker cabs from well sourced drawings (got a great one for a friend once, labarynth bass bin - dead flat down to 15Hz). I no longer have the carpentry tools (nor the interest) for speaker building, but I can knock up moderate to good amps almost in my sleep - sometimes they look as if I did

I fully take your point Thom about active crossovers. They are much more precise, tunable, and allow the drivers to more closely match the needs of the speaker. Again I've built these myself, but in this instance I'm intending to build a properly 'contained' music production workstation, and a small lack of fidelity at crossover points is quite acceptable once I've familiarised myself with the performance of music I know well - it will also be nice to regain use of my dining room table for eating at

In fact the amp I use at the moment (with shamefully cheap speakers) was built using a Class 1 isolating transformer. This means it is safe to use un-earthed. My hardware synths also draw their power through this so the only true earth is the computer - I never have to even think about earth loops

[rharv]

It wasn't the fact that the speaker went bad, Thom, it was the remark and attitude of the company rep.
 Your situation was a little different, since an outside repair shop was involved.

 I don't boycott KRK or Alesis (actually impressed with the sounds your Alesis gets), I just try to keep an eye open, and it rang a bell when I saw your purchase.
 I should have known that you researched before buying, sorry.
I just remember Gary posting very excitedly about how great they sounded and then having a bad ending.  I had not researched it at all other than that.
At the time I got lucky and found some JBLs I liked for my little room that work great; even came with the wall mounts, so I didn't look much further at the time.

Here's to years of great sound.