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Good monitors?

T

tubesycl

Dec 25, 2009
43
0
#1
Hi,
I'm soon going to be getting some monitors for recording and I made a list of some I thought might be good. I was just wondering if anybody could give me some opinions of their own about them. I'm looking for something that has good bass without having to buy a subwoofer, but not against having to add one.

1.KRK Rokit 5 or 6---Heard that these don't have good bass?
2. Ikey Audio M505 or M606
3.Yorkville ysm2p
4. Fostex
5.Mackie

Thank you guys for looking!
 
#4
Typically none have or should have "good bass" when near field monitoring. You want to hear a flat uncolored sound so you know where your mix needs more or less bass volume or EQ, That way your mix will sound great on a better quality HI-FI speaker system that is designed to enhance the bass response as well as on a car stereo or boom box.

You'll notice when you see Artists interviews in studios on TV, you almost always see a pair of Yamaha NS10MS atop mixing boards.These are cheesy bookshelf type speakers that give the most natural uncolored sound in it's class that's why it is widely used for mixing. Unfortunately Yamaha has long discontinued them and they are still in demand so they are getting pricier on the used Ebay market as they become scarcer.

Any of those mentioned above should be good. I personally use Yamaha HS10 powered monitors.These claim to be as accurate and uncolored as the NS10ms. These use a similar woofer material. I like them and get good results.

If you want good bass response on playback, get a subwoofer but mix first without in my opinion. The sub woofer will playback the lowest frequencies of what you already mixed.
 
#5
Oh interesting, I didn't know that...hmmm I'll have to read up some more. Oh, and those JBL monitors, WOW, those are scary expensive! I have heard of those yamaha monitors, but I was always a little confused on the whole Active or Passive speaker and Near fielding...but thank you guys for the help!
 
#8
fourstringburn said:
I should mention that the Yamaha NS10MS are passive monitors and require an additional power amp of 60-100 watts, So these can really get expensive when all said and done.
Click to expand...


Plus with NS10s you have to make sure you have matching serial numbers...if you want to be anal retentive. Mine are on a bryston amp...that hurt $$$

However the HS80Ms are pretty good! Kind of a diet ns10, with a little bit more lowend. Almost as detailed, but dont have that lovely mid honk that I've come to love...so essentially theyre a better sounding speaker! haha Can pick a pair up for around $350.00
 
#9
ns10s are garbage, they may be standard but they are ALWAYS the second, third, or fourth reference. Don't give yourself those as your primary.

Look for used, and look for the good ones. EDIT- just saw your price range. Save up. You cant get anything reasonable for that much. There are two routes, integrated or active monitors and separate or passive monitors. Passives can be really nice but you need to get a good amp and ensure you can interface your outputs (eg: they must be low impedance outs) to the amp inputs, and you must also get good speakers which can be rather hard to find or demo. Actives can be really nice but also expensive. They are easier to find, demo, and can be of much higher quality for the effort but are a lot more expensive. Subs are dubious in monitoring, it is extremely difficult to match it up and a good sub (with low distortion) will be at minimum twice your budget already.

First tip, of course, is that the room is FAR FAR FAR more important than the speaker. A reasonable speaker in a good room is better than an excellent speaker in a crap room.

edit2- a second tip, since you seem very interested in bass: get sealed speakers that use acoustic suspension.
 
#11
Yes NS10MS are garbage alright. Funny that many pro studios have $900,000 mixing boards and use crappy NS10MS for mixing. Yes they use others like Genelecs, etc. but there is a good reason why NS10MS are still used. For recording and mixing I believe you should not be concerned with monitors that enhance the bass response, save that for playback speakers.

A good point was made about the room acoustics, But when near-field monitoring( close up )the room acoustics doesn't apply as much as Far-field monitoring (playback). You will notice a big difference in sound or lack of as you step away from the monitors as opposed to close up when close/near field monitoring.

What does apply to the room is if one or both monitors are placed into corners or in the middle of the room as this will change the bass response. ( better quality monitors have room eq switches to compensate for this). Also where you place the monitors at or below ear level and at what direction ( angled or straight).

