Help, choise studio monitors bi-amped 5-7", room 10m2, front bass

Off-Topic
41

You should add the Mackie’s to your list!

http://mackie.com/products/mrmk3-series

Thanks!

I also add this model in the list…

Ok, so you got every budget to midrange model on your list. Looking forward to what you will say after having played your chosen files over some models in the shop. Not choose the one that will make stuff sound sappy, choose the one where you have the strongest feeling of having everything in the mix presented in a cold and honest way, intense but still balanced. Making stuff sound cool on those will make it sound even better everywhere else.

I just want to give you another pointer to watch out for: you maybe have some prefered volume for working. Some like it real hot all the time, others have neighbors or sensitive ears, and like working with lower volumes, and only rise a bit for final stages. As you said bass is important for you (I wish you better luck with your room than I had with my try!), you should try adjusting the speakers in the shop to the levels you like working with most, and see if bass is still clear and punchy. Especially, as I know that some of the larger speakers can be tuned for loud action and might suffer relative lack of bass when played at lower levels. I also say this as you mentioned a small room with little distance in the triangle, so lower volumes going on by default.

Thank you very much for the tips! I will keep it in mind…

@FFX,This speaker for the salon!!! :panic:

42

mj2.jpg

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ok i’m done nonsensing. good luck op!

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mj2.jpg

JLAd9.gif

ok i’m done nonsensing. good luck op!

Every time I go in, I laugh at this mars.64!!! :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

I hope to get my pair of monitors at the end of the year.Many thanks to all for helping !!!

44

Alesis Elevate 6 Active, 125€

45

From those you posted I’ve only heard JBL LSR305, Yamaha HS5, Adam F5 and Alesis Elevate 6 Active. Other than that I’ve heard 8 inch versions of Yamahas and Mackies and 5 and 8 inch versions of KRKs.

Based on all this I fully recommend buying the JBL LSR305, it’s an incredible deal. In fact I have not found any significantly better small monitors until you get to Genelecs, which cost almost 3x as much here (and have less bass extension, but otherwise are obviously better at everything).

They are the cheapest natural sounding speakers I know of at the moment. That’s a good thing, I don’t believe in hyped speakers sounding better or in flat speakers sounding unnatural unless you listen at very high volumes. They’re not completely flat, but imo the best you can get thanks to very good power-response. They also have controlled directivity which is something you definitely want in a small room - fewer reflections. A bass reflex in the back is a bit worse close to a wall than a bass reflex in the front, but you will always get boundary effects with a speaker close to a wall, even without a bass reflex. Plugging the bass reflex with an old t-shirt can help, but with such a small room you will never get accurate bass without measuring the frequency response and compensating for room modes (resonances that make bumps and holes in the frequency response often larger than 15 dB and that are very difficult to get rid of using room treatment). Room modes have way larger influence on what you hear than how flat the speaker’s bass is, if it’s not a completely shit speaker, especially in such a tiny room. Buying a cheap measuring mic is definitely something I recommend in the future if you don’t want to always work on bass using headphones.

A bit about my perception of the others:

Alesis Elevate 6 Active: overall not very good, I think the M1 Active MK2 was the last good monitor from Alesis

Yamaha HS5: Relatively detailed, but very tinny, no bass, definitely not neutral. Have not heard the HS7, but HS8 is pretty bad as well - agressive mid-treble, lack of mids, inflated bass.

Adam F5: Detailed, no bass, too aggressive mid-treble (fatiguing to me), bad directivity (treble beaming), bad stereo imaging

KRK: 5 inchers are possibly the worst monitors I’ve heard. Boxy, no subbass, hyped midbass. This will not help you make music that will sound good on other bad speakers because there are infinite other ways for other peoples speakers to sound bad. 8 inch version is better, but imo a not very good speaker overall - not particularly detailed, not particularly flat, not even particularly pleasant to listen to, obviously bad directivity…

Mackie: have only heard the 8 inch version, which is absolutely horrible - inflated bass, no mids. For this reason alone I’d be very cautious, but then again, the MK2 series was good (both 5 inch and 8 inch, 6 inch didn’t exist), so maybe they haven’t screwed up the smaller ones.

