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-- What to look for in Monitors
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The problem with using speaker stands is that your computer screen will have to go on a stand also - if your monitors are off your desk, but your screen is on your desk, then your screen will be obscuring the sound path of your monitors. In other words...

/ <-Speaker
-| <-Monitor
\ <- Speaker

Any sound comming out the edges of the speakers will bounce off the back of the screen. Obviously this is even worse, in most cases, than just resonance problems.

If you have some big ass 3-way monitors, then it is worth worrying about because they will resonate like crazy. If you have standard 6" home monitors, then putting some mopads underneath them will be more than sufficient. Furthermore, putting your speakers on stands won't change the problem of early reflections off your table... If your desk is high, it's going to happen regardless, unless of course you put them a good 50cm back from the tables edge. I'm pretty sure you wouldnt be able to read your computer screen from that distance though!

Couple of interesting points in there..

Monitors (of the computer variety) these days are much smaller than they used to be when they were CRTs. Also they're usually on flexible stands. This lets you drop the height of the screen right down which helps significantly.

I have a buddy to constructed his desk so the screens were sunk in. Pretty cool actually.

My setup is simpler, my screens are off to the side and my console in the mix position

Table top reflections are alway there, from a small home studio to a "Big Room" with console the size of a pool table. they all suffer to a greater or lesser amount from this.

My main point was the accoustic coupling of the speakers to the desk being especially bad. Mopads are cool, but are not ebough to remove this effect. The desk will still resonate, hence sticking them up on stands for a significant improvement.

Position of speakers in the room makes a huge difference to how things sound, and I stand by my prior posts.. :-)

Also happy to do that modelling..

The comment about the reflection off of computer monitors is definately a concern since I run a dual display configuration (two 17"s) so my reference monitors will have to be fairly far back in order to get that equilateral triangle set up properly.

It is very nice of you to offer to do the modeling, Diginerd! I will provide room dimensions at the end of the week/ beginning of the weekend as I am traveling at the mo and away from my house.


Here is another concern, I will be on the move for the next couple years since I am a student. Right now I am in my house with my family in D.C. Within the next year, I will be studying in the UK and in the US. After a year, I will be going somewhere else for graduate/medical school so I won't be at one spot for too long. I wouldn't want you to spend too much time doing the room modeling if I will only be my house for a few more months. Some apts will be wood floored, others will be carpeted, some will have windows, others wont and room dimensions can vary greatly. This is an unfortunate predicament, but is a good reason not to invest in sound treatment material (other than stands). What would you do in my situation.

okay so I thought I would update a bit on how the monitors sounded to me.. I went to a local store and tested out the models they had available. Unfortunately, they didnt carry Events or the Adams so I did not get a chance to hear those. Even the owner of the pro audio dept told me she was going to start using the Adams herself. I demoed using Trance DnB and even a little hip hop and rock. With trance music it is the easiest to differentiate the monitors from each other because of the full use of the frequency range, while hip hop and dnb on the other hand helped determine the depth of the bass response.

The Dynaudios sounded great. VERY clean and very tight. The Mackies were solid and the 824s bass response was extremely deep, I was impressed at how deep the bass was but unfortunately, it was very messy. The bass just boomed and sounded sloppy overall even in the professionally treated room. They were also a bit more mid heavy than the dynas. The Bx8a were no good. Painfully loud his, very noticable when ABing with the other monitors. The only thing that seemed to compare to the dynas were the Yamaha HS80Ms which were very clean (not cleaner than the BM5a, however). The HS80M did have a deeper bass response and it was very tight compared to the mackies. The mids did seem a bit elevated.

Right now I am 99% sure I will get the BM5as and will give a test in the home studio environment. I may switch over to the Yamahas in case the bass does not seem to be low enough for my needs. The bass response seems to be the only advantage that the Yamahas have over the Dynaudios. In all other respects (especially sound clarity), the Dynaudio monitors beat the others by miles.

The stands may be the next thing I should look into (if I can find the money!) For now it looks like I will be using tables and books to put the dynaudios on, hah.

Thanks for help guys, let me know if you have any suggestions for stands and if you have any questions about my little "review." Im sure many people will have the same dilemmas about monitors so hopefully I can provide any insight as to how good those Dynaudios are.

Cheers

you can make your own stands that are as good as $200 pro audio ones for about $35 or less. Don't buy them... it takes like 2 seconds to make them!

Work out how high you need your monitors (such that your ears are level or just below the tweeters) and buy two 100mm PVC downpipes of that length. Then buy two downpipe end caps. Buy 2 pieces of wood cut to the dimensions of your monitors base and another two about 2-4 times the size (this will be the base). Then screw the end caps onto the pieces of wood, and connect them together using the pipe! Paint the whole thing (black, DUH), fill the pipe with sand and there you go, pro quality stands.

n00b question : what are monitors, and how are they different from speakers ?

