The Steel Guitar Forum

What kind of speakers do you use in your home studio

Ken

Event TR-8XL

A pair of old Tannoy PBM-8 speakers and a Hafler Pro230 amp.

Clete

I have a pair of Samson Resolv 65a active studio monitors.

Thanks for the replies...looks like the most popular run around $300. to $500. I've been looking at the M-Audio, any thought there. Thanks again Ken

Whatever you buy will sound better/clearer than a pair of normal stereo speakers. You also need to decide if you want active or passive montiors. Mine are powered. If you already have a small power amp, you might be able to save a little with passive.

I have a pair of M Audio SP 5B's, I believe they are 40 watt BI-Amp...If I had to do it again I think I would get 8's but the 5B's have served me well.

t

The KRK speakers are very nice bang for buck. jp

A 16 yr. old pair of Alesis M1's.

Hey Kenny, I've got a pair of powered M-Audio BX-5A's. I believe they are 70 watts bi-amped at 40/30. They are very reasonable and very good reference monitors as long as you do 2 things set close to them and don't expect loud rock concert volume out of them. They were meant to be mid volume low priced all around good quality speaker that most folks can afford.

Don't get me wrong you can crank them up to an ear splitting level but you lose all of the accuracy that you expect out of near field monitors. I think you can actually add a Bass Sub to them if you are mixing heavy bottom end music although I'm not sure how you would use it because I don't think there are any aux.input on the back side so I could be wrong.

I paid 299.00 for mine about 4 years ago here's a link to them: http://tinyurl.com/2cbflqj

I use a pair of powered Wharfdales...actually to much speaker for the room but I like em..

Mackie 824's Love them

KRK Rokit 8 Powered Monitors until 7/13/07 then I bought Yamaha HS80M's. The Yamaha's have much tighter bass but either one works well for me.


Greg

Tannoy Reveal, passive. I auditioned a number of speakers with the same program material, and I heard detail and spatial definition in the Tannoys that I did not hear in any other speaker in that price range. Great monitors for mixing.

Another vote for Tannoy Reveals. They sound way better now that I'm powering them with a Dynaco ST-70 tube amp.

Here's a post from Brad Sarno.
Needless to say, Brad knows his stuff.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

If I were in the market, I'd try these.

After reading the link Joe posted (thanks!), Yesterday I went and bought a pair of the speakers Brad mentioned. I wish I had seen the original posting by Brad sooner. For less than $100/pair, these speakers are incredible!

Thanks Brad! Your advice has always been right on the money, and it certainly is again with this recommendation.

I spent 20+ years as a studio owner back before the internet and home studios, so this is not my first rodeo.....

Thanks again Brad!

It would seem to me that there is something missing from this thread. The question arises in my mind "Do you want speakers to make the music sound good, or do you want studio monitors"? There is a major difference in function.
Speakers is the term most commonly associated with home stereo system - the kind you listen to and turn the bass and treble knobs so that it sounds good to you. Studio monitors have a much different function. In the studio you want to hear the sound that is being recorded and/or mixed reproduced as accurately as possible.
With all due respect to Brad's superior expertise, the Insignia bookshelf speakers are very nice little speakers that sound great. However, they do not even publish any meaningful specs, so it is impossible to tell how accurate they are. For $88 per pair, they may sound good, but I assure you they are not intended to be used as nearfield studio monitors.
It all comes down to purpose and budget. For what it's worth, my choice for my home studio monitors was JBL LSR4328P's. They have a verified frequency response of +/-1.5 dB: 50 Hz – 20 kHz. They are not ideal at reproducing very low ground shaking frequencies (below 50 Hz), but for my budget that was as close as I could get.

Everything that David Winfrey has said is absolutely correct. If you are looking for studio monitors, then you are looking at a lot more than a hundred bucks for anything worth having.

One point, which has not been addressed, is the room itself. The best monitors in the world are not worth a light if the room is not acoustically correct. In fact, you would be better off with lesser monitors in a good room than the world's best in a poor one.

Studio monitoring systems are just that - *systems*. You can't just isolate one component, you have to consider it as a whole... and this includes the room itself.

To answer the original question, I run a pair of Rogers LS2's, driven by a Quad 303 amplifier in an acoustically corrected room (basically, a lot of bass trapping). This might appear to be somewhat less than ideal, but this is the same monitoring system I have used for many years and I am totally familiar with its quirks and inadequancies and can therefore make allowances for them. To be fair, this is only something that one acquires with a lot of experience.

Though one must note that an absolutely huge amount of amazing records were mixed through, and are still being mixed on a $200 (originally) pair of consumer speakers called the Yamaha NS10...

Event 20/20's (passive).

John Macy wrote:Though one must note that an absolutely huge amount of amazing records were mixed through, and are still being mixed on a $200 (originally) pair of consumer speakers called the Yamaha NS10...

NS10's became a de facto standard nearfield monitor for a great number of studios. However, these were placed in properly treated rooms and were primarily used as reference speakers, the real mixing being done on much better monitors - the like of which few of us could afford or justify.

Don't forget, before the NS10's (which are truly horrible and over-bright, particularly the MkI's) the de facto standard was the Auratone - and that was a real pile of junk!

Graeme Jaye wrote:...the NS10's (which are truly horrible and over-bright, particularly the MkI's)...

It's also true that many engineers modified their NS10s for the upper range and mids, too, usually with toilet paper or tissue of some sort

When comparing the two, I chose the Tannoy over Yamaha because it sounded the flattest. This was around 1982, don't forget.

I've since replaced the foam rings (about$25), and still use them every day.

Clete

I have been mixing everyday for the last 25+ years on NS10's--all three of our rooms have them, and they are used by almost every independent engineer that uses our studios. We have lots of nearfield choices--10" and 8" Tannoys, Genelecs, Mackies, Auratones etc., and still the first choice is NS10's...I can't remember that last time I did not see them on the speaker bridge in any studio here, LA, Nashville etc...I still feel they are the most used monitor over here...Most of the engineers use them 95% of the time and reference on the more expensive monitors about 5%....you'd be amazed how many people use the Auratones here, too...

No doubt NS10s are considered an industry standard in studios to this day, so there's certainly no arguing about that. Its also understood that lots of engineers will prefer them when given a choice, since they are used to them. It provides a constant in the variable equation of working in different spaces, making them a true standard reference monitor. Im sure Yamaha is very happy about that.

Clete