Monitor (display) recommendations por favor

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Hi,

Firstly, apologies if this is a duplicate thread, I’ve a feeling there’s been a similar topic in the past.

I’m in need of monitor advice. I have a M2 Pro Mac Mini and I’m considering an ultra wide screen to pair with it. It’ll be mainly used for music (daw) with more generic use around the edges. No heavy photo or video editing, gaming or movie watching.

After a brief bit of Googling, I’ve realised I don’t even know what sort of things I should be worrying about. Screen type, resolution, connectivity, curve, brightness, compatibility, and so on… And there is a huge range of options.

I’d really welcome some guidance on how to make a decision, or outright recommendations. Budget is up to £300-400, but, as always, less would be ideal.

Many thanks!

Matt

gretschthumper · July 2023

Which mac mini? I have an M1 and Huawei 34” curved ultrawide that works well, but the old 2012 quad core can’t handle it atall & shows black stripes either side

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

gretschthumper said:

Which mac mini? I have an M1 and Huawei 34” curved ultrawide that works well, but the old 2012 quad core can’t handle it atall & shows black stripes either side

Thanks, good to know. Good point - it’s an M2 Pro. Original post updated.

octatonic · July 2023

Do you want 4k or 1440p?

Curved?

You can easily get a good monitor for that sort of money.

Dell, MSI, ASUS and Corsair are my faves.

What size do you want?
I like a 32"but some people prefer 27".

If you are using a Mac only then don't pay for high refresh rate.

fretmeister · July 2023

I'm using a BenQ EW3280U

32 inch 4K.

Image quality is lovely - I spend my days in Excel, living the dream - but they are regular widescreen.
Only 60hz refresh but with my gaming skills that isn't affecting my win rate!

Amazon have them for £431 at the moment.

I have a pair of them for work. Hopefully one day someone will do an ultrawide that is the same as a pair of 32inch screens. I need the height on the screen rather than things like the Samsung G9 that are really like a pair of 27 inch ones. But then again that would probably need a really stupid GPU to run it.

goldtop · July 2023

gretschthumper said:

Which mac mini? I have an M1 and Huawei 34” curved ultrawide that works well, but the old 2012 quad core can’t handle it atall & shows black stripes either side

Can you run EasyRes on that old Mac? I remember an app being necessary to fully use an ultrawide display on at least one of my old Macs. See https://apps.apple.com/us/app/easyres/id688211836?mt=12

Stratavarious · July 2023

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

octatonic · July 2023

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

I like dual monitors but I really don't like a side by side layout- you are either setting them asymmetrically, or you look straight at the bezels and have to twist.

I'm using a vertical arrangement at the moment.
Bottom monitor is a Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 and I have a Dell P2720DC on top.
The Dell is being replaced with a colour accurate monitor fairly soon though.
When working on video content I like to have the top display showing the image.
When doing audio it is often persistent plugins- master bus stuff, meters.

It is useful for being able to watch Youtube/Netflix when working too.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

octatonic said:

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

I like dual monitors but I really don't like a side by side layout- you are either setting them asymmetrically, or you look straight at the bezels and have to twist.

I'm using a vertical arrangement at the moment.
Bottom monitor is a Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 and I have a Dell P2720DC on top.
The Dell is being replaced with a colour accurate monitor fairly soon though.
When working on video content I like to have the top display showing the image.
When doing audio it is often persistent plugins- master bus stuff, meters.

It is useful for being able to watch Youtube/Netflix when working too.

I can barely play accurately to a beat in 4/4. How you’re watching Netflix while working, I’ll never know!

Nevertheless, exceptionally valuable contribution, as always - thank you.

I’ll give the vertical screen arrangement some thought. I’m leaning towards ultra wide for no bezel in the middle of my view whilst also having sufficient space for multiple windows.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

Very interested in the doc solution, what are you using? The M2 Pro Mac Mini is well stocked for FireWire ports but more usb is betterer.

What’s the big benefit of dual monitors for you?

Sporky · July 2023

I have a pair of 27-inch 4K Dells, on a fancy-pants arm so I can have one right in front of me (for gaming) or the two side-by-side (for productivity).

I'll have a look at the 8k x 2k Samsung ultra wide when it comes out, but I suspect it'll be ruinously expensive. Plus there are advantages to two separate monitors for monitor splitting and window control - I use Display Fusion with lots of triggers to move windows where I want them based on what I'm doing.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

octatonic said:

Do you want 4k or 1440p?
Curved?

You can easily get a good monitor for that sort of money.
Dell, MSI, ASUS and Corsair are my faves.

What size do you want?
I like a 32"but some people prefer 27".

If you are using a Mac only then don't pay for high refresh rate.

