How to choose monitors?

[picato]

What should you take into concern when buying studio monitors? I understand that a pair of Mackie:s for about 2000 USD don't sound like crap. But in general, what size on the elements, what frequency range etc. It's so much more fun spending your money on synths than on monitors, so I don't want to spend a fortune. :?

[Tomer=Trance]

yeah range should be as wide as possible and as flat as possible
the elements size should be picked acording to your room size
you can take a 8.5` on a very small room
for that you have 5 and 6.5 near field monitors
hope i helped
and one other thing,the most importent is that you like how they sound or alse whats the point in music :wink:
you can pick up a nice active pair for around 400-800 $ new

[picato]

you can pick up a nice active pair for around 400-800 $ new

I live in sweden so I doubt that. Here everything seemes to cost a fortune...

My music room is very big, about 30 square meters actually. But small monitors would fit better on my desk actually, but is that a bad choice according to the size of the room. I sit pretty close to the monitors though, or doesn't that make a sense?

Thanks for the advice so far! :D

[Hollowcell]

my only advice with monitors is read everything you can on the pros and cons, then go and listen for your-self.

everyone has different opinions regarding monitors, so its really hard to say whats best for someone.

take some CDs of your favorite bands and also some of your own tracks (specially your own tracks that you know where the problems are when played on other systems. eg; too much bass/high end ect...) if you can hear the faults you already know about clearly, then lean towards those speakers.

good luck with the choices!

[Tomer=Trance]

I live in sweden so I doubt that. Here everything seemes to cost a fortune...
here in israel the situation is the same 80-120 % more expensive then in germany for say "the land of the cheap music gear" :) so im bringing mine from there you should find out how tax you need to pay if you will order them from there you can save alot of money.

My music room is very big, about 30 square meters actually. But small monitors would fit better on my desk actually, but is that a bad choice according to the size of the room. I sit pretty close to the monitors though, or doesn't that make a sense?

Thanks for the advice so far! :D

well if you sit close to them you need to change that
move the table to the wider wall of the room and take it 0.5-1 meter from it put it almost in the center of the room if you can
and then you need to place yourself in an equale triangle with them
when the monitors are about 0.5 meter away from each other
and you sit 1 meter from them
its hard to get that from a small desk so you'l maybe need to buy some stands or make them your own shouldnt be hard...
hope i helped that just some of the stuff i grabed from forum and friends.

Tomer Iserovitch.

[picato]

Thanks for the advice!

I've just bought the studiophile BX5. I've got both for the price of one, and the problem with my music isn't mixing so they are enough to me.

[flexoffset]

I've been mixing on headphones for so long. I've had to move my studio temporarily to another part of my home while I get my office building fixed up. Since my room isn't next to my daughter's room, I can now use REAL monitors and not headphones.

So, I finally bit the bullet and bought some monitors for myself. I picked up a pair of ADAM S3A active monitors.

I have worked with these monitors before and they translate to many different listening environments quite well. If you can get it to sound good on the ADAMs then it's gonna sound good just about anywhere.

http://www.adam-audio.com

They'll be here in about a week or two.
I feel that monitors are very important but I'd rather have spent the money on some good synths and stuff, too. Oh well. I'm broke now so that does it for spending.

[Tomer=Trance]

arent the adams very expensive?
about 1500+ ?
im looking now and its just a center speaker isnt it?
or how does it work?
you buy a pair?

[flexoffset]

They're about $2450(USD) each.
Yes. I bought a pair. The way I did it was this...
I was intending only to buy one for now, then buy the other one later.
They make a left and a right model. They're called 'A' and 'B'.
They can be oriented in either vertical or horizontal fashion. The ports need to be facing 'in' when vertical, and the sub needs to be on bottom.
I think the low-freq. woofer is supposed to be facing in when they're sitting horizontal.

The store I bought them allowed me to pay 25% down to lay away the second one, then when I get my money in, I'll be able to bring the second monitor in.

It's an expensive proposition, for sure. It's well worth it. Please don't take my word on monitor quality. It's always something that has to work for your studio and environment. Many people say the bass response is different, and it is. It's very very very very tight and you don't get the (erroneous) harmonics that make the bass sound meaty. It doesn't hinder you from eq'ing correctly, though. You don't have to 'learn' these monitors.

In commercial CD's you are able to hear where vocals were spliced, and it's certainly not a monitor to use as a home theatre where you want everything to sound good. You can easily hear the compressors kick in and stuff like that. The speakers are very brutally honest and quite a few commercially-released CD's will probably not sound too good on them. But they're among the best translating nearfield /midfield speakers on the planet.

It has two woofers and a ribbon tweeter. One woofer doesn't activate till 150Hz. They can be used in a surround setup. The setup I tested on was surround. He had 5 ADAM S3A, and an M&K sub.

[Tomer=Trance]

yeah of course you need a good monitoring system but why not mackie or geneltec ? im just seing because i never listened to such a high end monitors before so i dont know how big is the difference between the 1000-2000 dollars more difference
anyway a three way monitor is just amazing congrax on your purcush!