46

From those you posted I’ve only heard JBL LSR305, Yamaha HS5, Adam F5 and Alesis Elevate 6 Active. Other than that I’ve heard 8 inch versions of Yamahas and Mackies and 5 and 8 inch versions of KRKs.

Based on all this I fully recommend buying the JBL LSR305, it’s an incredible deal. In fact I have not found any significantly better small monitors until you get to Genelecs, which cost almost 3x as much here (and have less bass extension, but otherwise are obviously better at everything).

They are the cheapest natural sounding speakers I know of at the moment. That’s a good thing, I don’t believe in hyped speakers sounding better or in flat speakers sounding unnatural unless you listen at very high volumes. They’re not completely flat, but imo the best you can get thanks to very good power-response. They also have controlled directivity which is something you definitely want in a small room - fewer reflections. A bass reflex in the back is a bit worse close to a wall than a bass reflex in the front, but you will always get boundary effects with a speaker close to a wall, even without a bass reflex. Plugging the bass reflex with an old t-shirt can help, but with such a small room you will never get accurate bass without measuring the frequency response and compensating for room modes (resonances that make bumps and holes in the frequency response often larger than 15 dB and that are very difficult to get rid of using room treatment). Room modes have way larger influence on what you hear than how flat the speaker’s bass is, if it’s not a completely shit speaker, especially in such a tiny room. Buying a cheap measuring mic is definitely something I recommend in the future if you don’t want to always work on bass using headphones.

A bit about my perception of the others:

Alesis Elevate 6 Active: overall not very good, I think the M1 Active MK2 was the last good monitor from Alesis

Yamaha HS5: Relatively detailed, but very tinny, no bass, definitely not neutral. Have not heard the HS7, but HS8 is pretty bad as well - agressive mid-treble, lack of mids, inflated bass.

Adam F5: Detailed, no bass, too aggressive mid-treble (fatiguing to me), bad directivity (treble beaming), bad stereo imaging

KRK: 5 inchers are possibly the worst monitors I’ve heard. Boxy, no subbass, hyped midbass. This will not help you make music that will sound good on other bad speakers because there are infinite other ways for other peoples speakers to sound bad. 8 inch version is better, but imo a not very good speaker overall - not particularly detailed, not particularly flat, not even particularly pleasant to listen to, obviously bad directivity…

Mackie: have only heard the 8 inch version, which is absolutely horrible - inflated bass, no mids. For this reason alone I’d be very cautious, but then again, the MK2 series was good (both 5 inch and 8 inch, 6 inch didn’t exist), so maybe they haven’t screwed up the smaller ones.

Wow,I love reading these kinds of answers, which is really what I seek, direct opinions.I was thinking of waiting for the end of January, after of the Namm 2017, is possible for brands to bring up new studio monitors.

The JBLs have the bass reflex rear, the only thing that prevents me from deciding for them.I was very curious about the Alesis Elevate 6 Active, but do not look very good.I look for something very balanced and flat, with bass reflex frontal.I was about to buy the Focal Alpha 65, but does not include volume wheel.Tannoy Reveal 502 are the ones I like most of all, but many people have complained about electrical noise from the amplifier.I will listen to many moments with silences in the songs, and I hate the electric noise.I would not be able to stand it.Do you know this model (Tannoy Reveal 502)?

I’m not in a hurry to buy the two monitors, and I would not mind spending more, if I know the money is well invested.Nor do I want to rush and see after the Namm that better monitors have been published.

Thank you very much for your answer!!!

47

Interesting:

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Gemini SR-6

GeminiPRO-SR-6-01-893x490.jpg

http://geminisound.com/sr-series

49

I recommend this near-field studio monitors, but only if front bass outlet is not 100% mandatory for you:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/m_audio_bx8_d2.htm

M-Audio BX8 D2

289 EUR / pair

  • Components: 8" Kevlar woofer + 1.25" tweeter with Waveguide
  • 130 Watt Bi-amping amplifier with crossover
  • Frequency range: 30 - 24,000 Hz
  • Magnetically shielded
  • Balanced thomann XLR and balanced / unbalanced jack inputs
  • Volume control
  • Dimensions (H x W x D): 381 x 254 x 304 mm
  • Weight: 10.90 kg / piece

  • the sound is top notch

  • bi-amped

  • really good material (kevlar membrane!)