Thanks, all instructive questions.

Seems a shame not to go for at least 4k. And at least 32”. I say at least, but anything bigger is going to become a bit awkward so yes, 32”.

Happy to not go for a higher refresh rate, but why is that specific to Mac?

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Sporky said:

I have a pair of 27-inch 4K Dells, on a fancy-pants arm so I can have one right in front of me (for gaming) or the two side-by-side (for productivity).

I'll have a look at the 8k x 2k Samsung ultra wide when it comes out, but I suspect it'll be ruinously expensive. Plus there are advantages to two separate monitors for monitor splitting and window control - I use Display Fusion with lots of triggers to move windows where I want them based on what I'm doing.

Looks lovely.

I’ll check out display fusion.

I think I’m leaning towards the one ultrawide with the option of adding an additional smaller monitor if I really miss multiple screens.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Hellsbells87 said:

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

Very interested in the doc solution, what are you using? The M2 Pro Mac Mini is well stocked for FireWire ports but more usb is betterer.

What’s the big benefit of dual monitors for you?

@Stratavarious which doc are you using for your Mac mini?

Sporky · July 2023

The dual vs ultrawide thing really comes down to whether the division in the middle is an issue or a boon for you.

octatonic · July 2023

Hellsbells87 said:

octatonic said:

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

I like dual monitors but I really don't like a side by side layout- you are either setting them asymmetrically, or you look straight at the bezels and have to twist.

I'm using a vertical arrangement at the moment.
Bottom monitor is a Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 and I have a Dell P2720DC on top.
The Dell is being replaced with a colour accurate monitor fairly soon though.
When working on video content I like to have the top display showing the image.
When doing audio it is often persistent plugins- master bus stuff, meters.

It is useful for being able to watch Youtube/Netflix when working too.

I can barely play accurately to a beat in 4/4. How you’re watching Netflix while working, I’ll never know!

Nevertheless, exceptionally valuable contribution, as always - thank you.

I’ll give the vertical screen arrangement some thought. I’m leaning towards ultra wide for no bezel in the middle of my view whilst also having sufficient space for multiple windows.

Not everything I do is playing.
Last week I spent a couple of hours just editing samples.
It is laborious and boring work so I have things playing in the background.

Ultra wide are good but my issue wit them is they are often too wide for studio monitors to be in the optimal position, and usually not capable of 4k.
If these are not issues for you then it should be a great fit.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

octatonic said:

Hellsbells87 said:

octatonic said:

Stratavarious said:

I use a new M2 Mac mini with an ASUS Ultrawide… works great… BUT, I’d be looking for a 4K over an ultra wide at that price point. What you may gain in width you will lose in vertical resolution, so less stuff on screen and possibly smudged text.

My Mac Mini setup is dual,monitor, one standard and one ultrawide.. I can put tracks and timelines on the ultrawide and the rest on the main monitor..

Dual monitor always for me.

Id go for two 4K 16:9 monitors at that budget though,

I have a dock for my mini which adds a second HDMI out and holds an SSD work files drive as well as having a bunch of USB and SD slots.. loads more than a Mac Studio.

I like dual monitors but I really don't like a side by side layout- you are either setting them asymmetrically, or you look straight at the bezels and have to twist.

I'm using a vertical arrangement at the moment.
Bottom monitor is a Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 and I have a Dell P2720DC on top.
The Dell is being replaced with a colour accurate monitor fairly soon though.
When working on video content I like to have the top display showing the image.
When doing audio it is often persistent plugins- master bus stuff, meters.

It is useful for being able to watch Youtube/Netflix when working too.

I can barely play accurately to a beat in 4/4. How you’re watching Netflix while working, I’ll never know!

Nevertheless, exceptionally valuable contribution, as always - thank you.

I’ll give the vertical screen arrangement some thought. I’m leaning towards ultra wide for no bezel in the middle of my view whilst also having sufficient space for multiple windows.

Not everything I do is playing.
Last week I spent a couple of hours just editing samples.
It is laborious and boring work so I have things playing in the background.

Ultra wide are good but my issue wit them is they are often too wide for studio monitors to be in the optimal position, and usually not capable of 4k.
If these are not issues for you then it should be a great fit.

Thanks, and yes I’m coming to a similar conclusion re ultrawide.

Ok, good progress today. What are thoughts on curved vs flat? Or is it just personal preference?

