Hi there.
I'm just hoping that someone could give me some advice about setting up a pair of active monitors. They're Yamaha HS50M's.

I've been trying to produce music for about 10 years, and seeing as I'm a typical tight fisted Scotsman, I've been using a pair of JPW Hifi Speakers that are now 18 years old and going to the scrap yard! (I know - I'm a f**king idiot)

Anyway, I got a pair of Yamaha HS50M's and a pair of stands to put them on. Altogether, they cost about £270 so I know they're not exactly high end monitors but they get really good reviews and they were all I could afford at the moment.

Anyway, I spent about half a day setting them up as best I could after reading info about getting them in the right position. 60 Degrees, tweeter at head hight etc,,,,,,

The thing is. When I'm using them to produce, with Reason or Ableton with my Virus, etc, they sound f**cking incredible. It's like being sat right in front of a symphony orchestra, BUT, when I'm using Traktor, listening to CD's or MP3's, they just don't sound as good as my old crappy hi-fi speakers, but I appreciate that they were made to enhance the music unlike Monitors which give a far more accurate and level reproduction of what you are playing. I also wondered if it was just simply a case of the adjustment from listening to one pair of speakers for 18 years to suddenly having the monitors.

Anyone got any ideas.

By the way. I should point out, and I know, before you say it, seeing as I'm an idiot, I'm still using a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card that's 10 years old. I'm sure that is also probably a factor. Time to splash out some more cash methinks!!!!

I'm sorry that this is such a long drawn out post, but I just want to get my setup correct!!

Cheers

Hello mate,
#
Its more to do with the quality of the recorded material you are using, ie the MP3`s.

Sounds like you have everything right if you have been reading about placement etc and your Virus etc sounds good.

You need to get better quality MP3`s.

Mark

___________________
In life there is nought but you, the universe, and experience of both, make the most of them, be free, express yourself and love life !

Psy-Trance Production

Cheers for your help Mark.
I think I've kind of discovered what might have been the problem. When I got the speakers, I changed over the sound card to a better one, an M-Audio Audiophile Delta 192 , that I had but the machine didn't recognise it, then when I switched back to the old car, the machine didn't recognise it and the drivers for it were windows ones, not M-Audio ones so I ended up just doing a system restore and that seems to have solved the problem.

Incidentally, I was just listening to an mp3 through Traktor and the sound, sounded much more open, when I opened up the speakers but I appreciate that you wouldn't have the speakers like that when you were sitting in front of the computer, producing your own stuff.

Well glad you got it sorted mate.

Incidentally i am a tight fisted Scotsman also however i live in Thailand at the minute but will be returning to the motherland in 3 months or so, where you at?

Mark

___________________
In life there is nought but you, the universe, and experience of both, make the most of them, be free, express yourself and love life !

Psy-Trance Production

<3 these speakers and have been using them as reference for some years now.

I've found that having the space between the tweeter/cone approx. ear level seems to be the most enjoyable, and gives me the best results. The hs50's are bright like their NS10 predecessor, even with -2db trim, and can get a bit fatiguing. I've heard that they operate best "standing up" and that laying them down can ruin the audio image.

Have you played with the trim on them at all? You can use the trim features to really dial them in with regards to your room.

You can also use the trimming as a tool for your mixes. You can set the med/high trim to +2db (emulating NS10's to some extent) and really dial your med/highs in. Once you get the mix sounding solid at that trim level, you can then drop them into "hi-fi" mode with -2db trim on the highs/meds and really enjoy how wonderful the mix sounds.

The important thing to keep in mind with the HS50m's is that they lack in the low frequency department, so you're going to either have to get a feel for that, or find a way to monitor your low/sub-bass range. (they're reasonably accurate down to 35hz)

For the rest of the frequency spectrum, they're surprisingly accurate for their price range especially in the meds, so you can have some trust in what you're hearing from them.

Lastly, the soundcard/DAC doesn't make as much of a difference as one might think. (I'll probably be flamed down for this but w/e) I upgraded from a run of the mill Sound-Blaster Audigy platinum, to an apogee mini-dac and barely noticed the difference. Monitors, room, and your ears make the biggest difference imho.

Last edited by theterran on Feb-25-2013 at 19:25