I’ve been mixing on some really bad Creative PC-Speakers for a long time now and i just found this old JVC stereo amp and some speaker cabinets, probably not of the best quality equipment, but it sounds so much better than the creative crap.
Only thing is that the amp is designed for 8ohm speakers and the cabinets i have here are two pairs of 4ohm speakers.
So i series connected the two different speakers respectively at right and left. 4ohm + 4ohm = 8ohm right, so this should work?
I’m just afraid i’ll blow something, but i’m pretty shure this must be the way to connect things, so can anyone confirm so i can finally go loud? 
Most amplifiers will drive a 4 ohm load fine, 2 ohm many will struggle with. manufacturers often only give power ratings etc for being loaded at 8 ohms though. You will be able to provide more power to a 4 ohm load but the amp will quite likely run hotter. I would say just go for it…
beyer dynamics DT 880 pro… a good solution, your neighbors will appreciate 
for the same price you can also get the akg k701
it’s somehow good to use headphones while mixing your music, with a good frequency response, but what bother’s me with HQ headphones, as well as with HQ speakers,is that in the end, lots of listeners will experience the final music through soundclouds’s 128kbps crappy mp3 player and through crappy lofi headphones / speakers
What makes the great difference is how you place the speakers in the room and what acoustics this room has. Even cheap consumer speakers will sound good enough when placed properly in a good sounding room. On the contrary, I heard KRK RP5 (which are not anything out of ordinary but still monitors) sounding quite poor because they were standing on some shelf above the listener and very close to each other (less than 1 m).
I can never remember how this works, so please ignore me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the opposite way with impedance? I mean, if you connect higher impedance than an amp can handle it will be very silent and if you connect lower impedance, the speakers will burn because of higher current than expected?
@Kurtz: high quality equipment gives you more detailed sound to work with but has nothing to do with the way how you mix so to make your tracks sound good even on “crappy” headphones it is sufficient to compare your mix with one considered great. At least it’s what I was said by a guy working a studio 
I think it sounds better now than when i connected only one pair of 4ohm speakers, so i think the setup i have should do it.
Compared to the crap speakers i had this sounds great, so it will do for me for now at least.
If i’m not mistaking the speaker impedance should not be lower than what the amp is rated for, but it can be higher. 
hmmmm, akg is about the realm of bass frequencies. Really, it depends what he wants but having tried both, Beyer > AKG when it comes to almost neutral definition
Also… VELVET!
after years of headphone based song playback I realise that
I need more and more volume in the low freqs area
well I remember I’ve tested the AKG, and not the Beyer
and found the AKG perfect for someone like me -
I mean someone that has fucked up more or less his own ears in the past
Try out the Beyer, really.
I was like you, only thinking about AKG and the fact they would be perfect, that was until I got the DT880 pro. Many of my friends tried them as well and they were really impressed even if they were, as myself, big AKG fans.
As I said, an amplifier can provide more power to a loudspeaker of lower impedance. You wont damage the speakers in any way from using an amplifier that isn’t rated for their impedance though, it’s the amplifier that might overheat and die. You will damage speakers most likely from using an underpowered any and driving it too hard, delivering a distorted signal into the speakers, or just plain too much voltage (volume.)
This is true. For the same voltage out of the amp halving the load (speaker impedance) will quadruple the current the amplifier needs to deliver. Thus you may burn out transistors or tracks on the PCB. Still if not driving at full tilt and using for full-range (rather than sub bass duties) I would personally be happy to risk running most amps at 4 ohm. 2 ohms can provide problems for even some professional PA amps though so it is worth being careful and you seem happy with your paralleled pairs by the sounds of it 
Yep, been there. I am using AKG K701 and everything sound perfect. The I put the song into cloud and listen it next day at work with my Koss and Sennheiser and it sounds awful.
I mix now with Behringer Truth, switch to AKG and those crappy headphones to check the sound. Still I am quite lost often with bass levels, but I hope my ear is getting better. I don’t know if it is a bad habit to change monitors all the time during the final mix/mastering?
How about enlarging your DR? does it sound awful or fatiguing? Stuff on headphones usually come right at you, specially if you have compressed the hell out of your stuff.
I apologize, I am a newbie in mixing stuff. What do you mean by “enlarging DR”?
