Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

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Mustang Martigan
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Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Mustang Martigan » Tue May 28, 2019 3:45 am

I only have a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 PRO headphones, no monitors. I'm in a situation where I can't afford both acoustical treatment and a pair of monitors. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth buying them if I can't treat my room, and just go with the headphones and something like the Sonarworks Reference 4 Software. Maybe even an upgraded pair of headphones.

What do you guys think?

kslight
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by kslight » Tue May 28, 2019 5:40 am

I have no experience with sonar works reference software so don’t know how well that works.

While it’s certainly possible to mix entirely on headphones (I’ve been there, or lived places where speakers are not an option), it’s easy to get lost in them...I would avoid it if you can, or at least be checking your mixes elsewhere.

This is not a specific recommendation, but given your situation maybe a small set of speakers would be advisable...something like this: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... ro-monitor

They are on sale from Memorial Day (sale still active as of now) and I had a lot of jam points so I ordered a pair to try (not as my only monitors though) for a mobile setup.

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Mustang Martigan » Tue May 28, 2019 5:49 am

kslight wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 5:40 am
I have no experience with sonar works reference software so don’t know how well that works.

While it’s certainly possible to mix entirely on headphones (I’ve been there, or lived places where speakers are not an option), it’s easy to get lost in them...I would avoid it if you can, or at least be checking your mixes elsewhere.

This is not a specific recommendation, but given your situation maybe a small set of speakers would be advisable...something like this: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... ro-monitor

They are on sale from Memorial Day (sale still active as of now) and I had a lot of jam points so I ordered a pair to try (not as my only monitors though) for a mobile setup.
$199 is the sale price? What are they usually? Can a 3" speaker really give accurate bass response?

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by kslight » Tue May 28, 2019 6:23 am

Mustang Martigan wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 5:49 am
kslight wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 5:40 am
I have no experience with sonar works reference software so don’t know how well that works.

While it’s certainly possible to mix entirely on headphones (I’ve been there, or lived places where speakers are not an option), it’s easy to get lost in them...I would avoid it if you can, or at least be checking your mixes elsewhere.

This is not a specific recommendation, but given your situation maybe a small set of speakers would be advisable...something like this: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... ro-monitor

They are on sale from Memorial Day (sale still active as of now) and I had a lot of jam points so I ordered a pair to try (not as my only monitors though) for a mobile setup.
$199 is the sale price? What are they usually? Can a 3" speaker really give accurate bass response?
$299 is the regular price. I have no idea how good they are honestly, I took a leap of faith and the same as you have been skeptical since I first saw these speakers. But there is a lot of positive buzz around these...which I can only take with a grain of salt..I was curious enough to see for myself.

Why I suggested to look at them though, was that in an untreated room being small monitors that shouldn’t be capable of blowing your head off with bass, might be a decent reference after all. Small woofers isn’t that crazy though, there are definitely some other small speakers out there from bigger brands with a much bigger price tag.

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Tue May 28, 2019 8:25 am

the Kali Audio speakers - people love them - they have a lot of options on the back for tuning them to how they're setup in a room

old cotton towels are almost as good as OC703 for your first refection points

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by losthighway » Tue May 28, 2019 2:25 pm

Keep your headphones, add the monitors. Listen on both. Wait, save a few hundred bucks and then buy some OC 703, some fabric and some hardware and try and tame your room a little more.

Step by step....

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by vvv » Tue May 28, 2019 4:29 pm

losthighway wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 2:25 pm
Keep your headphones, add the monitors. Listen on both. Wait, save a few hundred bucks and then buy some OC 703, some fabric and some hardware and try and tame your room a little more.

Step by step....
This.
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Recycled_Brains » Wed May 29, 2019 8:22 am

vvv wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 4:29 pm
losthighway wrote:
Tue May 28, 2019 2:25 pm
Keep your headphones, add the monitors. Listen on both. Wait, save a few hundred bucks and then buy some OC 703, some fabric and some hardware and try and tame your room a little more.

Step by step....
This.
Just buy bulk CD-Rs too, so you can go back and forth to your car, etc. It'll help you learn where the deficiencies are in the your untreated space. Then once you get the acoustic treatment going, that should all get a lot easier.
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by vvv » Thu May 30, 2019 10:48 pm

FWIW, I'm a big believer in using different listening sources and formats.

I drop various stages of mixes (ruff, version 1 & 3, final, etc.) in mp3 or wave or FLAC onto a digital player (like a Ipod but not) and listen on the train, shopping, taking moms to the doc, etc.
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Nick Sevilla » Fri May 31, 2019 4:44 pm

I recommend you do buy some speakers.

I highly recommend the JBL 3 Series, they are not expensive and are accurate enough for the price point. Get the 8"
speakers, not the 3" ones. They will give you a better bass response.

Once you have them, get used to them in your room WITH NO TREATMENT.

Listen to things you are very familiar through your headphones and the speakers at moderate level.

Once you "know them", you can come here and learn about any room treatment you might or might not need.

Too many people do both at the same time.It is best to not do that, and to learn both your speakers and your room before
making the jump to treating your room. Many mistakes can be avoided by going one step at a time.

Cheers

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... io-monitor
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by crow » Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:51 pm

Well, there's no point in treating the room if you have no speakers at all, but if you have any speakers at all, then improving your acoustics is job #1. To me, the quality of the gear is way less important than room acoustics.

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Snarl 12/8 » Tue Jun 04, 2019 10:50 pm

The day I spent clearing out my studio and then moving my speakers all around while playing test sweeps was very, very illustrative.
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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:41 pm

crow wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:51 pm
Well, there's no point in treating the room if you have no speakers at all, but if you have any speakers at all, then improving your acoustics is job #1. To me, the quality of the gear is way less important than room acoustics.
+1000. Room treatment is far and away the smartest money you can spend. You'd be much better off with a $200 pair of monitors in a well-treated room than a pair of $20,000 monitors in an untreated room.

If you really treat your room right, and I mean REALLY treat it, not just a few panels of 703, you won't believe how much of a difference it makes. My old room had a decent amount of treatment, it sounded good in there. My new one is SERIOUSLY treated and tested. It's an order of magnitude better in every way. I'm sure that sounds like hyperbolic exaggeration, but it's true.

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by Mustang Martigan » Sat Jun 08, 2019 4:48 am

Thanks for all the info. My problem is that I've got my gear set up at a temporary spot; I'll be moving in the near future. Cash is another problem, but for the sake of my question, let's say I have money.

If I'm gonna buy monitors, I want to get a decent pair, so when I am in a situation where I can install a treatment, I'm not stuck with dinky speakers. From all that I've read, and suggestions I've gotten in forums, I'd prob go with the Yamaha HS7.

Is there some kind of cheap, temp option to improve the acoustics without having to install anything? Like making a couple inexpensive baffles that I can move into position when mixing, and then back outta the way (in my closet or something)? I'd prefer to make the baffles with a material I can use down the road, when installation is possible.
The room I'm currently in is a big rectangle; the long side is 3 or 4 times the size as the short side.

Thanks again.

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Re: Is my situation condusive to a Monitor puchase?

Post by losthighway » Sat Jun 08, 2019 8:12 am

Anything you make out of 703 is easily taken down to put up elsewhere later. You can build it with frames covered with fabric and hang them like big ass paintings, or if you wanna be light weight you can just wrap them with burlap, hot glue the backs, and put some bolts through to hold it together, and hang by wire on the back. Really the only down side for you to do it now is they take up a fair amount of space as an item to move.

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