  • low end makes subwoofer obsolete (30Hz)

  • quite big and heavy (but i guess that contributes to the good sound)

There’s a smaller variant of the monitors, half as big, but I haven’t tested them:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/maudio_bx5_d2.htm

50

@VitaminX. Thanks for the recommendation! :wacko:I knew the name of the model and its features, but for some reason I completely forgot about this M-Audio model.I’m going to add it to the list (comment #1).The 8 "model I think is very large for the size of my room.I think the 5 "model would suffice.

I am going to be attentive in the Namm 2017 and I will make a review of all the marks in case they take out some new model similar to the range I’m looking for.At the moment, I think KRK has released a new serie of studio monitors recently.

51

Great topic, as I am in a similar situation (old hifi system) with a similar budget (~300).

The video that you posted also provides some good tips.

I just doubt that I would like to have these dark grey walls in my living room.

We only have one music store that also sells equipment for electronic music (and djs). The others are Hifi stores. The salesman told me every monitor that they sell is good, the better my budget the better the quality.

Not very helpful! Maybe they are more specialized in renting and selling equipment for events where volume is more important than quality. :slight_smile:

They also sold me headphones with the same qualified advice, and I ended up buying the same model that the salesman used at home (audiotechnica ATH-TAD400).

I wonder if monitors could replace the hifi system completely? I mean, currently I am doing everything with the PC - it replaced my TV and radio receiver, and I am also making music on it, etc. - would you also use them for listening the TV, radio, etc.? Or better keep the old hifi stuff for that purpose?

52

I bought now presonus eris 08 to replace my Yamaha hs7, and I will keep it. I had massive problems with bass in my working room at home. The hs7 are back reflectors - really the worst “invention” ever made. It’s so difficult to find a place where those kind of speakers really sound good. The eris sound much, much more solid. Maybe not such linear in the mids, but definitely better. These are also larger, and of course a larger speaker always sounds better. So in the end Imo the most important is that the reflectors are front and the size is large. The rest is voodoo.

53

Re: “The hs7 are back reflectors”

Back reflectors? I’ve never heard of an hs7 back reflector version.

If your thinking the bass port in the back, there is no reflection. Bass ports only pass the lowest frequencies which travel 360 degrees.

It makes no difference where the bass port is. Anything coming out the bass post is omni-directional.

If your thinking of the lack of bass, it’s because they don’t have the hyped electronic bass boost that other small monitors use.

54

No, it’s exactly because the low bass goes to the back. End of discussion.

55

It depends on your reality.

I’m not going to explain the physics of sound.

56

No, it’s pure logic and maybe physics wasn’t your strength. If the bass reflects to the back, it makes you totally dependant (much more dependent) on your room structure. Also of course the bass comes to the ear too late and diffused too. So you don’t have a change to perspective bass transients anymore, like you can do on normal speakers. So the whole concept is no concept.

57

Sorry, but I disagree, the problem is that certain low frequencies are building up because they produce standing waves between the walls of your room, depending on the size of your room these standing waves have different frequencies.

If the bass comes out of the front or back of our speaker doesn’t matter there, they will build up either way.

1 Like
58

The NAMM begins to bear fruit. What beauties:https://www.adam-audio.com/en/s-series/

adam-audio-s-series-studio-refrence-moni
adam-audio-s-series-studio-refrence-monitors-1600-1200x735.jpg1200×735

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Once upon a time I used to have these Edirols and I probably paid $500 for them: (I had 15D not 7A)

http://amzn.to/2kxY28I

After reading this thread and seeing the word Mackie I bought these:

http://amzn.to/2kxVmfp

They are Mackie CR3. They don’t even qualify as monitors. Just cheap and barely good enough speakers. I like them more than my Edirols.

I figure if ever I release something again i’ll go to a studio for mastering. Heck, that’s what I did the last time anyway. My friends have better gear than I do and I can just pay them to sit in their studios instead of collecting piles of junk.

Edit: Typos.