TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- Powered Monitors vs. Studio Headphones

Powered Monitors vs. Studio Headphones

I think I may know the answer to this question but again Im going to ask for your professional help as a noooooooob!!!


I bought a new Audio/Midi interface but my current audio output is via Audigy XFi to a classic Amplifier vi RCA jacks and then a Pair of awesome B&W Loudspeakers!

My question is or the problem I have is that the Outputs from the Audio Interface (Edirol FA-66 ) are � phono line jack as it appears are most of these units.

I noticed quite the debate on another thread as to the Self powered studio monitor suggestions. Is there really that much of A difference? I means yes I can tell the difference between $100 pair of speakers from BestBuy vs those $3000 B&W� bad-boys I inherited from my father if I crank them up!!. But can you guys really tell the difference in those 5� or 6� series of Studio Monitors? ! I guess the speakers I have already are not really for this purpose?

My question I guess to is if I was to buy one thing first i.e. Studio Monitors for $300-$400 or a pair of Good Headphone for $150-$200, what should I invest in first.

Now your gonna tell me they are 2 different things right? Lol
Let me guess the headphones are more valuable to Recording and the Monitors for mixing?

I hears great things about the AKG Phones(forget the model??/) but the dealer I go to (L&M) only seems to have the ADAM Studio Monitors in my price Range for now!

Any suggestions appreciated

get an amp for your speakers

the only thing to say to this is that usual hifi speakers or whatever those BWs are...colour the sound in a sort of way...their frequency response is different...what you'd want to when you need monitoring is having the response as flat as possible...monitors are built to have frequency response flat so you hear everything...they aren't made to sound necessarilly good...like hifi's or how to say that...hope you get my point...

in your place I'd buy the headphones if you're so much into that...but still I think think you'd be better off, if you saved some more money to buy some decent monitors...even those Behringer Truth's are quite good as far as I've heard.

Yeah thanks Boost! I talked with a guy here who has a little studio and he explained the same thing to me and the suprizing thing is ... I get it lol!!

The Monitors will provide the "True Sound" and not Colorized as you put it!!! thx

But will the Headphones do the same???

should I not just ge tthe headphone NOW for 150 and then save or invest 350-500 later on. Dont I need a good set of headphones anyways or are these not used at all to mix or master but just to record vox or guitars lets say?

I do all my mixing on the monitors...no headphones here ever...

but then again some people prefer having both quality monitoring HPs and monitors...well why not...it's just whatever works for you...I just like working on monitors only...

Will these suffice or dont waist the money???
KRK RP-5 Powered Reference Studio Monitor $369(cdn)

well you better ask the other guys on here

but I've seen the KRKs on many setup pics...so they should be good...anyway no experience with them so you better wait for some more opinions

you could build some new crossovers to go into your b+w's. some that do not include the part that tones down those midrange freq's. im sure you will find some plans on the net. just find out the crossover freq of the ones in there at the mo. B+W use better drivers than most of the lower quality studio monitor manufacturers so you will probably end up with a usable performance that kill anything that krk will do at the prices you suggest. crossover networks are very easy to put together and there are lots of schematics on the web. then you can harness the quality of the B+w's

not everyone is capable of doing their own monitors, Rich! crossovers neither

Crossovers are easy. Order the parts from parts express zap em together with a soldering iron. Easier than baking a cake.

quote:

Originally posted by Zild Crossovers are easy. Order the parts from parts express zap em together with a soldering iron. Easier than baking a cake.

Easy to make, not to design :P

Thats why you look up the plans on the interweb man.

Studio headphones reproduce the sound as accurately as studio monitors, but the bass on headphones is... different. Some headphones do okay with bass in terms of accuracy but it's just not the same as a real sub or a set of good monitors.

However, crappy monitors without a sub won't help you there either, so keep that in mind. For a max budget of $400 I wouldn't bother with monitors at all since you just can't get really good ones at that price.

Headphones are also going to create more listening fatigue, and you have to keep in mind that no matter how good your headphones are, most people are going to be listening on speakers which will sound different.

What you and every producer should really be doing is using several sets of outputs and switching between them fairly frequently. That really isn't necessary at the "noob" level though - focus on the arrangement first, worry about the sound quality later.

I would go for both if you can get them. Monitors for your main mixing/eqing/mastering etc and the headphones as a secondary source. It's always good to have another reliable output to compare on.

When i asked some sound engineers about this topic they said we use sometimes headphones to mix with when we work outside our own studio as the sound output is different so to make sure that everything stays same we use headphones

Wut do u think guys about this?

Doesn't really matter once you get used to how the headphones/monitors sound and compensate accordingly. Stereo separation and panning sounds way different on headphones than it does on nearfield monitors because the sound reaches your ear faster on headphones. Which makes sense as both the low and high frequency driver is right up against your ear.

Then again, stereo separation and panning can sound weird if you use nearfield monitors off axis so what the hell. Nothing you can't learn your way around.

I use headphones when my neighbors complain about the noise. When nobody else is home, I crank up the BM5as and let rip.

I got the AKG 240's (nice) but Im sorry guys all I will be able to afford for Reference Monitors for a whil is th LItle KRK Rokit 5's $369/pair maybe 6's for $489/pair if available unless somewhoe can talk me out each?

I personally hated those KRK rokit monitors so if you were me, I wouldn't need alot of convincing not to buy them anyway.

quote:

I noticed quite the debate on another thread as to the Self powered studio monitor suggestions. Is there really that much of A difference? I means yes I can tell the difference between $100 pair of speakers from BestBuy vs those $3000 B&W� bad-boys I inherited from my father if I crank them up!!. But can you guys really tell the difference in those 5� or 6� series of Studio Monitors? ! I guess the speakers I have already are not really for this purpose?

I think at some point you should buy a decent pair of headphones, but for now a 2.1 setup is the way you need go. It�s very hard to get the bass right on headphones espescially with electronic music. Reverb is even more difficult to gage and get to translate right. What you need is an honest open sound field with good low end response in a near field setting. Despite what many of these people think, many high fi speakers over $1500 are more neutral, responsive, and acurate than any self powered monitors under $1000. I am aware that not everyone has a lot of money to spend on this kind of stuff. So you need to get the most for your money. In a near field setting do not worry about 5, 6, 8inch drivers. Your low end in a smaller enviroment will translate much better if you have a sub. There are a couple of options



plus this


or this

plus this


Now all of these are under $550 and I think will satisfy you performance and translation wise alot more than any 2 speaker system under $1000. I recomend the Blue Sky System and challenge you to find a negative review of it any ware on the interent.
Now if you really want to hear things in your music that you could not hear before these will give you a spirtual awakening











plus

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.