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Fav Studio Nearfield Monitors???

jokerjkny

jokerjkny

Jan 19, 2002
13,427
54
NY / NJ / PHL
www.instagram.com
#1
hey all,

its time once again to beat a familiar topic to death. and while i did a few searches in the archive, i'm thinking it'd be nice to see how you guys are doing "longterm" with your fav monitors.

also, FWIW, i'm looking for a new setup myself. been using a cheapie pair of M-Audio's i got in a trade, and while they've been strangely pretty good, i've eyeing a pair of Adam ANF10's or Mackie 624's for my small, and cramped desktop.

at any rate, what's been working for you these days? and if you own more than one set, what other set of monitors do you use with your mains?
 
#2
i've bought a pair of adam ANF-10 and i'm pretty happy with them.
they have a slight mid bump but i think they're as good as you can get for that kind of money (paid about $500 for a pair). great imaging.

within the "desktop price range" you'll have to make some compromises, of course, so it might be kind of choosing "the lesser evil". ;)
 
#4
There are two camps with this that I know of: "good sounding" nearfields, and "bad sounding" nearfields. You can get a really full sounding pair of nearfields and they are not as fatiguing to mix on, or you can get something like NS10s and have the useful frequencies laid bare but they don't really sound great. In fact they sound bloody awful. But no matter what you pick you will end up learning to translate between the sound of your monitors and the "real world" sound. I like to think of the monitors as an inspection device, not as a listening device.

I've been using a set of Tannoy Reveals for a long time and am used to them. I hear what I need to hear and move on. But I don't try to get the track sounding great through them. I get the balance right and then take my mix to a few home systems, my car, my ipod... and make a list of what I'd like to change.

More of a rant than a recommendation. Sorry.
 
#6
BSR6P-Bob said:
Most importantly they don't seem to fatigue the ears like my old NS-10's so they're more bearable for long mixing sessions.
Click to expand...

Yep they're raspy little buggers aren't they. Every studio under the sun had them, so everyone was expected to use them. The trouble is, they weren't even designed to be studio monitors. The original design brief for the NS10 was as a TV speaker. I kid you not. Yamaha then gave them away to all the major studios and before long, people were saying "all the big studio's use them and so will I".

The first time I heard them in action was at a small studio and the speaker builder in me was busting to open it up and attenuate the tweeter, or maybe ad a notch filter to get rid of the harshness. But to suggest such a thing was met with death stares and cries of "but all the big studio's use them".

Back on track - I've always said the best monitors are the ones with which your ears are intimately familiar. If that happens to be my home-made 4" + tweet speakers with a seperate 2x10 sub, then so be it. I pull better mixes on this than I ever could with NS10's.
 
#8
BSR6P-Bob said:
Most importantly they don't seem to fatigue the ears like my old NS-10's so they're more bearable for long mixing sessions.
Click to expand...

That's when the old 'tissue over the tweeeets' comes into play :D

I've been using a pair of Alesis Monitor Ones for about 5 years or so with good luck. Like any set of monitors, you have to learn how they sound in your room and make adjustments from there. The monitor ones are ported in the rear so they seem to work best if you put some space between them and the wall behind them.

One of my buddies just picked up a pair of Mackie HR824s. They carry a heavier price tag than a lot of things on the market, but boy do they sound good.
 
#9
Petebass said:
Yep they're raspy little buggers aren't they. Every studio under the sun had them, so everyone was expected to use them. The trouble is, they weren't even designed to be studio monitors. The original design brief for the NS10 was as a TV speaker. I kid you not. Yamaha then gave them away to all the major studios and before long, people were saying "all the big studio's use them and so will I".

The first time I heard them in action was at a small studio and the speaker builder in me was busting to open it up and attenuate the tweeter, or maybe ad a notch filter to get rid of the harshness. But to suggest such a thing was met with death stares and cries of "but all the big studio's use them".
Click to expand...

The entire NS10 story is so funny it's sad. Everyone had 'em, but everyone hated 'em.
 
#11
Klein+Hummel O-198 3-way actives No longer made the newer model is called O-300D had mine for over 5 years, I'll take these to the grave with me, I tried everything in the $1000 - $5000 range and nothing comes even close in accuracy. It took me more the a two months to convince the guy to sell it. After he finally caved in, I found out he only sold it because he bought some farfield Quested from Boyz II Men studio.

About the Adam monitors you really must listed to get an idea of the ribbon tweeter sound. You either love it or hate it. ANF10 is passive model so you'll need an amp. I would recommend a Sequerra 7.7 these are like NS-10 very honest without the fatigue factor.

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Cheers
 
#19
My ears are accustomed to NS10's and yes, Petebass has the correct info about the original design for NS10's; they were not really made for studio use but quickly became the standard and many old timers such as myself have become very familiar with their sound, therefore we can trust our ears in any situation using NS10's.

I also use a set of aurotones, they give me an idea what my mixes will sound like for TV productions.
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#20
I really like the Mackie 828's, pretty affordable, comparably, and give an acurate sound.

Also the M-audio BX8's are great for the money. I use them daily and although I have a pair of 7506 for reference I find them pretty good to mix on.
 

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