using 2 pair of monitoring speakers

[skyking]

my first pair of monitors ever was a pair of alesis monitor ones and i had always been under the assumtion that monitors kinda sorta all sounded somewhat similar since sounding flat what what they were trying to achieve ,but then i bought a pair of yamaha ns10m from a friend of mine and i made a switch to switch between the 2 and it stunned me how different they sound.....the alesis speakers sound like there is a pillow over them compared to the ns10m......i like having both pair ...i use the alesis for tracking so i dont have to worry bout blowin the paper cones in the yamahas.....whats up with them sounding so diff yet both are suppose to be emulating flat response ....just curious chas

[albee1952]

The Yamaha's never were designed to sound flat. They are the "new auratones" and are designed to sound crappy(relative term) so that if you can make a mix sound good on those, it will sound good on lots of systems. If all monitors sounded the same, there would only be a handfull of choices. The fact is that they all sound a bit different and the room they are in makes them even more different. Every control room's response is a combination of room acoustics AND the speakers AND where they are placed AND reflective boundries nearby(console top, meter bridge, large desktop etc).

[AMZavareei]

There are things other than frequency response that determines a monitors sound, including the amp that's used. One thing is how fast and accurately it responds to transients. I think that's called compliancy (how easily the driver can be set in motion) and damping factor (how well it returns to rest) for speakers and slew rate for the amps. If the damping factor isn't very good, it can lead to a kind of ringing.

[albee1952]

Good point that needs further info. Damping is ability of the amp to absorb the back-voltage from the voice coil and control the cone/voice coil movement. Damping factor is really not an issue with powered monitors or if you use 12 guage(or larger) speaker wires and keep them under 25' long. Compliancy shows up in non-powered speakers as a contributing factor in the speaker's efficiency rating. A speaker rated for 92 db at 1W/1M is likely more compliant than a speaker rated at 87 db at 1W/1M. Again, not really an issue if you are choosing among the many pro offerings in studio monitors. Self powered monitors benefit from extremely short speaker wires(great damping) and the ability to engineer the speaker's response with the input/crossover circuitry vs. a generic power amp into a speaker with a passive crossover which wastes power and can't do any where near the response shaping done with active circuits. There are some great sounding passive speakers and lots of great amplifiers, but they are expensive.

[nightshadecrisis]

i was amazed when we switched our amp for our NS10's from a Crown to a Hafler...warmer upper mid range...very noticeable.

[skyking]

thanks for the replies.......im using the same power amp which is an alesis ra100 to power both sets of speakers.....the difference between the ns10m and the alesis monitor ones is day and night and just kinda stunned me when i first a/b them....my mixes seem to translate much better now that i use the ns10 for mixing rather than the alesis speakers......i knew there would be a difference in sound but just didnt realize it would be that much .......everyday i learn something new......the challenge as i get older is remembering it again thanks for the replies....chas