I suppose that testing our music on lots of target platforms comes from the fact that we experienced a true difference while playing our music outside our home studios. While my favourite CDs can be played everywhere and sound the same, my own music does not sound exactly the same, or like I want, sometimes, what sucks. My mixing hardware isn’t the right one, I know I must mix with true monitoring devices, that have a perfect neutral sound reproduction, that’s the only way to reduce surprises when playing the music on other platforms. But it’s awfully expensive. However I suppose that unless we work with Focal Twin 6 Be monitors, and with Beyerdynamlics DT880 Pro headphones (just to test the result with headphones) in a mastered listening environment, we’ll keep on being unsure about the way our music renders on different formats and targets in the end.
I tend to disagree, it’s less and less expensive and you’re less unsure on how it will sound…
Of course, you’re not aware of what people do with your music, do they use internal EQs, do they correctly align their speakers, did they soundproof their rooms by checking for natural maelstrom?
But where I seriously tend to disagree is when you say headphones are just here to test the result. I used to think the same about mixing with headphones, that it was the most dangerous shit to do in the world… until I discovered the real use of semi open headphones and “spending a lot of bucks in some good headphones”.
Now of course, that’s just my two cents, after all, I’m not big and everything.
We should ask to big guys but I’m pretty sure they just rely on super expensive gears as well.
Let’s ask to medium guys then, do we have some reknown guys on the board caring to join the conversation and enlight us with their great knowledge… I only made 6 or 7 tracks this year. Or maybe 8. Can’t remember exactly.
I see you came to the conclusion that a studio quality headphone-based mix became possible, because of improvements of the technology, especially with semi-open hardware. I must confess my actual opinion comes from previous experimentations with a Sennheiser hd…something (I’ve fucked it up anyway and it made a nice trip into my thrashcan) : globally my tests revealed a poor impedance & limited frequency range, and bad sound reproduction (the low freqs were too loud, even for me… or the sound was “blurry” for example). Well the headphones I’ve worked with were honnestly, true craps. What bugged me the most was also the fact that I chose “closed” headphones, believing I won’t be bothered by external noises (computer fan) and I quickly felt that something was so muffled that I could not rely on them.
But it’s true that when I check deeper the characteristics of the Beyerdynamic DT880… that’s really interesting, they’re semi-open, you’ve got a frequency range of 5-35.000Hz ; not bad at all… and what’s interesting is that you’ve got 3 versions : 32, 250, and… 600Ohms! It’s true that if the key factor is the “money factor”, and that the price of a pair of good Focal monitors with a precise stereo and frequency definition is awfully expensive when you compare it with the price of a… Beyerdynamic 600Ohms for example.
Maybe it’s time to test your option. Okay I’ll add it to my cart, (the 600Ohms version), and I’ll give you an overview of my experiences.
Not saying you HAVE to buy them, more like you should actually consider to head at the nearest local reseller and ask for trying them!
(oh and I had some seinheiser HD years ago and it also made me turned my back away from ever using headphones again… until I had no other choices than using headphones because I was afraid of making too much noises for my daughter)
DR = Dynamic Range
It simply means that some tracks are mixed down and others are put more forward. In that way you have an average db output. The lower the average DB (ofcourse depending if you have tracks in the mix that have high db peaks!), the higher your dynamic range.
Most folks nowadays compress the lower powered tracks up so that they come more forward in the mix (the wall of sound idea). But this also makes listening to the music very exhausting, specially on headphones.
If you do less compression and allow tracks to be expressive on the moments they need to be, but fall back to the background when appropriate, you will have less of that wall of sound and it makes turning up the volume more pleasant to the ears.
Frankly, if you mix well, you would not need compression. However with higher dynamic tracks like vocals this is a bit hard to avoid.
Unless you want to have a very particular compression effect, like sidechaining “wooOOMP”, he’s right.
Thanks for clarification Yes I make it louder and might ruin something. But now I’m using FabFilter limiter and it’s very easy to check that the sound is not changing. I don’t use compressor for master track, I don’t hear it making any improvement. Though lot of compressors are used in individual tracks.
You’re right, using more dynamic range makes it the process easier. But I think I make my most of my mistakes during mixing phase. During mastering mixed wav (in different Renoise song), I often have to go back to the original song to change the mix. I realize that -10 db in 80 Hz is really not healthy mastering action, something is wrong in the mix.
Ok, now I may promote my last effort. In the mix, boosting bass drum at 50 Hz and bass at 100 Hz. Cutting lowend during mastering in overall. I have a feeling it is better than my previous mixes, but still thinking about changing the bass instrument. Feels either too snappy or boomy. Does this sound right? SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds