Figure 3: The frequency response of Wharfedale's Diamond 8.2.Figure 3b: The waterfall plot for the Diamond 8.2.Figure 3, the plot of the Wharfedale Diamond 8.2, demonstrates another neat frequency response. The B&W also demonstrates a definite lump in its response between 4kHz and 8kHz, however. A neutral tonal balance, however, is not the same thing as a flat axial frequency response — this is a common mistake. Review of the Ancient Audio Studio Oslo loudspeakers. The low-frequency sections of the response curves published here were generated via such a technique and then spliced at 150Hz onto directly measured frequency-response data. Certainly, the added low-frequency bandwidth will mean that bass signals all but inaudible on the B&W will be heard, but its resonant nature is likely to result in bass-light mixes. It had little pretence to audio accuracy or wide bandwidth, and was simply intended to provide a reference for the likely sound of recordings when reproduced on an AM radio, or via a TV. So the Auratone was not really a 'nearfield' in the sense that we understand the term now, but it did set a precedent for auxiliary monitors, and prepared the ground for the second nearfield icon — the Yamaha NS10M. I spent a lot of time looking over potential woofers, but the Audax HM210C0 8″ Carbon Fi… Studio monitors — even quite basic ones — also generally feature some way of tailoring their response to suit their environment, even if it's just a bass roll-off control for use when the monitor is up against a wall. To be a little more precise (but not a lot), it depends on the type of material you're recording, your aspirations for it, the specific hi-fi speakers you have (the term can cover a multitude of interpretations) and the recording environment you're working in. In fact, if anything, they fall into two rather different groups, with the B&W and Dynaudio offering a balance appropriate for nearfield use in small rooms (coincidentally, the Dynaudio and B&W have low-frequency response shapes so similar they could almost be a pair), while the Wharfedale and KRK offer something more suited to listening at a greater distance in larger rooms. Producer Spike Stent with his Yamaha NS10s and KRK 9000Bs at Olympic Studios, London. Figure 1b: The DM303 waterfall plot.The B&W's tidy frequency response is accompanied by a similarly good waterfall plot (see Figure 1b). This feature, one that I've seen demonstrated by other Dynaudio bass/mid drivers, is, I suspect, a consequence of their unusual external voice-coil construction. While home stereo or hi-fi speakers are often referred to as “passive” speakers (meaning they require an external amplifier), studio monitors are “active” or … Bulkier Than Computer Speakers . I knew roughly where I wanted to put my crossover points, so the first step was to select drivers that would not only work well within their given frequency range but also with one another. Just as a small sample, Adam, B&W, Genelec and PMC make the … And I believe the better value is actually in hi-fi speakers. The waterfall plots therefore illustrate how good the speakers are at switching off, and the Z-axis plot for a notional 'perfect speaker' would be empty. And we’ve poured every one of our 40 years of hi-fi experience into creating it. Studio monitors are intended to produce a flat frequency response to playback the audio recording exactly as intended without any kind of coloration to the sound. The problem with monitors is that they are quite "directional", you have to be around the sweetpot to listen to them, when you move around the sound won't be the same. The "problem" with hi-fi speakers is that it costs substantially more vs monitors, to get quality sound. Probably by accident, it displayed a pretty characterful tonal balance and this perhaps helped it become the nearfield benchmark, as material mixed on NS10Ms sounded 'wrong' on anything else. The response notch at 750Hz is revealed as a strong and persistent resonance. Yes, studio monitors are ideal for listening to classical. All rights reserved. BM5s should be used with their tweeters facing inwards, but they are then at risk of coloration effects from tonally diverse side-wall reflections. Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates & SOS. Lots of people like to audition their final mixes on a variety of hi-fi systems (not to mention car stereos, boomboxes, televisions — you name it!) Active/passive – studio monitors tend to be active i.e. Even at the end of this two-part feature the answer is likely to be a shade of grey rather than black or white. Wharfedale Diamond 8.2.So monitoring is a vital part of the recording chain — but that doesn't answer the hi-fi speakers question. 