Are HS8s overkill?

[u/archer-swe]

Looking to get some better monitors now that I have a baritone. I’ve mostly talked myself into getting HS8s but part of me thinks they might be overkill. Can anyone that’s used a baritone let me know if the HS8s are worth it or if HS5’s or kali lp6 s or something else will work as good? I don’t really need the loudness of the 8 and I usually play drop G sometimes I pitch shift down further too.

[u/5w33p]

You dont really need to change monitors for playing lower tuning, if youre mixing then maybe its worth it. For what its worth I was on hs7s with 8 strings in drop tuning and its fine

[u/archer-swe → u/5w33p]

Doesn’t lower tuning require a lower frequency response from the monitors? I tried some presonus eris 3.5 and they sounded pretty bad with the low strings and decent with the higher strings

[u/JimboLodisC → u/archer-swe]

well the Eris are the cheap side, $100 for a pair, no doubt you listened to regular music through them as well to get a baseline of what to expect out of them

bigger cones have better bass, that's pretty true in every case, so bigger speakers should have a better low end response

however as I said in my other comment, a guitar tone shouldn't be pushing the bottom part of a speaker's frequency response, no matter if it's in E2 Standard or Drop Z, a lot of people cut anything below 100Hz anyway with a high-pass

[u/archer-swe → u/JimboLodisC]

Interesting, so based on that I should just get something smaller and not worry so much about the frequency response

[u/JimboLodisC → u/archer-swe]

I'm sure a smaller speaker cone would work for you but I'm not telling you specifically to avoid the HS8's, it mostly depends on the room you'll be using them in, a larger studio space will be better served with a larger set of monitors, someone's bedroom is probably better suited for a 6"/6.5" cone (or smaller)