Studio Monitors

RSVampire · #1 04-24-2003, 02:24 AM

Anybody know any good studio monitors for my room/studio? I heard a pair of Event's those sounded great! anybody know anything for a price of like 500 bus a pair that's really good quality? Also, what's the difference between powered monitors and passive monitors? anything tonally different? or could I just buy a nice home theater reciever and hook it up to the monitors? or should I just buy a reference power amp?

Harry_D · #2 04-24-2003, 03:41 AM

I've just bought two Tannoy Reveal active monitors. They are great! My first idea was to buy the passive versions, in combination with an amp, but to make them sound as good as the active one's I had to buy a pretty expensive amp, so getting the Active reveal's was the best choice.

Harry.

JESTER700 · #3 04-24-2003, 08:44 AM

The best answer is to go listen with material you're familiar with. A bonus would be if you could try them in your room. I like JBL S38s for $300/pr. Events are good, too, as are Tannoys. There's a ton of good models out there from "monitors" to "good home speakers that just happen to make great monitors" like B&W 600 series and NHT SuperOnes.

Actives have an advantage, but not so much in small room low volume environments. I just use a cheap 100w stereo receiver.

LGMT · #4 04-24-2003, 11:15 AM

I´m using a old pair of Yamaha NS-10 with Haffler power amps and a pair of JBL 4412A (but they are big 12" - 3 way) with Haffler and a 30 bands EQ Ashly. Sounds really good.

JESTER700 · #5 04-24-2003, 02:06 PM

Hate the NS-10s. LOVE the 4412s! My fave speaker in our home audio department was JBL's L100. It had the same drivers as the 4412, but in a home cabinet.

Soup Kitchen Studios · #6 04-24-2003, 02:40 PM

I have NHT PRO A-10 monitors which are passive speakers but come bundled with a matching power amp. Great set of monitors. They were on blowout for unreal prices at one of the major online shops a while ago, you could check and see if they have any left if you're interested.

Doink · #7 05-28-2003, 12:34 AM

Though I'm probably too late on this, I'd like to mention that I love the Event 20/20. Other favorites include the Tannoy System 800 and Yamaha MSP-10. But the Event's are way cheaper.

You want to get a real power amp. Those home stereo receivers really color the sound, and you end up with a really inaccurate picture of what's going on. Look for a used Crown on eBay.

LGMT, you don't run that Ashley graph inline with the monitors, do you? This also colors the sound. Lets say for instance you have problem frequencies at 180 and 230. You're going to need to cut 160, 200, and 250, which not only takes care of the problem frequencies, but leaves a big hole starting at around 120, and ending at around 300, thus negating having flat response monitors to begin with. You're also dealing with a lot of phase problems by using the EQ.

JESTER700 · #8 05-28-2003, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doink

Though I'm probably too late on this, I'd like to mention that I love the Event 20/20. Other favorites include the Tannoy System 800 and Yamaha MSP-10. But the Event's are way cheaper.

You want to get a real power amp. Those home stereo receivers really color the sound, and you end up with a really inaccurate picture of what's going on. Look for a used Crown on eBay.

I agree with the Events at their price, and Tannoys are almost always a safe bet.

But no, home receivers do not color the sound much, if at all (provided you can switch out any included EQ/DSP stuff). Under clipping, amps are an order of magnitude cleaner than any transducer (that's "speakers" to normal people). In an easy to drive situation (meaning low volume home studio with typical 8 ohm speakers) cheapo solid state amps are fine. At this level, spend your money on the speakers for greatest effect.

If you want to push some volume, or are going to spend upwards of a grand on speakers, then better amplification comes into play.

There's a lot of industry brouhaha over amps, but REAL tests (double blind ones) have shown amps to be very similar or indistinguishable. As in, golden ears couldn't tell the difference between a 40W Pioneer receiver and a pair of $5000 Julius Futterman monoblocks.

Personally, I'd find the cheapest 100W receiver using discrete output components (no IC stuck to a heatsink) and spend my money on the speakers. When you move up to the kilobuck range you can buy a nice Hafler or something.

welshpete · #9 05-28-2003, 09:32 AM

It depends to an extent on what you are looking for. If you are looking to make commercial recording having flattering monitors isn't necessarily the best idea.

That's why EVERY studio has a pair of NS10's. They are brutally un-flattering. If it sounds good on NS10's it sounds good pretty much anywhere.

The tannoy reveals and Spirt Absolutes are both good if it is for your own benefit - they sond great but are still pretty realistic. And for the money you can't go far wrong.

The Studio I work has a pair of NS10's ; A pair of Tannoy SRM15's (huge, expensive, but sound great) and a pair of terrible little home speakers...

$0.02

Pete

LGMT · #10 05-28-2003, 09:56 AM

Quote:

LGMT, you don't run that Ashley graph inline with the monitors, do you? This also colors the sound. Lets say for instance you have problem frequencies at 180 and 230. You're going to need to cut 160, 200, and 250, which not only takes care of the problem frequencies, but leaves a big hole starting at around 120, and ending at around 300, thus negating having flat response monitors to begin with. You're also dealing with a lot of phase problems by using the EQ.

I'm using in line just to do it. Thats the idea. Cuz i record on NS-10, and when a client come to listen something, they usually like a lot of punch and colors, so we got an option. But you can insert the EQ too via patch.

jay ratkowski · #11 05-28-2003, 05:31 PM

I've had a pair of Event PS6's in my recording area for a good 4 years probably. They've been rock solid the whole time. For the money, you really can't go wrong.

Whenever I record, I also like to do playback on my crappy Altec Lansing PC speakers w/ matching sub. They don't sound horrible, but they do sound like crappy PC speakers, which is good for checking your mix.

I also like to burn a quick CD and pop it in my car stereo. That's probably best sound quality of any setup I have, play a recording I made vs a few different commercial CDs (something very uncompressed and maybe a very hot recording and something inbetween).

That's all if you have the time. I like to do that stuff now, but for years I was just too lazy.