I would suggest some more research on this subject as well as read some more opinions on this. Be careful as these forums often lead to arguments and debates rather than advice.
 
#13
fourstringburn said:
Yes NS10MS are garbage alright. Funny that many pro studios have $900,000 mixing boards and use crappy NS10MS for mixing. Yes they use others like Genelecs, etc. but there is a good reason why NS10MS are still used. For recording and mixing I believe you should not be concerned with monitors that enhance the bass response, save that for playback speakers.

A good point was made about the room acoustics, But when near-field monitoring( close up )the room acoustics doesn't apply as much as Far-field monitoring (playback). You will notice a big difference in sound or lack of as you step away from the monitors as opposed to close up when close/near field monitoring.

What does apply to the room is if one or both monitors are placed into corners or in the middle of the room as this will change the bass response. ( better quality monitors have room eq switches to compensate for this). Also where you place the monitors at or below ear level and at what direction ( angled or straight).

I would suggest some more research on this subject as well as read some more opinions on this. Be careful as these forums often lead to arguments and debates rather than advice.
Click to expand...
ns10s represented a bygone era- they were both representative of the typical bookshelf speaker (2-way, 7"ish woofer, much like the AR-18), but they had the unique disadvantage of the nasty midrange and sharp bass fall off of all of the bad clones from those decades. To mix on the NS10 is to make the mix easier to listen to since it forces you to "do the bose" 2k dip and it also forces you to boost the bass for people who dont have woofers. Its totally bad but it reminds people to do certain things for people with speakers that don't play like the studio monitors. IMHO the NS10 should be replaced with a laptop speaker :crying:
 
#14
speakers are speakers. Typically near-field are the close up monitors and the "playback" far-fields are stationary and full range. The idea for both is to be able to hear best and worst case scenarios. Far-field has a lot more to do with the room and will usually reproduce more and bigger bass while near-field sacrifices some of that for its clarity and performance in the room. There are lots and lots of reasons that overlap or are different for each situation but thats the gist of it.
 
#17
NS10 are mostly used to represent your mother/neighboor/sister home sound system as a 3rd or fourth reference. To check how your mix translate in a "normal" sound system after mixing it on a "mucho pesos" kit.

I wouldn't mix a on that.....


Auratones are also used in Millions dollar studios too , you know....
 
#18
NS10's DO sound harsh as hell, and are probably not so good to have as your only speakers to work on I think they are a little more special than suggested in this thread.

They are not considered SIMPLY a parrallel to home hifi speakers, at least not here in the uk, they do have a steep bass roll off but they also have a much lower latency in the bass compared to monitors costing many many times more. So they are not bassy but they are very acurate down there! There mid presence also serves to accentuate a potentially critical area of the mix, ie right there in the 2k area. It doesn't simply invite you to turn down that area, it forces you to mix VERY carefully there and if you get that area of a mix nailed then you are well on your way to a good mix.

For that reason (the midrange peak) they are also VERY good for balancing on, everything has a tendancy to overlap nastilly (lit. :) )very quickly and its easy (once you get used to them) to put things in place balance wise.

They are certainly a 3rd or 4th choice for bringing up good sounds, stereo field stuff and long listening sessions etc. But they are a valuable speaker to have around still today and to dismiss them is a mistake! I have worked with some top, young (as in not the old hacks stuck in the 80's :) ) engineers and producers producing some stunning, very modern sounding recordings. They all have there favourite posh near or mid fields, but almost without fail half of every session is spent on the ns10s! were talking the sort of people who go into the tinyest detail about recordings, the sort of people who will halt a session to order a different wordclock for the studio or take mics apart to find exactly where the capsule is so they can measure capsule to capsule perfectly! (silly, I know :), its happened... ) but yet they are fine with the humble ns10s on top of the desk!

To the OP I second all the advice about looking at your room very critically as well. Even near fields will interact with the room a lot and you can easily make super pricey monitors sound awful with bad acoustics. I used to do some fly-engineer work at a little community studio, there monitors cost £1500 EACH, but the room was completely untreated, it was almost impossible to work in there!

I would be very interested in some sort of 'everymans' laptop speaker monitors though, sounds like a good idea!
 

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