99. Saved by Mike Wheeler. Moukey 3'' Studio Monitors Bookshelf Speaker (Pair) - 2.0 Stereo Powered Speakers Active Near Field Recording Monitors with 2-Pack Including Studio Monitor Isolation Pads-Wooden Enclosure -MA20-2. With wavelengths measured in many metres and room effects dominating, the chances of a measurement microphone capturing any truly reliable data are remote — even in an anechoic chamber. Each curve reveals some interesting characteristics of the speaker in question. They sound usually flat and very good (they are used by studio engineers), and are sold without the snake oil usually present in hifi. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers. Tags: hi fi news, hifi news, Horn Loudspeaker, loudspeaker, Loudspeakers, speakers, studio monitors Featuring the JBL D2415K dual 1.5-inch compression driver and pairing it with a large-format HDI horn, the new JBL 4349 is the brand’s latest monitor loudspeaker. Figure 2: The frequency response of the KRK K-Rok.The second interesting feature of the K‑Roks' response is a sharp notch at 750Hz — more on this in the following paragraph. Figure 1: The frequency response of the B&W DM303.Figure 1, the graph of the B&W DM303, is probably the tidiest basic frequency response of the four and, along with that of the Dynaudio BM5, has a shape that should be pretty well suited to nearfield use in a small control room. This is output that the speaker adds to the intended signal, colouring the sound and effectively degrading the signal-to-noise ratio. Also, studio monitors are generally more robust than their hi-fi counterparts, as they need to cope with being used for extended periods of time, often at quite high listening levels. Dec 3, 2015 - Awesome sounding JBL 4430 Studio Monitors.. . We now live in different times. Two features dominate. Newer studio monitors will often come with amplifiers and crossovers built into it. We've taken care of the tech. The perceived tonal balance of a speaker is the combination of the direct sound from the drivers and reflected sound from nearby surfaces, and, as speakers are directional devices (especially at high frequencies), a flat axial frequency response doesn't mean that a loudspeaker will necessarily sound that way. Passive studio monitors, on the other hand, require the connection to a power amp of your choosing—like older hi-fi home stereo speakers you might use with your record player. Hi-fi and other home speakers are generally passive, receiving power from a dedicated standalone amplifier. Another feature of the BM5 is the sharp lump and dip in response between 4kHz and 5kHz. This is one very good reason why landscape-mounted nearfield monitors tend to be a bad idea — the horizontal off-axis response from laterally adjacent drivers will almost certainly display major discontinuities through the region where the drivers' outputs overlap. The Dynaudio and KRK have been established in the market for much longer (and indeed both have been reviewed in Sound On Sound before — see KRK SOS June 1995 and Dynaudio SOS June 1996 respectively). A KRK Rokit, JBL 305, and even some offerings from the likes of Adam, Neumann, and Genelec aren't better performers than a host of "hi-fi" speakers at similar price points. It's a question often asked of Sound On Sound, but it's hard to answer, unless you're the kind of person that's satisfied with the reply 'it depends'. There's also more general 'hash' in the K‑Rok's waterfall, suggesting a generally higher 'noise floor' and less ability to resolve low-level detail. And while we'll concentrate this month on frequency-response issues, next month we'll look at power-handling and compression effects. Not all studio monitors acheive this, of course, and you could argue that a high-end hi-fi system will serve you better in this respect than a set of budget monitors. Polyester fiber panels/boards, do they work? Condition: These speakers have been used. Equip your recording studio with JB Hi-Fi today. I knew I wanted my system to be able to produce lows as deep as I could. The Wharfedale also has a discontinuity in its off-axis response at 12kHz that suggests a not entirely well-behaved tweeter. Hi, i am still searching for a pair of speakers for the living room and want to discuss about if a pair of Hifi-Speakers would fit better or a pair of Studio monitors would fit better. 