Ok, i bought myself tapco S8 monitors… To be honest when i first powered them up and played some music through them i wasnt really satisfied… Mainly because the highs sounded somewhat too harsh and the sound wasnt smooth, bass response wasnt quite good either.
I thought that i will give them some time to “break-in” and hoped that sound will improve. Luckyly i was right… i have used them only for couple of days and the sound is much better already. so im quite pleased with those monitors already and im happy that i didnt have to regret my decision…
What i wanted to ask is actually this: I generated sin waves to see the level of different freqs and although i dont have eqipment to measure actual levels, to my ear it sounds like below 130 Hz the sound level makes sudden drop and is a lot quieter. from 120 to 40 Hz sound level remains more or less equal. So im wonderig… what is that drop? im i hearing wrong (some “illusion”)? maybe its my room accoustics? Have you experienced something like that?
It could possibly be room accoustics. How big is the room you are in?
Caclulating it out, at 120Hz, you need a room of length (340m/s divided by 120 periods/s * 0.5 (half wavelength) = approx 1.9 metres to achieve a base freq standing wave, assuming your speakers are 0 metres away from the wall. To get as low as 40Hz, you need a room of length 4.25 metres.
Also, not really related, but do your speakers have stands? This can make a large difference in clarity.
thanks for reply… No actually my room is quite small and it is one if those bad cube shaped rooms 3,5X3,5 m approx. And no, my speakers dont have stands, they are on my desk and i have a crt monitor between them…
Actually no as i said im quite happy with those monitors now, the first impression of harsh highs and not too smooth sound and bass is gone after little break-in!
I have an audigy 2 and logitech z-2200 speakes, witch is quite good multimedia combination and i A/B-d them with my new audiophile 192 + tapco S8 combination and i must say the difference is very clear and evident. While sub of the logitech speakers pumps out decent “low thump” the bass is too exaggerated and muddy, the mid freqs are very lacking and the sound is not so clear…
Although i havent had time to compose/mix anything yet on my new stuff i am 100% sure that i will get much better mixes out of them.
No way man, take your time with speaker placement and get some foam batts and you’ll be in HiFi-city. If it all you can get out of a squre room then you can position things just nicely. Getting good monitors will improve your compositional depth - actually you’ll get distracted because you’re sitting there going ‘feeeck, that sounds meltyyy!!’.
Good reference monitors will make trebbles sounds a little harsh because they are so unforgiving. It’ll reveal a cheep sounds straight away. Make sure you’ve got some good reference material (e.g. Roxy Music, Massive Attack…).
I just got my Delta 1010 working and I might as well have had cotton wool in my ears for the last 9 years… can’t believe I put up with an SB for that long…
Sounds like a case of comb filtering to me, something I have yet to become more knowledgeable in and conquer myself.
You might want to check this (PDF) out though. I do know that placing them directly on the desk is considerad a bad move.
EDIT: Read your post again and maybe it isn’t comb filtering after all, which is where the SPL actually reduces and increases as you sweep through the frequency spectrum.
3,5X3,5 m approx. And no, my speakers dont have stands, they are on my desk and i have a crt monitor between them…
as i said im quite happy with those monitors now, the first impression of harsh highs and not too smooth sound and bass is gone after little break-in!
