Best Monitors for the Room

[Mustang Martigan]

A fancy pair of headphones could be your other way to get a second opinion. Focal and Beyerdynamic both have some highly regarded, mixing quality headphones. But they might be about as pricey as one of your new monitors.

Has anyone tried mixing a song entirely on a pair of "mixing quality" headphones with reference software (like Reference 4)?

[Nick Sevilla]

I don't have monitors, just Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones and the Reference 4 software.. and I'm pretty sure that the 280s aren't even good enough for referencing the low end. There not even closed backed.

Well there is the quandary. I suppose you could buy the pair you like the most, but that would require listening sessions.

If you have a Budget, like a few grand, most speaker manufacturers can arrange a listening session in a local studio of their products.

Also, Guitar Centers and other music gear stores do have separate rooms for studio gear, where you can sit and listen to a few different pairs there.

While not ideal, at least you can listen to several different brands BEFORE you buy.

So, go listen to at least 6-10 different pairs of monitors, then make a choice, buy them, and then start listening in your room BEFORE doing anything else. As you learn the deficiencies of your room, before treatment, you'll more easily fix stuff.

Instead of "fixing" stuff you cannot hear on headphones, and then doing the acoustic treatment again with monitors.

[vernier]

More monitors, I'd look into what some of the successful studios have.

[Mustang Martigan]

So, go listen to at least 6-10 different pairs of monitors, then make a choice, buy them, and then start listening in your room BEFORE doing anything else. As you learn the deficiencies of your room, before treatment, you'll more easily fix stuff.

Instead of "fixing" stuff you cannot hear on headphones, and then doing the acoustic treatment again with monitors.

Should I be listening for certain things? Keep in mind that my ears aren't well trained.

Also, I'm most likely going the used route, and u can't listen to what's OOP at GC.

[Nick Sevilla]

So, go listen to at least 6-10 different pairs of monitors, then make a choice, buy them, and then start listening in your room BEFORE doing anything else. As you learn the deficiencies of your room, before treatment, you'll more easily fix stuff.

Instead of "fixing" stuff you cannot hear on headphones, and then doing the acoustic treatment again with monitors.

Should I be listening for certain things? Keep in mind that my ears aren't well trained.

Also, I'm most likely going the used route, and u can't listen to what's OOP at GC.

Listen to the ones that you LOVE. The ones that sound best to YOUR ears. Those are the pair you should buy.

Hopefully the mgr. at GC will let you listen to used monitors, if they have them.

If not, l;isten to the JBL 3 series. I have a pair, they are quite good, neutral. They sounded so close to my 8" JBLs, I had to swap them out LOL. So I can have a nearfield that does sound different to my midrange speakers.

[Mustang Martigan]

Listen to the ones that you LOVE. The ones that sound best to YOUR ears. Those are the pair you should buy.

I thought that a monitor with a flat freq range won't necessarily sound the best, like compared to a colored one.

[vvv]

That depends on what your best definition of "best" is.

Yeah, you want less colored vs. more colored, more flat than not, but don't get something you can't stand, unless you think it's best. Eh, for yer purpose.

NS10's are the archetypal "bad" sounding speakers that a lot of people have written they hated for years, but made successful records with, until, IMO, more choices came along that they could work with.

My Auratones are nowhere near as pretty sounding as my Tannoy PBM6.5II's (which do not sound as good cranked as my recreational-listening Klipsch Synergy's with Yama subs).

But I do 90% of my mixing on the Auratones, and they sound good, particularly if I start a session with 'em as the meat of it, use the Tannoys for the dessert. The Auratones are pretty non-fatiguing, and I can hear everything on them but deep lows -but I do get the upper harmonics for an idear of those, and it's fine. The Tannoys actually get those lows, with less emphasis on the mids that the Auratones make so clear - for my style of rock and country and jazz and funk the mids are the money, as in most guitar/vocal music.

EDM, etc., is different, of course ...

But look for the practical, affordable, and not annoying.

That's my best advice.

[Mustang Martigan]

That depends on what your best definition of "best" is.

Yeah, you want less colored vs. more colored, more flat than not, but don't get something you can't stand, unless you think it's best. Eh, for yer purpose.

NS10's are the archetypal "bad" sounding speakers that a lot of people have written they hated for years, but made successful records with, until, IMO, more choices came along that they could work with.

My Auratones are nowhere near as pretty sounding as my Tannoy PBM6.5II's (which do not sound as good cranked as my recreational-listening Klipsch Synergy's with Yama subs).

But I do 90% of my mixing on the Auratones, and they sound good, particularly if I start a session with 'em as the meat of it, use the Tannoys for the dessert. The Auratones are pretty non-fatiguing, and I can hear everything on them but deep lows -but I do get the upper harmonics for an idear of those, and it's fine. The Tannoys actually get those lows, with less emphasis on the mids that the Auratones make so clear - for my style of rock and country and jazz and funk the mids are the money, as in most guitar/vocal music.

EDM, etc., is different, of course ...

But look for the practical, affordable, and not annoying.

That's my best advice.

I get why some people prefer exciting sounding monitors, but it seems like they might throw a beginner like me off my game.

I've read that the T5V's reproduce sound so well that they can hide flaws in a mix. I don't need that kinda trouble at this early stage.

Also, those front ports on the A.50's are a big plus. Altho I'll be able to move the monitors into the middle of my current room, I'll only be here temporarily.. I might really want that front port.