So the front runners are:

- Dell
- flat £310 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-4k-uhd-monitor-se3223q/apd/210-begy/monitors-monitor-accessories
- or curved £380 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-curved-4k-uhd-monitor-s3221qsa/apd/210-bfvu/monitors-monitor-accessories

- Samsung
- ultrawide £300 (seems like a lot for the money, what am I missing?) Samsung LS34C500GAUXXU 34" WQHD Monitor - 3440x1440, 100Hz, VA, Displayport, HDMI, Freesync https://amzn.eu/d/76LooGX ;

- MSI
- curved £350 https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2062431

- BENQ
- flat £300 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-benq-ew3270u-4k-monitor-3840x2160-hdr-va-60hz-freesync-4ms-12m1-300cd-m-vesa-dp-hdmi-usb-type-c

- LG
- flat £350 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-lg-32un650p-w-uhd-monitor-ips-3840x2160-5ms-60hz-amd-freesync-10001-hdmi-dp

If I don’t care about curved, ultrawide or 32” vs 34”, which of these would you plump for? Same question if I did care about flat vs curved.

Anything else I’m missing?

Thanks again!

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Sporky said:

The dual vs ultrawide thing really comes down to whether the division in the middle is an issue or a boon for you.

I think issue. I’ve also considered adding a smaller monitor at a later date, depending how I get on with an ultrawide.

Sporky · July 2023

Of that list, only the LG has an IPS panel, the rest are all VA. That'd seal it for me - the LG wins.

Hellsbells87 · July 2023

Sporky said:

Of that list, only the LG has an IPS panel, the rest are all VA. That'd seal it for me - the LG wins.

Amazing so we’ve refined the problem statement…

Best 32”-34” 4k IPS monitor for £300-400. May or may not be wide or curved. Back to google. Other search engines are available.

Stratavarious · July 2023

Get two 32” … the gap thing is a non-issue generally if focus is music production or video or pretty much anything else. You will barely see a media music professional using single screen. All the main software has dual screen modes.

Logic will split screen in the view menu… tracks on one, faders and Auxes on other… same with Final Cut.. etc. edit lines on one, the preview on other.

Even with Garageband, you can have Garageband on one and the amp sims and plug-ins on other.

Learning tunes… score/chords on one… YouTube or DAW on other.

Dock is 13 in 1 Mac mini dock with HD slot. I put a 2TB Samsung SSD in.. all worked plug and play from plugged in. Impressed.

Stratavarious · July 2023

Also with two screen… things like maximising a window, are simple.. with ultrawide, arranging a pair of windows is lots of mouse fiddling.

If you can clarify your use cases and what advantage ultrawide will bring, be good. Also what are your main tasks and software?

octatonic · July 2023

Hellsbells87 said:

Thanks, and yes I’m coming to a similar conclusion re ultrawide.

Ok, good progress today. What are thoughts on curved vs flat? Or is it just personal preference?

So the front runners are:

- Dell
- flat £310 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-4k-uhd-monitor-se3223q/apd/210-begy/monitors-monitor-accessories
- or curved £380 https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-32-curved-4k-uhd-monitor-s3221qsa/apd/210-bfvu/monitors-monitor-accessories

- Samsung
- ultrawide £300 (seems like a lot for the money, what am I missing?) Samsung LS34C500GAUXXU 34" WQHD Monitor - 3440x1440, 100Hz, VA, Displayport, HDMI, Freesync https://amzn.eu/d/76LooGX ;

- MSI
- curved £350 https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2062431

- BENQ
- flat £300 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-benq-ew3270u-4k-monitor-3840x2160-hdr-va-60hz-freesync-4ms-12m1-300cd-m-vesa-dp-hdmi-usb-type-c

- LG
- flat £350 https://www.scan.co.uk/products/315-lg-32un650p-w-uhd-monitor-ips-3840x2160-5ms-60hz-amd-freesync-10001-hdmi-dp

If I don’t care about curved, ultrawide or 32” vs 34”, which of these would you plump for? Same question if I did care about flat vs curved.

Anything else I’m missing?

Thanks again!

I prefer flat, but that is because I do video work.
I also don't like the curve of any non ultra-wide monitors, esp the Samsung Odyssey's.

4K at 32" is a tough ask in that budget if you want a good image.
IMHO panel quality is more important than anything else as you spend so much time in front of it.

Personally I'd look at a 1440p 27" for that sort of money.
I tend to use my 32" at 1440p unless I am working on 4k footage- text is easier to read.
Do you actually need 4K?

You have a mix of IPS and VA panels in that list.
I vastly prefer IPS to VA- better viewing angles.
The BenQ VA panel is a good example of a decent budget monitor that covers a lot of bases but it will not be great at an angle.
Personally I would avoid it.
I would also avoid Dell S series.
The P or U series are much better, but more money.

The LG 32UN650P is a much better monitor than the other flat monitors you listed.
I would get that out of the ones you have put.

