KRK RP5 RoKit Classic

This is going to be a lengthy review - however, not to waste your time, I am not a professional, or a producer, so if you are looking for such a review, you can keep scrolling to find that one (plenty of those around).

To preface:
I did NOT know I needed studio monitors until I received these. They were on my bucket list, but I thought "eh, those will get loud" - and trust me, they can get loud, but it is so damn easy to tame them to a perfectly reasonable listening level. KRK's are connected via Scarlett Focusrite 4i4 interface using XLR cables (yes, you NEED cables) and are padded with the bundle acoustic padding.

Setting them up:
There are many guides on the internet - however, here is why everyone on the internet drags on in endless arguments (and for a good reason) about the perfect positioning of the monitors and doing the room preparing.
Now, many of us cannot afford to "dial in" the room just to fit the studio monitors. Is this necessary for listening to music or whatever you may be doing through the monitors outside of mixing? NO - absolutely not, you can have these without having bass traps, foams on your wall (even though the internet will lead you to believe you do) and what have you. If you are a producer and are mixing tracks, you already know what to do, but for every day music listener, guitar, bass, keyboard whathaveyou player - you do not this.
BUT - you do need to put these monitors in appropriate places. I have seen horrible monitors placements and what you are hearing is simply not what it is. My monitors are maybe 30cm away from me, they are perfect, however, they SHOULD be at your head-level or close to it.
Do you get acceptable sound if they are slightly off? Yes you do - do you get a better sound if they are set perfectly? Yes you do.
To wrap this up - if you're a tall bastard like me (196cm), it is worth noting that monitors would be best suited on stands.

Volume:
The volume knob on the monitors is at 10-15%, if I crank the volume knob on the audio interface, it becomes way too loud (hello neighbors), so these monitors WILL get loud, but unless you overdo it - they are perfectly tame for normal levels.

Subwoofer debate:
Do these monitors lack bass? Absolutely freaking not. You do not need a subwoofer (unless, for some reason, you really ARE mixing at those levels). These monitors have a good "woofer" of their own.

Final verdict:
I did not know I needed monitors until I got them - no headphones can replace the wall and amazement of sound you get to enjoy music with these bad boys.

Pro (amateur) tips:
- When acquiring your order from Thomann, be vary that these monitors ARE heavy (5 kilos each), so the box... it will be heavy. (and you may get additional shipping costs because of that)
- Buy two - no, listen to me: buy two, end of story.
- Buy a cable with balanced connection and preferably plug these monitors into an audio interface
- Playing guitar through amp sims is a JOY on these monitors
- Monitors are actually quite hard to topple over as they stay balanced even when bumped into (but you don't want 5 kilos crashing down)
- I was debating between these and Presonus, bought these out of a very shallow reason... they looked cooler to me

Cons:
- The only con I can find is the controls on the back (but that's pretty much every monitor ever), so the initial fiddling of finding the proper volume and settings can be a bit annoying.

As is usually the case for first time buyers, you want to insure you are getting what you pay for and don't suffer from buyers remorse. I bought the KRK Rokit 5 as a bundle after looking around a lot for first timer's professional studio monitors, the bundle included 2 Studio Monitors, 2 pads to reduce vibration, 2 UK power cables. The box was big, the speakers weighed quite a bit (having not really experienced high quality speakers before), they look glorious and most importantly they sound amazing. The design is great and the yellow and black color scheme works really well, the KRK logo on the front lights up when the speakers are turned on. There is a great selection of connectors at the back (TRS, XLR and RCA connectivity), the dials are really good, you can feel the small changes you need/want as you turn them and they are of solid construction, you can tell the build is solid by the way the changes in setting feel.

Note 1: Studio monitors are sold individually, so don't cause yourself grief buy accidentally buying only 1 studio monitor you either need to set the "Quantity" to 2 in the basket or you can buy a bundle like I did Thomann.de have a bundle which include the following: you get 2 studio monitors, 2 x UK power cords are included free and 2 pads for reducing vibration are also included for free.

Note 2: The instrument cables (XLR, TRS or RCA cables) are not included, they have to be added to the basket.

Note 3: These speakers weigh a bit, so if you buy 2 make sure you take needed precautions before picking up the box

Note 4: When setting up the speakers, insure the speaker power button is in the off state and insure the settings are all the lowest, this is to avoid any possible pops or crackles when you connect stuff (which could damage speakers and your ears)

Note 5: For the best sound, position speakers as per KRK's included manual, really handy, I had incorrectly positioned mine when I started and wasn't too please thought sound was only coming out of one speaker. KRK's manual recommend the best position (height and angle).

I use these for my music production, mixing and mastering, and of course listening to music.

Pros:

- Good quality in sound, you can adjust the highs and the lows at the back of the monitor to fit your rooms reverb/dampening.

- You can make them loud and i mean LOUD.

- the colours are nice, they blend in with my desk i ordered ''Glorious Workbench white
Producing Workstation'' very nicely, doesn't get dirty at all, no finger prints or anything of the sorts, easy to maintain. ( though i can imagine the holes for bass get dusty after a long time )

- The body of these is quite strong and would probably survive a fall from a small height but no more than once. ( i don't recommend trying that out though)

Negatives:

- The lows are sadly barely there with the cutoff at 45Hz you can hear barely any bass with some of the tracks that reach that low bass zone, in this case my music doesn't sound as good sometimes because i'm missing that ONE frequency. i suggest just getting a subwuffer or buy bigger version of these monitors, either 6 or higher if you want that loud bass.

- The speakers them selves are very delicate so if you have children or a cat/animal that can get to them they can be easily damaged suggest keeping at high points away from reach of anyone other than you.

- One of my KRK rokit 5s came scarred with a big mark on one of the corners so i suspect someone has dropped it before it was packaged, so like i said, the body is strong, the monitor still works, but the mark will stay there forever now. the small plastic logo with he light inside it as well, came out when i unpacked it.

Overall:

it's a pretty good product, for beginners only though, if i were to replace these i would go with the 6 inch or above ones because the bass really is needed here.

I'm using the KRK RP5's in my own little studio @ home.

They have excellent stereo image, great sound clarity for material that's excellently done (Sting, Toto, Mylene Farmer, Janet Jackson).

Once you get a song sounding good on these speakers, after hours of working on them, the song will definitely sound excellent on all other references, because they're very linear.

The general sound of these speakers is very crisp (except somewhere around 180-260 hz in the low freq area where I can feel a slight amplifiying in these speakers). This is a good thing because in that area there's usually a build-up in frequencies in songs, accumulated from all the present instruments / channels, that if not take care carefully, your song can sound bad on other reference or non-reference speakers.

Because the low-drivers are 5'', you cannot hear the sub-bass that much (as in 6'' or 8'' woofers).

The sub-frequencies are actually audible, but you really need to position the speakers perfectly in your studio room, with at least 60-80 cm distanced from you, at your left and right, so the low frequencies can have space to reach your ear.

For this budget they are excellent, have knobs in the back for room adjustments and they also auto-shut-off, when the signal is not present for 30 mins (when you're not working).