Do we really need high end monitors with Reference 3 ?

[Calderon]

I have a pair of HS7. Each time I read about monitors on the forums over the internet, there is two types of opinions.

Some people say that these monitors are really good, and that, in general, no matter how good are your monitors, the most important is that you have to learn how your monitors sounds to get great results.


Some others say that you'll not be able to achieve professionnal mixes with this kind of monitors, and that you need to buy some very expensive monitors.



I always felt worried about it, I never knew if I should invest a big amount of money wich would take a long time to get (I am a student), or to continue like it.



But, I recently bought Sonarworks Reference 3.

As you know, this software is correcting your room to get a flat response, but it correct obviously your monitors response too. I am very very happy with the results.

While I don't claims that it is perfect, I just have a question :


While there would be always big differences between a entry level and a high end pair of monitors, the major defects from your speakers would be corrected with Reference 3.

Let say that someone find his monitors crappy, and think he is unable to make a good mix with it, because he feel there is too much bass or medium frequencies. Sonarworks will make it flat.

Since the software correct it, i.e it corrects the major deficiencies of your speakers, how do high end monitors stand in front of entry level ones ?

Sorry for my bad english too...

[lfm]

What matters is how your mix translate to other devices it may play on - everything else is obsolete, or close to.

If monitors have some room tuning features it's excellent - get in the ball park, kind of.
With that and some relevant professional reference music you can calibrate your ears and compare how your mix sounds.

I feel it could just as well be a bad thing with too good monitors - you might maximize everything that those do real well - but consumer listening device might really create bad distortion of that. I've had that experience with CD's I bought - that tweeters on my home hifi speakers made it a bit harsch. But in my mixing monitors sounded much better, which has really hi end speaker elements.

I run my hifi amp with two speaker pairs and easy to switch. So everything the same but speakers, even the same DAC. So cross listening is always recommended.

Digital mixes today put so much more pressure on equipment I think. Levels and bass and everything were more harmonic and natural on vinyl stuff - it just does not take so much abuse. So probably why vinyl is coming back to some degree.

Tried to read up on monitors before I got mine - and experts talk about both frequency domain and time domain. Time domain is partly that speaker cone stop as soon as possible after signal is gone. If you think about it - if cone is moving while music continue in other frequencies like when a bass note hit is gone - it will affect how the rest sounds. That's one reason the non-ported monitors are considered better in this regard. LIke NS10 are closed box and and rather bad low end, stopping at 60 Hz or so - still were so popular.

Correction software will not fix this kind of anomali. Just frequency domain stuff.

There are interesting 3D charts that show this kind of relationship for frequency and time domain. There is a pdf - ns10m.pdf - search for it and look at various brands of monitors and how they look in time domain.

The ns10 stop below 100 Hz within 20ms, but many of the others take 100ms to stop cone.

[do_androids_dream]

You don't need 'high end monitors' - period. Like all things - the price really reflects the target market rather than the 'quality' of the product.

It's all about getting used to whatever system you have in the environment that you work in.

I recently mastered a track for one of the most well known electronic acts in the world on a bush multimedia pc speaker set up that cost me £16 on facebook's marketplace (I was not able to work on my usual monitors in my usual room) - in a room with no acoustic treatment - they loved the result..

[stillshaded]

I recently mastered a track for one of the most well known electronic acts in the world on a bush multimedia pc speaker set up that cost me £16 on facebook's marketplace (I was not able to work on my usual monitors in my usual room) - in a room with no acoustic treatment - they loved the result..

Well damn...

I actually just added some pc speakers to my rig and they are very handy. I have some event opals, but they are very difficult to mix on for me.. the mids are just too “spacious”. It’s hard for me to detect if things are fighting for space.

I also have a pair of ns-10, they are much more useful to me, as obviously colored as they are.



I do think that it can help to have some degree of accuracy in your monitors, it allows you to have control over details, but.. overall balance is the most important thing, and as long as your speakers can reproduce all the frequencies, regardless of how unbalanced it is, you can get a mix sounding good on em.

[chaosWyrM]

You don't need 'high end monitors' - period. Like all things - the price really reflects the target market rather than the 'quality' of the product.

It's all about getting used to whatever system you have in the environment that you work in.

I recently mastered a track for one of the most well known electronic acts in the world on a bush multimedia pc speaker set up that cost me £16 on facebook's marketplace (I was not able to work on my usual monitors in my usual room) - in a room with no acoustic treatment - they loved the result..

^that

you dont need monitors at all.

[Scotty]

You can learn to mix on poor speakers in a poor room. I did this for a few years but there were a lot of changes required when I auditioned the mixes on different systems. You can get there but I think it is fair to say it will take you longer to achieve the results.

When I moved up to better monitors, put some sound treatment in (primary reflections and some bass traps that are only effective in the low mids but they helped) and calibrated the room from the listening position a lot of guesswork was removed and I got to where I needed to go with less effort.

I don't doubt people can get good or even great results in compromised spaces... for many of us having a good set of speakers, mixing at low levels (helps take the room out of it) and calibrating the room from the listening position will likely give you quicker and more consistent results.

[Calderon]

Thanks for your replies, it makes senses...


Are HS7 considered as poor monitors ?

[Scotty]

I don't own them but I trust SOS on reviews more than most... read about them here.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-hs7-hs8s

In a small room if the speakers have to be near a wall or in a corner I'd prefer a front ported speaker.

[Unaspected]

Depends on what you call "high end". To me, high end monitors are going to set you back a fair few thousand and they would be wasted in a room that wasn't designed specifically for working with audio.

Mix with what sounds good to you. No one else has your ears - They are unique to you.

As for your last question: One would expect higher end studio monitors to distort less at greater amplitudes. This impacts on the reproduced frequency spectrum and transient response. So I would expect high end studio monitors to have better definition/resolution. This should be reflected in the spec sheet, which will give a rough idea but you'll never really know how good a pair of studio monitors sound until you hear them in the room in which you will work.