Speakers/monitors

[MadKaw]

I've been pondering how to go about building a sound system for my studio. I already have a good stereo, but it is way too big for the studio... the main speakers are 2x15"...
But I've got some spare equipment laying about. I'm thinking of running the output from my DAW into a receiver and to a pair of 10" 3-way speakers. Obviously takes more room than a pair of powered monitors, but I can't think of any other downsides.
Any of you have experience comparing the use of stereo equipment to studio monitors?

 

[oneforsorrow]

My wife came to the marriage with a pair of Roger's speakers that are quite tasteful. I ran a line out into her reciever/amplifier (Luxman R-113) and set up my Apollo to switch between two main outs -- one being the Roger's rig and the other being the powered ADAM A7's I had at the mix desk. I never felt better informed by the Roger speakers. I love listening to them but I didn't gain any insight. Oddly enough, I find our Bose Soundlink more useful to monitor mixes as I believe it to be more widely used by casual listeners. I now check my mixes outside of the studio by listening to the car audio, the Bose Soundlink, and a pair of Beats Flex earbuds.

That's my $.02.

 

[Waxhead]

I've been pondering how to go about building a sound system for my studio. I already have a good stereo, but it is way too big for the studio... the main speakers are 2x15"...
But I've got some spare equipment laying about. I'm thinking of running the output from my DAW into a receiver and to a pair of 10" 3-way speakers. Obviously takes more room than a pair of powered monitors, but I can't think of any other downsides.
Any of you have experience comparing the use of stereo equipment to studio monitors?

Are you just talking of using monitors for listening, mixing and mastering of recordings ?

If so, you don't need expensive speaker monitors to do a high quality job of this. High quality headphones are plenty good enough for playback, mixing and mastering of recordings imo.

I've been using headphones for 10 years with good results.
I then check the mastered recording by playing back through just an ok quality monitor (a Roland Cube Street EX). And i've never had to re-mix using this method.

Plenty of pro production engineers use the same method.
Save your money

 

[wabash slim]

Use the pair of 10" 3-ways that you already have for now. They'll be fine.
Switch off between that and some good earphones---Sony MDR-V6 are industry standards. Avoid using them constantly. Ear fatigue from phones or ear buds is an issue.
Smaller high quality speakers work well as you're sitting close to them in a studio situation. Add a sub if need be.
Devo used to use a pair of 4" automotive speakers as well since many people listen to a lot of music in their cars. Makes sense to me.
Near-field speakers are what you really want, if possible. Many speakers are meant to be used at a distance---to fill a room with sound. Nearfield speakers are usually smaller, as you're sitting quite close to them. Phase alignment between tweeter and woofer is important in these.

 

[Gretschzilla]

I have a pair of Canton Ergo 80 floor speakers; run them with a decent 500W Yamaha amp. The Cantons sound amazing after 30 years. However, they are not good for mixing, as there's some wizardry in the cross-over circuits that boost the bass and dampen the mid range.

So, I went with a pair of powered ADAM Audio T5V 5-inch powered studio monitors for mixing. They are perfect. Flat response. I am new to recording and mixing; my first song is coming along well and the ADAMs are a big reason why. Even though they are made for mixing, they sound great when I just want to jam to some music and crank 'em up.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I think generally you can make most things work as long as you're checking your mixes against a range of other playback devices. After a while you'll get to learn how things need to sound on your primary monitoring setup for the mix & sounds to translate across most speakers/headphones at different volumes.

Personally I've found it easiest to work primarily w/ a set of smaller near fields (for me right now it's the Genelec 1030s I've had since the '90s or a set of Adam Audio T5Vs) & a set of headphones (either Sony MD7506 or Beyer DT770 Pro) that don't fatigue my ears than larger speakers except for brief reference checks, but it really comes down to learning how whatever you're using for monitoring differs from every other kind of speakers/amps that your mix might get played on & getting to the spot where your ears are trained to hit the middle ground where it sounds good on most of them.

 

[hcsterg]

Any of you have experience comparing the use of stereo equipment to studio monitors?

I would say that I did the opposite approach, in a way...

I called mine (DIY) "Vintage Studio Monitor 375L" (3-ways / 75L), in which I use BEYMA Speakers (12B100R / 8M60N / CP21F) installed in a 750x420x360mm glulam Beechwood Bass-Reflex cab :

The crossovers have still to be installed inside the cabs...

And so, I don't use them for studio applications, but for Hi-Fi, at rather a Studio quasi-nearfield listening distance of 2.5m, though...

A+!

 

[Waxhead]

I've found this guy Edward Smith to be very good and trustworthy.

