Studio monitors for uncoloured HiFi

Wizard · 2014-08-25T13:25:34+00:00

How well do studio monitors work as hifi speakers? If one is looking for an uncoloured, purist reproduction of sound this implies: - high quality source (DDD CD or .wav input) - linear amplifier without tone controls - flat response speakers If I understand correctly, monitors attempt a faithful, flat response as per the last bullet. In practice, how well does it work? Studio monitors as hifi speakers?

Arno-West

NS-10 - Legendary, but sounds like crap. For mixing purpouses though, I have never heard a more "honest" studio monitor. However, you have to get used to them through experimentation. I believe my perfect Studio monitor set-up for mixing would be a pair of NS-10M's augmented with a 12-inch sub to fill up the bottom end the NS-10's lack. Thinking about it, it won't cost an arm and a leg either......

doc-phil

How much of the colouration in hifi systems is generated by the amp driving the speaker, and how much by the speaker itself? Is it the crossover points and whatever other technical stuff that happens within the speaker that makes a difference?

Post mix, I have a listen on a set of these:

They are powered by a Technics 100w amp which is anything but flat.

I also listen in the car and on various other cheap speakers to check translation issues. I firmly believe you can mix on virtually anything.. As long as you know how things will translate then you can make mix decisions based on that. Obviously that's not ideal and may make things a bit more trial and error, but it can be done.

method1

Interesting article on this very topic!

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Jun02/articles/monitors.asp

"Conclusions

So, in terms of frequency response measurement, there's no obvious split between 'pro' and 'hi-fi' among these four speakers. In fact, if anything, they fall into two rather different groups, with the B&W and Dynaudio offering a balance appropriate for nearfield use in small rooms (coincidentally, the Dynaudio and B&W have low-frequency response shapes so similar they could almost be a pair), while the Wharfedale and KRK offer something more suited to listening at a greater distance in larger rooms. The B&W is also the best in terms of resonant behaviour. "

Big-G

I've always considered the NS10's in the same way as the Shure SM58..... They have both become legendary, and 'industry standard', but there are so many better products out there to do the same job, and in some cases for less money (obviously the fact that the NS10's are no longer produced kind of makes things a little more difficult, but anyway...). The NS10's and more so the NS10M's were great for mixing on IF you were used to them, and they certainly showed up just about any floor in the midrange, which is probably the very thing that made them attractive as monitors to begin with. And the other thing I liked about them was that they could be driven hard to test for any specific enhanced frequencies causing issues (although this is seriously impacted by the room too), but could equally be used at very low volumes to really intricately listen to the over all balance and mix to make sure that nothing is glaringly out of place etc. I'm yet to find a nearfield monitor that offers that kind of performance. The Alesis Monitor 1 mk.2's come close in terms of budget speakers, but just don't quite have that edge that the NS10's do.

Personally, i found the NS10M's to have sufficient bass to do an accurate mix on, without the need for a sub, so I would not add a sub, especially in a small room where subs can be tricky things to integrate. However, if I was using the NS10's for a 'hifi' setup, I would definitely look at adding a sub.

Regards
G!

« Previous Page