Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[onekid]

I am looking for monitors and have up to  $1300 MAX. My mix room is very small (second bedroom) with 703/705 on walls and I want to keep it as real as possible. Here is what I am looking at.
1) Genelec 8030A $1200 (Active)
2) Dynaudio BM5A $1000 (Active)
3) Dynaudio BM6 $1300 (Passive) w/ Hafler PM3000 Amp.
I am ruling out the Event's and KRK's & Mackies because I feel in this price range although these other brands and models may have deeper bass response I must be sacrificing midrange detail which is more important. I can always add a sub when I move to a bigger room. Is this line of thinking smart? Are there other choices out there. The material I am working on runs the gamut from jazz, chamber groups to rock n roll. Is mixing with this limited bass response acceptable?

[hargerst]

I like the Dynaudio stuff better than the Genelacs, but that's just me. You really hafta listen to all three systems and try to figure out which is gonna work best for you.  

There are no clear-cut winners in this price range; everything is a trade-off to some extent.  You hafta determine which trade-offs are most important to you.

[James Duncan]

I keep hearing such good stuff about the new Events...it is probably worth a *listen* at least.

The Genelec 8030's have such small woofers, I would be bit a bit leary without a sub to go that small. I think the 8030's are really designed to be used in a surround (5.1) system with a sub.

[jgreenlee]

A month ago I was kinda down on my Mackies but I've since changed my setup around and I'm much happier.  First off I measured and placed my speaker stands equally in my room.  I pushed them in and out a little further.  Then I connected the Mackies directly to the outputs of my MOTU 192 rig and turned the gain on the speakers down.  No longer do I have the temptation to crank things up and blow my hearing for the next few hours.  Adjusting the settings on the back helped fix some bass problems and overall "mud" I had been experiencing with them.  Specifically I set them for quarter space, 37hz roll-off and set the top end to -2db.  I put up some treatment to kill off early reflections from the side walls and that helped the imaging immensely.

Those changes really impacted my room in a big way.  I'm not saying, "Dude!  You've gotta get Mackies!"  I am saying that whatever you get, you need to play with them in your room and adjust your speakers to match your environment.  In the two years I've had the Mackies this is the happiest I've been with them.

Peace,

James

[Stan Barrington]

There was a similiar thread posted by a long-standing member who,being a pro producer and owning the HR824's himself,suggested that because these and other similiar self-powered monitors are  self limiting(therefor will drive into compression at some point)that they must be placed eleven inches OR LESS from the wall OR at least seven feet out.(The latter placement assumes you have a long enough room to play with).This was his recommendation to avoid certain freq problems from killing the fun...I'm really glad I read his post since I have them and it's really nice to trust an expert opinion that there is hope for some average gear...

[Vertigo]

Events can give you GREAT mixes - that's been proven to me on numerous occasions by some of my peers that are into using Events. I currently have a pair of TR8XL's which I LOVE. And I'm told that the SP8's (which are going for $1299 new) put them to shame. So I definitely wouldn't cross them off the list for consideration.

As far as not driving active monitors into compression, it's simple - just don't crank the crap out of them and you won't have any worries. A decent set of active monitors will put out MORE than enough volume for mixing purposes before the limiter kicks in. And you shouldn't be mixing at high volumes anyway in my opinion. A decibal or two above conversational level is fine for mixing. Just crank the volume up every now and then to get an idea of what's going on with the low end. This will also produce mixes that sound the same at any volume.

-Lance

[hargerst]

Right on about mixing at lower levels.  My ancient ears are shot, but low level mixing works best for getting close, then cranking it to make sure everything is still sitting in the pocket.  

Unless there's a big dropoff in low end response, or a loud honk to the system, almost any of the decent monitors can be used, once you get familiar with their little quirks.

[ricknroll]

If you have a passable amp to get you by for a while, consider the Dynaudio BM15ps.  I recently bought a pair for about $1100 and got the passives because I wanted to be able to pick the power amp myself.  I was going to make do with my existing Hafler amp, but a local shop had a used Bryston 4B so I splurged and think it is a great combo.  You can always upgrade from a cheap amp to a better one later.  Part of what made me go for the 15 instead of the 6 was a thread Bob Katz started, arguing that the BM6s don't have sufficient bass response.

-Rick

[thedoc]

I spent a lot of time during the last AES convention in SF checking out small monitors in  this price range.  There were some great monitors by many companies, but my final 2 were Genelec and Dynaudio.  Happily their demo rooms were also very close to each other.

I bought the Genelec 8040's but it was a close call.  A good friend in town whom I  trust a lot (Mark Ettle) likes the Dyns.....Ya can't lose either way in my opinion.

PS, yes the 8040's cost a tad more than the 8030's, but worth it in the long run.

[baekgaard]

I have the Dynaudio BM6a (active version). To my ears, the Genelecs are also nice and in a similar (high) class, but can be a bit more strident in the top end, and potentially cause hearing fatigue in my ears.

The Dynaudios are, again to my taste, much more balanced, but still very much open and true -- and they have a fantastic imaging, btw. I really like their sound!

Between the BM5 and BM6, I much prefer the BM6. I originally had decided, like you, to go with the BM5, but after comparing them side by side, the BM6 won, hands down.

It costed more money than I had originally planned, but I'm really happy with those monitors, and have never regreted.


-- Per.

[Teddy G.]

Get a pair of Yamaha SP5A's(or other brand) for half your budget and put the rest into improving the accoustics of your small room(Maybe a couple of Mini Real Traps?)... Really good(Or any large) speakers are likely a waste in such a space(Yes, I have just such a space, sigh...). Lesser, but still nice, smaller speakers will probably do you a good job - for now.

TG

[toilinthedark]

I have a pair of the Dynaudio bm6a's and I love them.
One thing I have been uncertain of is how to set the LF and HF trim pots.
Any tips or experiences in setting these?
I just set them at 0.

I saw a post earlier that quoted a Mackie tech as saying that active speakers should be either less than 11" or more than 7' from the front wall.
Does this make sense?
Thanks