Studio sound monitors - what do I need?

Hi all, slightly odd question for a photography forum, but I'm doing more video work nowadays and I realised that if I don't use my headphones the sound I'm getting is really different than what the clients hear.

'm on Creative T3 speakers now, but I'm going to bump them up to a pair of KRK Rokit 5 monitors.

Apart from those 2 speakers, what else do I need? Probably an audio interface? Or am I looking at just a DAC? How will I control my volume if I get just a DAC?

Also, what about positioning? Any help here would be hot!

Thanks,
Zexun

Headshotzx wrote in post #16693810
Hi all, slightly odd question for a photography forum, but I'm doing more video work nowadays and I realised that if I don't use my headphones the sound I'm getting is really different than what the clients hear.

'm on Creative T3 speakers now, but I'm going to bump them up to a pair of KRK Rokit 5 monitors.

Apart from those 2 speakers, what else do I need? Probably an audio interface? Or am I looking at just a DAC? How will I control my volume if I get just a DAC?

Also, what about positioning? Any help here would be hot!

Thanks,
Zexun

Those are nice little speakers, but/and they are near field speakers, and not reference speakers, so your positioning of them will have to be fairly precise if you want accuracy. I use a pair of KRKs in my audio studio, but a bit larger - and older. They will be a big step up from your Creatives. The Rokits are active speakers, so you just need to plug them into the same place your T3s are plugged into, which I assume is your PC.

Positioning: your head should be at the third vertex of an equilateral triangle of which the other two vertices are the speakers and at the same height, and they probably shouldn't be more than four to six feet apart. I'd go for the four end rather than the six foot end of the range.

Good info on the positioning. Thanks! I know they are active speakers, but I'll want a way to turn up/down the volume with a physical knob. That means an interface, right?

Headshotzx wrote in post #16703583
Good info on the positioning. Thanks! I know they are active speakers, but I'll want a way to turn up/down the volume with a physical knob. That means an interface, right?

How are you controlling your current speakers? Audio processing software has internal software mixing consoles, and In your system (Mac? Windows?) there is a volume control and audio selection function that will select and route the audio from video. Your computer should have a sound function. You can plug the audio output of your computer directly into the KRKs.

You will need a cable with a 1/8 (3.5mm) stereo plug to RCA pair or 1/4" mono plugs.

Hen3Ry wrote in post #16704084
How are you controlling your current speakers? Audio processing software has internal software mixing consoles, and In your system (Mac? Windows?) there is a volume control and audio selection function that will select and route the audio from video. Your computer should have a sound function. You can plug the audio output of your computer directly into the KRKs.

You will need a cable with a 1/8 (3.5mm) stereo plug to RCA pair or 1/4" mono plugs.

Oh I get it.

Currently my signal's flowing through a pci-e Creative Audigy Z2 (a really really old card), but it's coming out really hot from that card out into a stereo mini 1/8" plug into my Creative Gigaworks T3 control knob. The output from my windows comp is 6 - 10%, and the creative volume knob is usually just 20% and that's loud enough. Something tells me my sound card is the issue here. Maybe I should just go with what you say... while taking out the creative sound card.