Hi!

I've been searching the forums, and I think I have my answer, but I wanted to ask two questions since I think you all mean something different than I do when you say "mix."

I plan on "mixing" house music. I don't mean that I plan to create it or master it, I mean I plan to DJ a set by mixing tracks back to back.

I live in a very small place, and although I don't have wall-to-wall neighbors, the neighbors are *really* close. I will not be able to play music very loud.

I would like a set of monitors that will allow me to differentiate sounds at fairly low volume levels and that sound better than computer speakers (not whisper quite, but not thumpin either). I don't have a lot of money or expectations. I know that you get what you pay for. I'm not asking for a trip to the moon for the price of an airline ticket.

So I think my plan is to temporarily go with an easy-to-turn-around cheap pair of AV40's ($113 new) now with the idea to upgrade to something like KRK Rokit 5's or Tannoy 501's, etc. ($300-400 range new) when I have more money. I might be able to get a really good deal on used, but used takes time to find and I kinda wanted something in the next 2-3 weeks. Hence the temporary AV40's.

I have two questions. The first: are the AV40's are going to break quickly? After reading these forums and various amazon reviews of similar products, it seems that cheap active monitors have a reputation for overheating and dying rather quickly. I didn't see anything like this for the AV40's though.

My second question is: does this sound reasonable for my needs? Again, I don't high expectations at this price level, but I also don't think that I have the same needs as you guys do. I just need something with reasonable flatness and that sounds good at low levels so that I can separate colliding beats/melodies.

Thanks a lot!

wmj

I had these for a short while for producing house music and they sounded good to me:

For used save a search with your preferences on ebay, you'll be emailed daily when new stuff comes in.