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Good Monitors vs Room Acoustics, help please
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| EtherealSL |
What about room acoustics?
I'm ready to spend decent money on monitors (mackie hr624, yamaha hs80m, dynaudio bm 5a, krk v6 II) but the problem is that I live in an apartment with wooden floors, thin walls, and the room size is about 15' x 20' (it's pretty big)... So if my room acoustics are terrible, why bother spending good money on sound that still won't sound accurate because of my room?
Then I heard about the JBL LSR4326p (around 1150 USD) which apparently uses a built in mic to listen to its own output and automatically adjust the monitors so that they sound proper even if the room isn't treated right or treated at all.
Would like your opinion on what to do... I can't monitor from my crappy 2.1 set or my MDR V6's forever :( |
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| DJFreaq |
You know what sucks? You can't buy amazing monitors and hope that it helps if your room acoustics are .
I'm sure you know this. But consider investigating room treatment options first, before you blow the big bucks; only to find out you need to spend more money on making your room nicer sounding.
Even with amazing technology like you were describing. You can't buy magic monitors that will STOP echos and feedback on certain frequncies.
Consider: A throw rug or two. Don't go over the top. Wooden floors can be nice. And to totally damp ALL reflections would be a dis-service.
Next. Invest (or learn how to build) some gooooood bass traps in the corners of your room. You can control high frequency stuff pretty easily even with egg-cartons; but LOW frequencies like bass are a NIGHTMARE.
Tapestries are really cool, or a neat quilt. Hang them from the walls. It'll look cool + functional to a certain extent.
Anyway. Before you blow the dough. Learn your room VERY well. And start doing a few treatments here and there.
Good luck.
OH buy some plants. Get some nifty house plants, not only will it be nice and organic like... but it's natural sound treatment.
---Adam |
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| richg101 |
dont belive the claims that those mic adjusting systems work. you are better off ignoring them and using your ears. a decent pair of monitors will pay dividens, even when placed in a ty room.
visit:-
www.myspace.com/ceramic_loudspeakers
these speakers rawk and will be the new hot product.. |
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| DigiNut |
I think we've had a similar discussion here, not about acoustics but about noise. And my response would be pretty much the same: acoustics and monitor quality are two very different and independent factors in production.
As long as we're talking about near-field monitors then acoustics won't actually matter much. Of course, that's in an ideal world, and in the real world they do still matter, but not to the extent you're thinking. Okay, maybe your carpet sucks up half the bass. It's still better to have monitors that output the correct amount of bass in the first place.
I suppose it's remotely possible that your acoustical coloration is cancelling out your speaker/monitor coloration, but it's far more likely that the "damage" is cumulative, and if you can take steps to deal with either one of those factors, you'll be all the better for it. At the very least, you'd be making your environment a little more predictable.
I have ty acoustics and ty speakers incidentally, but that wouldn't stop me from getting high-quality monitors if they were in the budget. |
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| EtherealSL |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
and in the real world they do still matter, but not to the extent you're thinking. |
Well yes I am doing nearfield monitoring, but the acoustics seem to make a HUUGE different in the sound... and I notice the difference between apartments/houses that I've been in. I move from year to year here at uni and I bring all my equipment home for the summers and it's an asbolutely huge difference. But I get used to it and monitor around the crappy acoustics...
Why wouldn't they matter, wouldn't I get a reflection off of the wall behind me (even if it's about 15 feet behind me).
I would love to acoustically treat my room, but roomate would be very unhappy. It seems liek you all are saying that the JBLs aren't as good as they look... which is a let down, but it's better to know that now than after buying them.
I will try to put up some pictures of my room so give you all a better idea.
Great input this far, thanks for the insight :) |
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| echosystm |
i agree with dj freaq, you should bang out some cheap and nasty diy treatment at least...
heres some basic info you need...
FIRST, adjust your desk to the position that you will get the best and most even distribution of sound... ie. dont have it in the corner, have it in the middle of the room, dont have the speakers facing any glass surfaces if you can avoid it.. etc.
things to do in order of priority:
- make sure youve got a good 40cm at least between your monitors and the wall.
- try to keep your room as symetrical as posssible.
- dont have anything between you and the speakers.
- put your speakers on free standing stands, or buy some accoustic foam speaker pads (expensive - cheaper to just get stands, but make sure they're really sturdy)
- behind your seating position, you want to diffuse the sound (make it bounce off in all random directions). probably the easiest way to do that is to get a book case and fill it up with crap.
- you need absorbers do the left and the right of your seating position (to remove flutter echo i think - cant remember) and behind your monitors. a quick and easy way to make an absorber is build a box out of mdf and fill it with rockwool.
- you need bass traps in the corners, look into DIY tube traps, they're really quick to make. put 2 in the rear corners, and two in the front if you want.
and thats about it, should be able to get some pretty rad results for like an 8th of the cost of pro products :) |
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| echosystm |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
dont belive the claims that those mic adjusting systems work. you are better off ignoring them and using your ears. |
+1
it sounds like a gimmick to suck people in |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by echosystm
things to do in order of priority:
- make sure youve got a good 40cm at least between your monitors and the wall.
- try to keep your room as symetrical as posssible.
- dont have anything between you and the speakers.
- put your speakers on free standing stands, or buy some accoustic foam speaker pads (expensive - cheaper to just get stands, but make sure they're really sturdy)
- behind your seating position, you want to diffuse the sound (make it bounce off in all random directions). probably the easiest way to do that is to get a book case and fill it up with crap.
- you need absorbers do the left and the right of your seating position (to remove flutter echo i think - cant remember) and behind your monitors. a quick and easy way to make an absorber is build a box out of mdf and fill it with rockwool.
- you need bass traps in the corners, look into DIY tube traps, they're really quick to make. put 2 in the rear corners, and two in the front if you want. |
w00t, I'm 0 for 7, sweet! |
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| DJFreaq |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
w00t, I'm 0 for 7, sweet! |
?
Elaborate? |
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| echosystm |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
w00t, I'm 0 for 7, sweet! |
hahaa
i'm 4 for 7, hoping to make it to 6 by the end of the holidays :P |
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| richg101 |
jbl have a respected name. but to the real audio professionals they are not respected any more. they use their name too much when they should be designing better products. things have moved on and jbl seam to have stayed still.
go with some non american monitors imo. |
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