Yamaha HS50M upgrade assistance.

[Boy_Narf]

Hello Everyone!

I've been running a pair of Yamaha HS50's for quite a few years now. They sound fine, but as we all know the low end is cut off pretty high. Now I'm currently in a small room, but we are moving to a new place next month and the room is somewhere around 12X12. I intend to make some DIY traps and wall panels once I find the time but it will be closer to the end of the year/early 2019, so please keep that in mind. I went to L&M the other day to do a monitor shoot out. Of course they don't have the HS50's for testing, but they did have the newer HS5, so I did all of my comparisons against that. I'll keep this short and say that my favourites were the Focal Alpha 50's, and the Yorkville YSM8 (quite uprising actually, very impressive for the price, but I feel the low end is boarding on hyped Will have to give them another listen next time I'm in. I actually preferred these to the HS8 which I thought I would love but didn't).

So my question to you folks is, what should I do here? The Alpha 50's sound MUCH fuller in the low end, and when I ran a sweep test they kicked in just after 40hz, where the HS5, kicked in around 55hz. I will get some additional low end, but not sure if it's worth the price for such a small improvement. The Alphas did sound a touch scooped compared to the HS5 as well, but the Yammies are known for a forward mid range so I'm not sure if the Alphas are scooped, or the HS5, is boosted.

Would it be smarter to move up to something larger? Or stick with a smaller driver for my small office/diy dampening? They didn't have 65 or 80 on the floor so I wasn't able to test them out.

Hoping someone who might have been in a similar situation to me can provide some insight or advice.

Thanks,

P.S. I had the Yamaha sub for a while but found it to difficult to balance and mix with. I want to avoid the sub route for now. I mix post rock and garage rock mainly, so I don't need EDM levels of bass response. Just something that has a bit more low end range and clarity than the HS50M.

 

[silky smoove]

If you're not doing anything that needs gobs of low end I'd stick with what you've got and focus on room treatments for the time being. You can always change out monitors later, but the room treatments will benefit any set of speakers you have. I definitely wouldn't change anything before moving into your new space to reassess how things sound there.

 

[Boy_Narf]

Yes from what I understand room treatments will make everything more balanced, but it will not allows the HS50's to play lower notes than they were designed for. To be clear I do not have issues with boomy/flubby/non precise bass. The issue is these monitors don't produce much under 250hz.

To be clear, I'm looking for more low end extension, not louder bass. I don't need the windows rattling, I want to be able to hear more low end content. This is why I was looking at monitors with smaller drivers, but with a lower low frequency cut off.

 

[silky smoove]

but it will not allows the HS50's to play lower notes than they were designed for

No, but untreated rooms often have cancellation notches that can be 1/3 to 1/2 an octave wide in some cases. Add modal problems from rooms with easily divisible dimensions (your upcoming 12x12 room, especially if it has 8' ceilings will be especially problematic from a room modes perspective) and you might have so much cancellation going on that even speakers with lower usable frequency ranges won't make a difference. Treat the room first, then upgrade your speakers. Treatments aren't as sexy or fun as speakers, but in the vast majority of cases where I help someone setup a new studio space it is absolutely what's needed.

 

[Boy_Narf]

Indeed if you are listening to speakers at medium to high volumes then yes, the room makes a huge difference. But what about proper near field monitoring, at low volumes? The room won't have a huge impact will it? I'm not blasting these things while I'm mixing. they are about 2 feet from my ears set up as triangular as possible with my head and the volume is low as my interface will allow before it cuts out.

It will be an interesting experiment to see how much difference the treatment makes.

 

[silky smoove]

Even at low volumes it’s a big deal. You’re correct in that the issues are mitigated to some degree at lower volumes, but if you can hear the speakers at the reflection points they’ll be causing trouble (potentially) in an untreated space.

As to your original question: I’ve been very impressed with the Focals for the money. My favorite budget friendly monitor is the JBL LSR305. They frequently outperform substantially more expensive monitors. I’m a user and fan of Adam monitors. They have a newer TV line that’s marketed as being a budget friendly entry into their lineup. I’ve not tried them, but am a big fan of their work, so I suspect they’ll be great.