YAMAHA HS8 VS KRK ROKIT 8

The Yamaha HS8 and KRK Rokit 8 are quite possibly the two most popular speakers when it comes to bedroom studios, therefore; we thought a little opinion piece and comparison may be in order. This post absolutely is not about the specifications between each speaker - you can find those online - it is simply an opinion on which monitor system is better for your home studio and why that system is the Yamaha HS8 series. 

In all honesty, both speakers are great for the price and great records have been produced, mixed and mastered on both sets of studio monitors. We have used both these models and here are a few things to consider before purchasing your monitors. 

1. Your room acoustics are more important than your speakers

We first need to address the fact that if you are in a room with terrible acoustics then even the best speakers in the world will not fix that problem. Of course, bedrooms are made for sleeping, not for studios so the likelihood of your room being a suitable place to produce, mix and master music is minimal, however, you should try focus on treating your room in order to give you the best possible listening environment. Your first port of call may be investing in some ACOUSTIC FOAM and treating the walls of your room. 

2. Get TO KNOW YOUR STUDIO MONITORS

Regardless of specifications - it is important to understand your speakers within your listening space. The reason many great records have been made on the Yamaha HS8 and KRK Rokit 8 systems is because people begin to understand the frequency response of their respective monitors. When it comes to music production, if you use reference tracks as often as possible then you will begin to understand the frequency response of your monitors and begin understanding when your mix sounds clean through that specific system. Different monitor systems have slightly different frequency responses - some may be boosted in the high end, some may have a low end boost. Referencing some of your favourite tunes and mixes through your monitors will be good ear training and allow you to modify your own mix within FL Studio / Ableton Live / Logic / whatever DAW you use and hopefully get it as close to your reference tracks as possible.  

3. wHY WE CHOOSE THE YAMAHA HS8

In all honesty, the quality of the sound from both these monitors is great - especially for the money, however, the frequency response for the Yamaha HS8 seems to be a little flatter, which is extremely important when it comes to producing House Music /  EDM or any sub genre of dance music. This is because dance music is heavily dependent on lower frequencies. Those frequencies which you 'feel' are typically ones which get you dancing in clubs - the whole idea of 'Dance Music'. The relationship between kick and bass is important and it is much easier to nail this within your mix with a flatter frequency response. Now, we will throw a little praise KRK's way - the mid range does appear to be a little clearer than the Yamaha's, however, this is a dance music blog - we are more worried about the low end. That said, if you produce other types of music then the KRK may be your preferred weapon of choice.

This opinion comes from personal experience, the lower mid / sub of the KRK seems to be slightly coloured and this gave unwanted levels when translated to other listening systems, particularly larger monitors. This can of course be fixed by understanding point 2 in our post - if you know there is a little boost in the low frequencies on the KRK monitors then you can compensate within your mix and manually lower the levels during the mixing stage.  

4. Yamaha hs8 just looks better

Okay - this is subjective......but get out of here with that Yellow Cone. Who really thinks that daft yellow cone looks better than the crisp and clean white one from Yamaha?  And if you do think the yellow cone looks better......you are wrong!!
Jokes aside - this is all subjective. If you like that awful yellow cone then more power to you but for us, the white just looks better and might actually match some other aspects of the room - unless you have some weird yellow paint or yellow bedsheets!!  

So to cap this little post off; either monitors are great and you can produce good tunes on them. We personally prefer the Yamaha HS8 - but only just! Either monitor would suffice so don't get too hung up on which ones to buy.