Thank you for your question, Jeff! One of the most common questions and complaints that I get about recording studio monitors is that they do not have any bass sound. It may surprise you to learn that is exactly what you want them to sound like. When a monitor reproduces a clean sound, it does not create the typical enhancements that are so commonly added to the sound by home stereo systems. Most home stereo systems automatically add bass and treble to audio recordings. When recording in a studio, you want to record a more “flat” sound so that later when these recordings play on a home system they will sound normal and not too bass-heavy.
A home recording studio monitor is best when it creates a reference sound that will sound good on many different systems. That is easier to accomplish if the monitor does NOT add bass and treble to the sound, which will be added later by the other systems.

Hi, Ted. Thank you for your question. The desktop monitors that are good quality are about $100 for a pair of three-inch monitors. The larger, professional recording studio monitors can run as high as $700 each for an eight-inch size from a top name luxury brand and around $200 to $300 each for a strong brand that is more modestly priced. The more expensive monitors are sold individually or in pairs. Depending on the sound quality conditions that you are checking, you may only need one monitor, not two.

That is an excellent question. The very best monitors can sound terrible in a room, which has not been adjusted with proper sound treatment. Monitors do not correct problems with reflections of sound in a room. They may make a bad recording in a poorly treated room sound even worse on playback. The first thing you want to do is to set up your sound recording room properly to get rid of unwanted reflected sound, echoes, and reverberations. You can find out how to do this by searching for articles about acoustic tiles and sound treatment on this website.

You can analyze the sound in your recording studio room by using room acoustics software such as REW. You do this by recording a test tone using the sound analysis software. Then, you can learn what is needed to adjust the room. After all the adjustments are made, you can then decide which monitors are best suited for the sound dynamics you find in your new home recording studio.