[flexoffset]

Nothing really wrong with any of them. If they work for the studio, then that's all that matters.
I liked the S3A's better for my situation.

For reasons beyond my control, I didn't spend as much time with the other models as I did with the ADAMs.

The ADAMs weren't jsut perfect either (equal opportunity curmudgeon mode) :)
If you play the ADAMs right after the Mackies or something like that, you'll say 'Where did the bass go?' Sooner or later you'll hear it but it will be tight and it will sound good ... real good. I don't think I would buy these if you play a lot of booming rap music (of course they have a Subwoofer for sale, too).

Thes S3A just worked best for me in my situation.

FWIW, my brother in law has some Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 6 speakers and on closer inspection, I discovered I don't particularly care for how they sound....and they cost something like $22,000. The tweeters are the most tiring to listen to that I have ever heard. The mid range is over-hyped, too.

It's fun to bring mixes over to his house and listen to them, though!!!!

[Tomer=Trance]

hehe thats expensive
i dont know that model
is that for home teater systems?
im still in search of the perfect monitor for my budget :)
having second thoughts with the event tr6 or the alesis m1 or maybe the m audio bx5
anyway got to think about it some more

[flexoffset]

Yes. They're home theater speakers. The brand actually got their start sitting on top of a recording console. The web site is either 'wilsonaudio.com' or 'wilson-audio.com' can't remember.

I went $4,000 over budget on the S3A's. I have a very tiny ad agency on the side that I work about 18 hours a day when I'm not doing music of printing. Any time I buy something, there's been a LOT of sweat to put the money in the bank. I don't have a lot of money but what I do make usually goes to feed the kids, put gas in the car, and then to AUDIO GEAR!!!!!!

I'm sure all of you know what I mean.

[nrgy]

anyway got to think about it some more

don't think...buy :lol:
my motto 8)

[Hollowcell]

I'm sure all of you know what I mean.

definitely!

i just wish my wife felt the same the way! :)

my motto is quite similar to nrgys, but i try to think a little before hand (not too much though!)

[flexoffset]

just wish my wife felt the same the way!
I'm hoping my wife won't notice them. 8O
Even though I'm not touching her side of the money, she'll kill me if she ever finds out how much these things cost.

This will definitely be the biggest thing I've pulled off so far.
Wish me luck.

[Hollowcell]

hehe,

good luck!

so how much did you spend on those speakers anyway?

[flexoffset]

how much did you spend on those speakers...

Two monitors were $4800 or 4900 (USD) plus about $150 shipping via UPS Ground. I usually let Nathan at Atlas Pro Audio handle all the details. He is who I buy all my stuff from.

I don't know about sales tax, but I don't think I had to pay any since it was an out-of-state purchase.

[Hollowcell]

whoa, thats a fair bit of cash!

i read the site you posted though and they do seem quite high tech.

happy with them?

[flexoffset]

happy with them?
Sorry it took so long to get back to answer you.
I've been able to skim around here for a few days, but now I have a bit more time to actually post something.

I will know tomorrow evening after UPS gets here.

I ordered some Canary non-star-quad cables with the thickest copper they had and asked for foil shielding, but they sent Canary starquad cables with standard gauge copper and normal-looking shielding. I'm a little worried I'm gonna lose a bit of high end and get bloated mid-bass and I will ultimtely have to change out to non-star-quad. It's sort of my fault that the order got screwed up but that's ok. The cables weren't expensive for the quality I got.

I have some 3/8" neoprene pads coming in to help decouple the monitors from my desk. I only paid $5 for a 12"x12" sheet. Compare that to paying $30 for the MoPads from Auralex.

...now to work hard and save up for an M&K bass management system and an M&K sub.

If for some reason you don't hear from me on Saturday, it's because my wife has probably killed me. :)

[Tomer=Trance]

:)
how low do they go that you want to get a sub to cover the whole lower sonic range?

[flexoffset]

how long do they get that you want to get a sub to cover the whole lower sonic range?
I'm looking at a sub more or less for visitor-shock-value. These ADAMs have such tight bass that it will probably not impress visitors (I'm breaking into advertising/corporate presentations).
I figure a sub can 'help' out in order to 'show off' the presentations if I have a bit deeper low end. The ADAMs get plenty low, it's such an extremely accurate low with no added harmonics that it takes a bit of acclimation.

Of course, this may change once I get them set up in their final resting place. I'm out of money right now, so it will be a while.
The group I tested in was a 5.1 setup and had a sub (M&K 5420 ?) underneath the mixer and it kinda filled out the deep bottom ... probably even over-hyped it just a touch.

The S3A supposedly go down to 35Hz but I begin rolling everything off at 40Hz around 6dB to 12dB anyway. I'd like the sub to kind of lightly 'feather in' at the bottom range and when I have visitors, I'll crank it to taste to impress. :)

Sometimes I just like to crank stuff and feel the earth shake under me (in a non-earthquake way). :D