KRK ROKIT 5 G3 5”

KRK is easily among the most appreciated speaker manufacturers in the world. Their monitors are famous for their natural and well-balanced response, and they have gained a strong reputation particularly in the realm of Hip-hop and Electronic Dance Music. KRK is also known for their high-quality stereo imaging technologies, a noticeable penchant in the speaker production market over the last three years.

What is particularly impressive about the KRK production line is the price-to-value ratio of their products. This company manages to consistently stay on the top of the monitors food chain while putting out top-tier speakers at very affordable prices. With that said, you’ll find the KRK ROKIT 5 G3 5″ studio monitor listed at $150 at most retailers.

Sound Character is Key

Let’s take a look at the sonic qualities and appeal of the Rokit 5 G3’s. Although the five-inch G3’s are relatively small speakers with a slightly prominent mid-bass response, their delivery is still very much on point. The sound character is consistent and they provide a considerable amount of mid-range punch. When it comes to frequency balance, the high-end frequencies are more prominent than previous generations.

Overall, the Rokit 5 G3’s have a warm sound character, with detailed highs and a mid to upper bass that is more prominent. It’s a sound that will be preferred by bedroom producers, particularly, who have a taste for Hip-hop, R&B and other bass-heavy genres such as many sub-genres in EDM. Especially, in a world where budget monitors that produce a good bass can be hard to come by.

To get the most out of them, do not hesitate to use the KRK positioning manual. The company’s manual specifies the optimal position in terms of height and placement angle to get out the most balanced sound experience; this is always a critical factor in achieving the optimal listening experience and achieving the sound that was intended by its design.

The Weigh-In

Let’s take a look at the size and the weight of the Rokit 5 G3. They have a 1” soft-dome tweeter and a wide bass port towards the bottom of the face. Each speaker weighs about 15 lbs or nearly 7 kilos. These babies are pretty heavy for their size.  The case is made of medium-density fiberboard, wrapped in vinyl, with a height of 11.1 inches, a depth of 9.06 inches and a width of 7.28. Its SPL is around 106 dB.

The Port, the Bass, the Genres..

There are primarily two different positions for ports to be made in a speaker, in the rear, and in the front. Conventional wisdom has it that the speakers that have a port in the rear normally provide more bass than other types of speakers. I remember using the M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 speakers a few years ago, a pair of rear-ported speakers. At times the monitors seemed a bit too saturated with bass. This is a phenomenon shared with the Rokit 5 G3s, which have a particularly prominent bass.

When it comes to bass, the thing that is very interesting is that Hip-hop and EDM producers often turn to KRK Rokits because of their reputation for producing more bass than other monitors in their price range. An amateur may believe that having a monitor that produces more bass will result in producing tracks that have more bass. Perhaps, this is also why many amateur producers use Beats by Dre headphones to mix. This is an instinctive assumption based on association, but a very flawed conclusion.

When it comes down to the mixing process, bassy monitors aren’t going to result in more bass in your production, they’re going to result in less bass if they’re your primary mix tool. When you mix, you’re looking for balance. Bassy monitors will likely cause you to turn down the bass because the obvious thing to do when you hear bass that is too prominent, is going to be to lower it to strengthen the balance in the mix. Next thing you know, you show the track you mixed to your friends who play your track on a more average system without boosted bass, and the bass and low-end will seem to have vanished and no one will be impressed.

With that said, don’t expect the G3s to be the most valuable tool when it comes down to mixing tracks in bass-heavy genres. But for most beginning producers who have an interest in bass-heavy genres, if they have a chance to hear the Rokit 5 G3s, before buying them, they’re likely to gravitate towards them. In short, they’re great for listening to bass and may make your producing more enjoyable, but perhaps not so good for mixing bass, unless you have supplementary or additional monitoring to check for accurate bass levels.

A bass remedy?

Similar to the G2s, the G3s also have a HF level adjustment, this adjustment comes in handy when you’re adjusting high-end treble frequencies in regard to your room. However, the G3s welcome a new addition, an LF level adjustment which has four settings (-2, -1, 0, and +2 decibels). This adjustment provides some useful control over bass levels. While I should note, you shouldn’t expect to have significant sub-bass with the Rokit 5 G3s which only have a 5″ woofer, the LF adjustment comes in handy for reducing some of the low-mids and standard bass frequencies which can be useful when it comes to mixing with the bass-boosted G3s.

Is it worth the buck?

At $150 per monitor, these are surely among KRK’s rather inexpensive speakers, however, they pack plenty of value and can get the job done nicely with most home studios. Many low-budget monitors do sometimes have to sacrifice essential things in order to remain at an affordable price. Yet this doesn’t seem like the case with the Rokit 5 G3s, rather, these are well-engineered, well-conceptualized, and affordable monitors that perform great when matched up against other monitors in their price range.

In Conclusion

Overall, the Rokit 5 G3s are a great value. While they may not be for everyone, particularly, music producers looking for the flattest monitors they can get their hands on, whose main priority is only to mix, they are indeed a versatile pair of monitors that offer a solid balance between enjoyable listening, and critical listening for mixing and mastering purposes.

For these reasons, (not to mention the great marketing by KRK), KRK Rokits remain at the top of the food chain for budget monitors. They are bound to remain a popular staple when it comes to affordable monitoring, and the G3s will continue this trend as KRK has produced another solid product to transition to the next generation.