For those of you that are shopping for studio monitors, and are on a budget, I thought I'd share my experience with my recent upgrade.

I was using Mackie MR5mk3's with decent results. For 5.25's, they're not bad monitors. But, at the end of the day, the frequency range just wasn't wide enough for some of the low and heavy sounds I'm targeting. Thus, I decided to upgrade my monitors. I had a budget of $700 (max). After an exhausting two months of research, I narrowed my search down to the KRK Rokit 8, Yamaha HS8, and the Presonus Eris E8. The KRK's were too muddy in the mids for my preference, so I narrowed it down to the HS8's and the Eris E8's. Admittedly, I thought I'd certainly go with the Yamaha's, prior to hearing the Eris E8's. Presonus is new to the studio monitor industry and I hate beta testing. However, after hearing the Eris E8's, I quickly changed my mind. I was able to A/B the two at a Guitar Center and I immediately noticed a difference. The HS8's were almost too brittle at the top end at Unity. Sure, there are controls to adjust that spectrum, but I'm old school and like to mix at Unity.

With the E8's, it was just the opposite. I was listening to my tracks via my phone and I could immediately spot the flaws that I suspected, but couldn't hear on the Mackie's or the HS8's. I switched to what I consider great reference tracks that I've heard a thousand times, and the Eris E8's really came to life. There was no over compensation in the lows, mids, or highs. They sounded truly flat. While the HS8's sounded great in the lows and mids area, the highs were unbearable at Unity. When I adjusted a couple of controls on the HS8's, it tamed the highs, but I know that I'm not a good enough engineer to to adjust my mix to the compensated frequencies. As a mediocre engineer, I know that I need to hear my audio flat and I need to hear the truth.

For budget monitors, the Eris E8's were my top choice. I ended up buying a pair for $498 from AMS ($200 cheaper than the HS8's).

After receiving them and setting them up, I'm amazed at the difference from my Mackies. My previous mixes sound like garbage, which is great. I'm hearing all of the flaws that I could never spot on my previous monitors. Most importantly, I'm hearing bass... true bass. The front firing ports are just what I needed in a small studio. I can now hear the struggle between my bass kicks and my bass line. I can hear palm mutes that need more compression. I can hear synth parts that are cluttering up low/mids. I can hear all of the issues that are going to take hours upon hours to remedy. But, we're after the truth, right? So for me, hearing my tracks sound like sub-par garbage is refreshing. Another thing I immediately noticed: They're quiet. Super quiet. On my Mackies, I could hear my computer noise coming through. With the Eris E8's, I hear nothing until I start my audio. That's such a relief. I thought I was stuck with that noise forever, due to my studio wiring and setup. The E8's are either shielded exponentially better, or the shielding on the Mackies just sucked. Either way, no more noise / crosstalk when audio isn't playing.

This is by no means a jab at the HS8's. I know quite a few people that produce phenomenal music that I could only dream about producing on HS8's. I just preferred the overall sound of the Eris E8's.

i agree....the hs8's sound like crap on the high mids. very harsh. i have the HS80M's and they are much smoother. check out this comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiLSOZXaQo

of course you have to have decent listening headphones or monitors to hear the difference, but the difference in the high mids is obvious.

I've heard great things about the HS80M's. Unfortunately, they were about $200 out of my price range. I could only find a handful of used sets in my area. I didn't actively set out to listen to a pair because I was afraid they'd ruin my opinion on the monitors in my price range. The same goes for Genelecs and Focals. I don't want to be driving around in a new Honda daydreaming about a BMW that I test drove .