You will get a much better panel if you look at 1440p 27" though.
LG UltraGear 27GN88A is around £400, you go down from 32" to 27" and down from UHD to QHF but what you get a is a far superior panel that is much faster.

Another £100 gets you a ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ which kicks the ass of all the monitors in your list, although it has a gamer focus.

If you absolutely have to have a 32" 4K panel then there are three I would look at.

The best value is Gigabyte M32U.
It is £700 though.
The other two cost more, which are the MSI Optix MPG321UR QD and Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 but they are both around £900.

octatonic · July 2023

Stratavarious said:

Get two 32” … the gap thing is a non-issue generally if focus is music production or video or pretty much anything else. You will barely see a media music professional using single screen. All the main software has dual screen modes.

Logic will split screen in the view menu… tracks on one, faders and Auxes on other… same with Final Cut.. etc. edit lines on one, the preview on other.

Even with Garageband, you can have Garageband on one and the amp sims and plug-ins on other.

Learning tunes… score/chords on one… YouTube or DAW on other.

Dock is 13 in 1 Mac mini dock with HD slot. I put a 2TB Samsung SSD in.. all worked plug and play from plugged in. Impressed.

I like two displays but there are ways around this.

Pro Tools has CMD= keyboard shortcut to switch between Edit and Mix
Logic is CMD1/CMD2 to bring up Main and Mix- or using screen sets.

I sometimes use an iPad as a second (or third) screen- this is handy for metering plugins.
I wouldn't use it for a mix window.

'You will barely see a media music professional using single screen'.
That is mostly a Youtube influencer thing.

I am in a lot of studios and one display is still the norm, esp if using a console where the display is usually at right angles to the console/mix position.

The reason for this is down to room acoustics, esp when forward of the studio monitors.

Habanero · August 2023

If I'm reading this right I can connect a second screen to my iMac using a Thunderbolt to HDMI cable??? I had no idea, but am off to the garage to retrieve an old 1080p screen that was waiting to go to the dump...

GoFish · August 2023

This thread has some very useful advice and information as I ponder my next (modest) display and computer. Thanks guys.

Hellsbells87 · August 2023

Yes, thanks to all contributors.

I still haven’t made a decision but it is high on the to do list, along with getting a new music desk…

Axe_meister · September 2023

Whilst ultrawide may appear ideal on paper. Most only have 1440p vertical resolution.
Now consider the physical width. You might as well get a 4k 32" monitor, which will have the same width as the ultra wide but far more vertical screen real estate. With the ultra wide I find I have to either switch between different DAW modes or throw the mixer to another screen off to the side when not in use. With a 32" I can have two modes showing on the same screen stacked. I still throw plugins off to side screens.

Hellsbells87 · September 2023

AwAxe_meister said:

Whilst ultrawide may appear ideal on paper. Most only have 1440p vertical resolution.
Now consider the physical width. You might as well get a 4k 32" monitor, which will have the same width as the ultra wide but far more vertical screen real estate. With the ultra wide I find I have to either switch between different DAW modes or throw the mixer to another screen off to the side when not in use. With a 32" I can have two modes showing on the same screen stacked. I still throw plugins off to side screens.

Awesome, thanks for the input! Makes total sense re widescreen. So this would be nudging towards two 4k 32”. Or one 32 and one smaller. Aesthetically I struggle with the idea of different sized screens. But maybe that’s silly…

Sporky · September 2023

Different screens can work well if you're building a setup based on a specific task. If its a more general purpose thing then identical gives you more options, I'd say.

digitalscream · September 2023

For what it's worth, I considered a 4k monitor for my middle/main monitor, and ditched the idea because it was far more useful to have more monitors than more content/space on my main monitor. Each time I've expanded the setup, it was for a specific need that was getting in my way when working, which naturally led to a specific choice of size and resolution.

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/b422b0b4fa3c88cebae4860541967a8ed171a6d9bc8fbcad46

(yes, I know I need to sort my blind out...yeesh, phone cameras are not kind these days)

So...four monitors might seem like overkill, but it's actually very practical. At any given point:

- Top: 15.6" 1080p, emails only
- Left: 22" 1920x1200, videos/messaging/terminal
- Right: 22" 1920x1200, browser preview or reference material when working, miscellaneous when not
- Centre: 27" 1440p, code/main browser/gaming

Two monitors feels far too claustrophobic, three is fine but I found myself constantly switching to my email window and then hunting for the one that should be there once I'm done...so I got the top one.

I've exhausted the outputs on my GPU now, but I think I could probably use the integrated GPU to get more going if I needed to. I can't see what I'd use a fifth for.

Anyway, my advice would be to figure out the most you'd need to be able to see at any one time with no window switching, and design your setup around that.

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