Bass friendly studio monitors?

[molan]

I'm about to set up a small music room at home and I'm about to start trawling around for a pair of decent quality studio monitors. Biggest issue for me with small monitors is the old trade off between size and decent bass response - especially as they'd need to be right up against a back wall (maybe wall mounted).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

I did spot that Eden make studio monitors so thought these might be a good shout given that they are made by a "proper" bass specialist?

[CHRISDABASS]

hi

i use Event TR8XL's (they are active)

150 watts each, they are bi amp'd between the 8 inch speaker and the tweeter, they have great bass response and they are designed to go up against a wall as they are ported only at the front!



i think the event range has been updated since i bought mine about 5 years ago but im sure there will be something similar!

[charic]

If theres a digital village anywhere near you theyll let you test them out. Thats what i did... My HS50M's are great for bass in opinion, or if u want a lil more the Yamaha HS80M's are the same series

Budget would help

If none, genelec all the way

[alexclaber]

Tascam VL-X5 are very very good for the money. Plenty of bass extension due to their larger than typical internal volume.

Alex

[molan]

[quote name='charic' post='171066' date='Apr 6 2008, 11:20 PM']If theres a digital village anywhere near you theyll let you test them out. Thats what i did... My HS50M's are great for bass in opinion, or if u want a lil more the Yamaha HS80M's are the same series

Budget would help

If none, genelec all the way[/quote]

haven't really set a budget but have a pair of hi-fi speakers up for sale on the dreaded EBay and hoping to get about £600 for them. Should be able to justify this amount as a "straight swap" with the wife

[charic]

The HS-50m is the modern re-attempt at the NS-10's which funnily enough were taken off the market because if you ATE one it was carcagenic (or however its spelt... might give you cancer apparently).

For mixing i use my HS-50m's
PC monitors
In ear headphons
A car lol

If it sounds good on all... you win

[ShergoldSnickers]

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='171261' date='Apr 7 2008, 11:24 AM']Auratones (fullrange single speakers) were common when people still had transistor radios or mono boomboxes, and later the NS10 became popular as a representation of a bookshelf speaker...[/quote]
I remember those – Auratones... terrible things in terms of accuracy but they did sound surprisingly 'musical'. Never got on with the Yams, just awful.

I think the idea of monitoring for some average domestic system was utterly futile. As you say, far better to go for as much accuracy as possible and miss out on a bit of bass extension by using good nearfields. Add a sub as suggested or get some proper (and probably expensive) hi-fi speakers if you want the extension. A good pair of headphones provides a second check. I'd recommend ones from the [url="http://www.gearcrave.com/buyers-guide/features/interviews/gearcrave-guest-bill-keyser-talks-grado-headphones/"]Grado[/url] range. The SR80s are more than up to the job.

[jakenewmanbass]

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='171261' date='Apr 7 2008, 11:24 AM']For nearfield monitors, don't get too hung up on bass extension, get monitors you can trust for accuracy & resolution of detail, image, dynamics, depth and placement. You can always get a sub to work with your nearfields to check you are not over extending your bass, or overcompensating. If you prefer you could leave the sub patched in all the time. The point of nearfields is not to give a full spectrum reproduction, but to give a simulation of home systems or commonly used systems.

Auratones (fullrange single speakers) were common when people still had transistor radios or mono boomboxes, and later the NS10 became popular as a representation of a bookshelf speaker. The purpose of these speakers in the case of bass instruments is to check that the upper harmonics of the instrument, e.g. bass guitar still punches through and still sounds full or present particularly if it is important in the tune, e.g. bass line in Billie Jean. So your nearfields give you an opportuity to see if that sort of punch still translates, and comes through your tune. A full spectrum large monitoring system can deceive that critical parts translate to less than full spectrum reproduction systems.

The big issue in the 21st century is whether people listen to music on bookshelf speakers anymore. You certainly don't see as many on sale and you see a lot of MP3 players. 10 years ago you would get laughed out by industry pros if you said that you did headphone monitoring; but frankly most music is listened to via ear pods, or in car stereos. Still nearfields have their place in studios, and the better ones allow you to be critical in passages where large studio monitors sometimes mask or fail; in accuracy and resolution, and not necessarily at chest thumping SPLs. For example checking a mix from infinity to 0db you can tell whether a particular instrument or voice will come through at low to moderate listening volumes.[/quote]

Thats a fantastically informative post thanks very much, you've opened my eyes to lots that was not visible to me before.

[charic]

Around your budget:

[url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/22483/"]http://www.dv247.com/invt/22483/[/url]

[alexclaber]

Another key point is that more important than good monitors is monitors you know well, so listen to plenty of music on them whose production you like so you have an accurate reference point.

Also bear in mind that in small rooms the room gain becomes significant. In a room with perfectly reflective walls you gain 12dB/octave below the frequency whose wavelength is half that of the longest room dimension. In reality that gain is often closer to 6dB/octave but it's still significant. In my study the longest dimension is about 2.5m so room gain starts at 70Hz!

Alex

[charic]

Ah were on to resonant frequencies. What you need is a room with non-parrellel walls for that too (also ceiling and floor) a triangle would be perfect with a slanted roof and plenty of treatment OFC.

A fridge full of beer usually helps too

[molan]

Wow, thanks guys, so many useful tips here!

My ideal speakers would be some that are very "listenable" - the room is small and I may be sitting quite close to them but I'm not specifically looking for something that will reveal every nuance as in a proper recording environment. Most of my listening will be for "pleasure" and using for playing my bass along to and picking out bass lines.