4.2 out of 5 stars 59. Read the KRK Rokit G4 review. The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. They're all of similar physical size, and are all passive two-way systems. The curves are primarily dominated by the particular strengths and weaknesses of the drivers used, the size and proportions of their front panels and the low-frequency roll-off shapes chosen. Do not forget, the biggest difference between studio monitors and hi-fi speakers is the finish. They dont look as nice, but dont cost as much as hifi speakers. Wild variations between on and off-axis responses are well-known to result in perceived tonal imbalances, so if the monitor is not to sound unnaturally coloured, its off-axis response should be as close to a gently down-tilted version of the axial response as possible. In terms of frequency response, it's hard to see where the 'professional' K‑Rok is a better nearfield monitor than the 'hi-fi' DM303. Figure 4b: The BM5's waterfall plot.The response discontinuity shows up on Figure 4b, the waterfall plot of the BM5, but in contrast to the K‑Rok's resonance, the energy decays very quickly, so it's likely to be reasonably benign — although not completely inaudible. Quality studio monitors (ATC, PMC, Dynaudio, Genelec etc.) This studio monitor is the continuation of the exceptional … Although the splicing technique doesn't produce definitively accurate results, in the case of similarly dimensioned speakers like these four, it is accurate enough for valid comparison. Producer Spike Stent with his Yamaha NS10s and KRK 9000Bs at Olympic Studios, London.The early '80s also saw the rise of freelance 'celebrity' engineers, and I suspect it was one or two of these, carrying a few items of favoured gear from studio to studio, that first introduced the NS10M to the world. Figure 3: The frequency response of Wharfedale's Diamond 8.2. The Y-axis is level in dB, the X-axis is frequency from 200Hz to 20kHz, and time runs from back to front on the Z-axis (measurement constraints limit the length of time window available as frequency falls). Yamaha HS7 Review. I ask because with £300 to spend there are only a few well regarded monitors available that I've found, but for that money there are any number of amp and speaker combinations from respected manufacturers — not to mention that it's much easier to find places to audition them. You can’t just pick 3 random speakers and hope for the best. Firstly, hi-fi systems are generally designed to compliment or flatter the source material while studio monitors should aim to be as neutral and honest as possible, so as to reveal any problems to the engineer. Both the B&W and the Wharfedale were launched recently, and both have been pretty well reviewed in the hi-fi press and very widely distributed. The resonance is almost certainly the result of a mechanical mismatch between the bass/mid driver cone and its rubber surround, and may be audible as a distinctive mid-range character — one that we'd all be likely to try to suppress during recording or mixing. So a speaker such as the Wharfedale that already has an emphasis below a few hundred Hertz will begin to sound tonally unbalanced. Image 3 of 4. Figure 3b: The waterfall plot for the Diamond 8.2. First, the bass-response shape chosen is far more extended than that of the B&W, but it is bass extension at the expense of a resonant peak at 70Hz and consequently of transient behaviour. But we can work backwards, and predict generally how the axial response might look for different types of loudspeakers if they are to sound neutral. Available in 40, 50 and 65 flavours, the … Any signals within the plot occurring after zero time represent the decay of mechanical or acoustic resonances. From a more practical point of view, nearly all studio monitors are magnetically shielded so that they can be used in close proximity to CRT computer screens; hi-fi speakers may not be. They sounds great! As well as more exotic dual speaker monitors. The general consensus seems to be that it is uneven through the mid-range and too bright at the top (hence the commonly employed trick of hanging tissue paper over the tweeters to calm it down). Finally, while nearfield monitors are designed (as the name suggests) to be situated right in front of the engineer, hi-fi speakers are not — designers expect them to be listened to from a distance. Just be aware of the potential pitfalls outlined above, and if you buy separates, there's scope for you to upgrade to a studio-quality amp and passive monitors in stages. This will be audible, particularly as emphasis on sibilance and cymbals, and is in a critical region as far as balance perception is concerned. But … It will also tend to give the speaker an explicit, detailed kind of sound; I wonder if it may be an intentional part of the 'voicing' of a hi-fi product. Can anyone shed … Where the nearfield should demonstrate a slightly up-shelved response at a few hundred Hertz combined with a slow roll-off at either frequency extreme, the hi-fi speaker, unless it has been specifically balanced for use against a wall, should probably be closer to flat. 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