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_M n00b question : what are monitors, and how are they different from speakers ?

hifi speakers are made for listening, monitors are made for making music. put simply... hifi speakers are made to sound impressive/good, whereas monitors are made to show all flaws.

so you can't detect the flaws listening in your headphones ?

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_M so you can't detect the flaws listening in your headphones ?

no... headphones don't have as good frequency range or stereo field (it's like having one speaker up to each ear).

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm no... headphones don't have as good frequency range or stereo field (it's like having one speaker up to each ear).

you CAN detect flaws with headphones easily.

quote:

Originally posted by meDina you CAN detect flaws with headphones easily.

you can detect flaws with anything...


with some of the better, cleaner monitors, though, you can hear the smaller flaws that you couldn't with headphones

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm you can make your own stands that are as good as $200 pro audio ones for about $35 or less. Don't buy them... it takes like 2 seconds to make them! Work out how high you need your monitors (such that your ears are level or just below the tweeters) and buy two 100mm PVC downpipes of that length. Then buy two downpipe end caps. Buy 2 pieces of wood cut to the dimensions of your monitors base and another two about 2-4 times the size (this will be the base). Then screw the end caps onto the pieces of wood, and connect them together using the pipe! Paint the whole thing (black, DUH), fill the pipe with sand and there you go, pro quality stands.

Damn man, that's a fucking cool idea. Going to the hardware store tomorrow

Thanks for posting that

I have some Alesis 620s they are pretty good. Um you should add KRK RP-8s to the list.

crisp clean sound. monitors that dont fatigue the ear.

quote:

Originally posted by BinaryUnison I have some Alesis 620s they are pretty good. Um you should add KRK RP-8s to the list.

listened to the rokits... next to the yamaha's they sounded very weak, lowend clarity was poor and his were bright... next to the dynaudios they were no good. I don't remember much more since I demoed nearly 2 weeks ago, but I didn't listen to them for more than a few minutes.

In the end, it's not the monitors, its your ears. We've all seen some of the most pro-looking studios in the "post pics of your studio" thread yet the songs that come out of them are substandard. I know a producer (signed to armada) who uses rokits that is able to attain that "pro" sound.

The BM5As are sitting on my floor right now, can't wait to get them connected in the morning.

btw, I got a fairly good deal at the guitarcenter in my town... $850 for the pair plus cables (which are apparently $46 each).

quote:

Originally posted by EtherealSL $850 for the pair plus cables (which are apparently $46 each).

Sounds like you got Mogami cables for that price.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Sounds like you got Mogami cables for that price.

Correct. I'm assuming that they're good (considering the price)?

Yeah, they are really good. You should be very happy with them. I just dropped about $500 on several for myself and I'm loving them!

quote:

Originally posted by Eric J Yeah, they are really good. You should be very happy with them. I just dropped about $500 on several for myself and I'm loving them!

half a G for several? they MUST be good, haha.

BM5a's you jammy bastard! They were ever so slightly out of my price range, so I had to settle for the HR624's...and to whoever it is that is saying that Mackie's bass response is poor, you're talking shit.
The bass response is great when you set the speakers up correctly..

Just wanted to say I have bought the focal twin 6 be, and am breaking them in as we speak.. I haven't had studio monitors before, but I do know what to listen for in speakers. Although they have only about 3hrs of playtime, I just love them. The tweeter is is truly exceptional. The sound is bright and crisp from 2-3 meters away, and you can have your ear 2-3 cm away from them at the same volume and they still sound great. Can't wait for the woofers to break in though.

It's strange there has been absolutely no talk about focal on this forum.

quote:

Originally posted by EtherealSL half a G for several? they MUST be good, haha.

Hehe, well I bought about 18 cables. I have a lot of hardware.

quote:

Originally posted by Beyer Just wanted to say I have bought the focal twin 6 be, and am breaking them in as we speak.. I haven't had studio monitors before, but I do know what to listen for in speakers. Although they have only about 3hrs of playtime, I just love them. The tweeter is is truly exceptional. The sound is bright and crisp from 2-3 meters away, and you can have your ear 2-3 cm away from them at the same volume and they still sound great. Can't wait for the woofers to break in though. It's strange there has been absolutely no talk about focal on this forum.

I like em as well. Friend has a pair, and they sound really good.

quote:

Originally posted by RickyM BM5a's you jammy bastard! They were ever so slightly out of my price range, so I had to settle for the HR624's...and to whoever it is that is saying that Mackie's bass response is poor, you're talking shit. The bass response is great when you set the speakers up correctly..

the response isn't poor in terms of depth, but it's just sloppy in comparison to the bm5as... but these are the new mackies, and i was talking about the 8 inch ones... didn't really look into the 6 inch kind. the 824s push down ridiculously deep, but it's messy even in the acoustically treated showroom they had. boo mackie. that's right, I said it, Ricky.

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