The Best Active Studio Monitors...

[Brian in Charlotte]

Hi All: I know there are many variables and certainly opinions will be endless...but would you mind chiming in with your recommendation given the room and type of work I do?

Type of work: I am a professional voice actor and I also produce 2 half hour talk programs as well as radio imaging and commercial production.

Goal: A pair of active monitors that will provide me with a true sound of my mix whereby my product will translate to other systems well.

Room Size: Walk-in closet at home that is 8' x 4'.

Room Treatment: I don't know the name, but I have gray fabric treatment panels on all walls, thus the room is DEAD! (needed because I do my voiceover as well as my production in here)

Current Monitors: M-Audio Studiophile LX-4 w/Sub (problem is, how in the world do you know how much sub level to add since the satellites have no low end response that I can tell. The monitors sit 3' center to center from each other and I sit about 3.5 feet from them. I used 1K tone at 0.0dB and at the sitting position my SPL is approx. 84db. I have played various professionally mastered CD's through the system including classical, jazz, rock etc. and set the sub level about where I think it should go however I still don't have the confidence that "my sound" is the "true sound", thus my thought that better reference monitors will help to bring the needed confidence.

I eagerly await all responses! Thanks so much for your time.


Brian in Charlotte
www.VoiceOverForYou.com
Blog: VoicePro.blogspot.com


G5 Dual 2gig, 3 gigs memory, 002, LE 7.3.1

[albee1952]

Sounds like you are approaching this the right way. Of course, the only "Best" monitor will be the one that is happy in your room, so get a return policy or buy elsewhere. I would think that doing VO work, you would not bother with a sub at all. You could likely get away with s slightly smaller woofer(5-7") and double check your final on good quality headphones to listen to the lowest octaves without worrying about the room's effect(and a room that small will have low frequency problems that would require serious bass traps to fix). Some solid choices in no particular order: Adam A7, Event SP6, Mackie HR624, Dynaudio BM5 or BM6, Tannoy System 600A. These are all in the range of $750-1100.

[Brian in Charlotte]

Albee: All the monitors you listed are ones I'm checking in to!! I use Sony MDR 7506 headphones. Bass traps...golly, my room is dead and I have corregated foam in the corners as well...would there still be issues?

Thankfully, other than the dry VO I record, the most I do is produce radio imaging and commercials/promos so it is probably a more forgiving arena then otherwise would be with mixing songs.

Thanks so much for your time, I greatly appreciate it.

Brian in Charlotte
www.VoiceOverForYou.com

[brandonroland]

for home.. blue sky

[brandonroland]

for home.. blue sky

[Brian in Charlotte]

Brandon, I had heard of those and saw some today, but they seem to all come with a Sub...which would not be good for my particular application.


Brian in Charlotte
www.VoiceOverForYou.com

[albee1952]

I would be hesitant on the Alesis Monitor One's as I have a friend that has had 2 bad sets in a row(but they did sound decent. Foam corner treatments don't really affect/absorb low enough. Poke around the internet a bit as the room dimensions can be plugged into formula to determine the frequencies that will likely cause troubles. The smaller the room, the worse the low frequencies can be. For example, my room is 14' wide, 8' high and 21' long with the side walls sloping(to follow the roof) from around5' to the ceiling. With foam corner blocks, I had 2 peaks of +14db and 2 nulls of -12 to 14db, all happening between 70Hz and 160Hz. The Blue Sky systems are worth checking out as you should be able to adjust the subwoofer level if the sound too boomy. Good luck on your search.

[Brian in Charlotte]

The "adjust the sub" brings me back to where I am right now with the much lower priced M-Audio LX4 2.1 system. I wish there was a way to calibrate for my particular use. I'm sure real sound folks would know what to do.

Thinking of the sub level as a clock, it is pointed at 9:00 right now and I simply don't know if it's accurate, albeit I ran classical music, jazz etc. through it.

I was able to listen to the Dynaudio BM5a's today...........OH MY...they really were clear yet the lows were certainly strong and full. I then listened to the much lower end Samson Rubicon 5's and they were just OK...NOTHING in comparison to the Dynaudio's, but they were better than the M-Audio BX5a's.

I would still like to try the Event TR6's and I'm sure I would LOVE the ADAM A7. My space is so limited that the M-Audio LX 4 satellites I have fit wonderfully but without the sub, they have no low end at all.

Brian in Charlotte
www.VoiceOverForYou.com

[froyo]

Hello. Well one of the best recommendations I could give you on the subject has actually nothing to do with monitors themselves. It deals mainly with what you hear and where. First off, if you go to an audiologist or an ear,nose and throat doctor you can find out what you are hearing. You can get a visual graph on what frequencies your ears may be boosting or cutting. Then if you can get an acoustic analysis of the room in which the monitors will be in you can find out what frequencies the room is adding or subtracting.

If you put those two together along with the frequency plot from any of these other monitor suggestions you will be a long way to achieving as flat an environment as you possibly can. There is a lot of software that can do frequency analysis of a room, as well as many acoustic designers or consultants that can do that for you.

There is nothing that varies more from person to person than what their ears are capturing and yet it is the single most defining factor in what one hears as opposed to another. One person may find Genelec's perfect, to another they are crap; for another Mackie works but not for others. There are too many variables at work, the most important of which are your own ears. You may also want to look into Ik Multimedia's new ARC system. Good luck.

[albee1952]

2 ways to calibrate come to mind. 1-call around to local sound companies and see if you can get a tech to bring over a SMAART or SpectrFoo measurement system and tune the level of your sub. This can also point out problem frequencies(if any) so that you are at least aware of them(put the measurement mic on a short stand so it sits at ear level in your mix position). The other depends on your speakers having a true high-pass switch. If they do, and the sub has a crossover frequency knob and phase(polarity) switch, here's a method. Turn the sub down, set its crossover freq to the same as the high-pass on the top speakers. Reverse the polarity(phase) on the sub, send a sine wave(signal generator plugin) at the crossover frequency, turn the sub up slowly until the tone gets softer in level. When it is as low as it gets, that is the point of maximum cancellation which means the top speakers AND the sub are at the same level for your listening position. Flip the polarity back to normal and take a listen.