In 1st video I bought his recommended Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones.
Excellent for mixing, mastering & playback.
Expensive studio monitor speakers are just not necessary imo

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He also has many good vidoes on studio monitors, including this one.
He stresses using room audio treatments, and considering room sizes and shapes also, but with headphones you can forget these variables.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[wabash slim]

I have a pair of Canton Ergo 80 floor speakers; run them with a decent 500W Yamaha amp. The Cantons sound amazing after 30 years. However, they are not good for mixing, as there's some wizardry in the cross-over circuits that boost the bass and dampen the mid range.

So, I went with a pair of powered ADAM Audio T5V 5-inch powered studio monitors for mixing. They are perfect. Flat response. I am new to recording and mixing; my first song is coming along well and the ADAMs are a big reason why. Even though they are made for mixing, they sound great when I just want to jam to some music and crank 'em up.

I use a 15WRMS/channel tube amp with my Klipsch Cornwalls, and it's too loud at 5. They're a bit too large to use for mixing. For the rare times that I need to mix anymore, an old pair of Minimus 7 speakers from Radio Shack do just fine. 4" LF and a dome tweeter---probably the best speakers RS ever sold. They're a lot like Rogers LS3/5A monitor speakers.

 

[Gretschzilla]

I use a 15WRMS/channel tube amp with my Klipsch Cornwalls, and it's too loud at 5. They're a bit too large to use for mixing. For the rare times that I need to mix anymore, an old pair of Minimus 7 speakers from Radio Shack do just fine. 4" LF and a dome tweeter---probably the best speakers RS ever sold. They're a lot like Rogers LS3/5A monitor speakers.

A sound engineer I know uses the same Radio Shack speakers for mixing. He's had them for 25 years. It's been fun tweaking the mix and then listening to it on different systems. I have a hk blue tooth speaker in the kitchen; it's one of those dinner plate-sized ones that has a decent low end for a blue tooth. Then I use my car stereo as well as the home stereo with the Cantons. It's interesting how tweaks in the mix play out in different systems. I'm coming to appreciate the many many sound production tools in Logic Pro. I figure I have crawled up the learning curve and now know about 2% of what I need to know. Onward!

 

[MadKaw]

Love all the advice... thanks, guys.
On headphones: I have a decent pair that I found with the help of the techs at Sweetwater. I have rather large ears, and over ear headphones tend to be on ear... not comfortable. I got a pair of DirectSound phones. Good sound (a little base heavy) and giant ear cups. It is surprisingly hard to get the inside dimensions of the ear cups. If you have large ears, I recommend the DirectSound EX-29

 

[wabash slim]

Love all the advice... thanks, guys.
On headphones: I have a decent pair that I found with the help of the techs at Sweetwater. I have rather large ears, and over ear headphones tend to be on ear... not comfortable. I got a pair of DirectSound phones. Good sound (a little base heavy) and giant ear cups. It is surprisingly hard to get the inside dimensions of the ear cups. If you have large ears, I recommend the DirectSound EX-29

There are the phones with open cell foam ear pads. Problem is that they don't isolate you from outside sounds. On the positive side, they allow you to hear sounds around you as well as the music. Safer when out in the world. Easier on the eardrums, too, as you can vary the SPL hitting your ears.

 

[MadKaw]

There are the phones with open cell foam ear pads. Problem is that they don't isolate you from outside sounds. On the positive side, they allow you to hear sounds around you as well as the music. Safer when out in the world. Easier on the eardrums, too, as you can vary the SPL hitting your ears.

I have a box o' headphones including buds, open-back, on-ear, and probably any other form you can name (if not, I could probably be talked into trying them), but with dogs and a wife around, I find the noise-isolation from a good pair of over-ear phones useful. Just took me a while to find a pair I could wear for hours at a time.
When I was talking to the tech-guy at DirectSound, he said that only one other individual had ever come to him with bigger ears than mine. He was the sound man for (and relative of) one of the biggest names in country music. So I'm in good company.

 

[hcsterg]

Aw, sorry : I did not understood that it was about headphone monitors, in fact...

I have a Sennheiser closed headphone - excellent sound - but I very barely use it !

A+!

 

[wabash slim]

Aw, sorry : I did not understood that it was about headphone monitors, in fact...

I have a Sennheiser closed headphone - excellent sound - but I very barely use it !

A+!

Monitors in general, both headphones and speakers. Just giving him a range of choices.

 

[pmac11]

I use a good set of open back headphones, and a single Kali LP6. The headphones are for the stereo field, the Kali in mono is for judging the balance of the overall mix. Then a final check in the car. You could easily use your receiver and one of your 10" 3way speakers to replicate that.