mackie hr824's

[jugalo180]

what's anyone's professional opinion on the mackie's. i hear that they are very flat and offer the best sound for the $1200 price range. i know that i am supposed to listen and compare, but i'm at a location where there aren't any music stores that carry studio monitors. everyone is telling me they can order them for me. yeah right, so they can get em for wholesale and charge me the list price. i'm just asking for help from people who have been afforded the opportunity to compare. i heare that with these speakers it is truly what you hear is what you get. i have checked out the frequency graph and it does apeare flat across the board.

[Light]

Mackies are flat. The one issue to keep in mind is that they attain that sound through the use of a passive radiator. This is basically an additional woofer, but without a driver. They sound great, and I love mine, but you have to beware of the transient response, which is a bit slow. The only ones I liked more were the Genelec 1031a, but I could not justify the additional expense for the slight improvement in sound. The just were not that much better.

Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[jugalo180]

interestinig. how would someone compare them to the tannoy active reveals?

[jugalo180]

wich one in anyone's personal opinion would be better fit for this?

Nearfield, shielded, active, home studio mixing-mastering-editing, all-in-one monitors.

[Kendog]

Haven't used the Reveals, but my 824s are AWESOME. Very clear, very precise for both panning and eq, nice and flat, good options from control panel on back.

Love 'em.

Ken Rutkowski
www.OuterLimitRecordingStudio.com

[jugalo180]

thanx kd.

[ambi]

the mackies are far ahead of any of the lower priced monitors. As was stated above you really have to go up to something like a genelec or dyn to get much better, and even then the price increase is huge. Ive heard the mackies and they sound awesome, but thats my opinion, you have to test them for yourself. Ive been told that they have a very small learning curve, and you can get good mixes right away. That is probably an exaduration, because no matter how good they are you still would have to get to know them. BUT, yes good, if i could afford them they would be mine, and they might be some day.

[jugalo180]

makes a lot of sence ambi, the less time i have to learn the speaker is the more time i have to learn something else.

[Kendog]

As for Ambi's comment on the learning curve... I can corroborate that. RIGHT AWAY my mixes transferred far, far better onto the mains, to my home system, and to my car.

We used Tannoy PBM-8s before this and the comparison is ridiculous. The Mackies make me feel like I used to mix with earmuffs on. Everything is so much more precise now.

Ken Rutkowski
www.OuterLimitRecordingStudio.com

[jugalo180]

kd your are making me anticipate those mackies a little bit more

[Aaron Cheney]

Gotta agree w/ Kendog 100% here.

Don't settle for anything less than the Mackies. Wait and save if you have to.

The only bad thing I can think of regarding them is that the "Mackie" stickers always fall off.


Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com

[DeadPoet]

I went out to hear the Genelec 1030 (1400€/$) and 1031 (2100€/$) today.
To my ears they rock.

I'm dying to find a store in Belgium that has the Mackie's, even though they cost about 1800€/$ over here....

Anyone knows if the Mackie 824 compare best to the Genelec 1030 or 1031 ???


Herwig

[Kendog]

Can't tell you from direct experience, but I've heard from several people whom I respect that the Genelecs are very slightly better, but not nearly enough to justify the cost difference, which over here is a couple thou, I believe.

Ken Rutkowski
www.OuterLimitRecordingStudio.com

[Label]

hi, i was just curious...how do the HR624s compare to the 824s?

[RSMITH123]

I had Tannoy Reveal Passives and liked them. I blew them in a drum session and lucked out by replacing them with Mackie 824's. There is more detail, depth and width. Not to mention that the bottom end is a heck of a lot more accurate.

[Johnboy Walton]

I had this whole huge response to this thread yesterday and my browser ate it so I gave up, but I HAVE to say something now. Not to knock the Mackies (I've got a set of the 824's myself which I love), but they do have a couple of weaknesses.

The first is that their tonality tends to change with volume. You're not supposed to vary your listening level when you mix anyway, but it's still something to be aware of. If you've got something with a lot of bass, you need to turn 'em up a bit before you can really feel it. Once you set them there, it's fine, but you need to find that "sweet spot" and for me, it was louder than I normally listened to music. And if you live in an apartment complex, it may be an issue with neighbors if the walls are very thin.

Also, if you like a very forward speaker in the midrange,(ie NS10s), then the Mackies may be too light on the mids for you. By comparison, the KRK V8s are MUCH louder in the mids than the 824s (and WAY louder than the JBL LSR28Ps). I only mention this to emphasize that you HAVE to check 'em out, at least in a store with multiple sets of speakers. It's worth a $200 weekend trip to get to a store that has many sets to try out if you're gonna spend $1500 US on something. You may find that a much cheaper speaker sounds better to your ears, or that the difference between, say, the 824s and the Event PS8s is not enough to warrant paying the extra money. Please do some critical listening, I'm begging. You'll have SO much more fun if you know you picked the best speaker for you.

Lastly, I did a side-by-side with the 824s and 624s when the 624s first came out, and I honestly couldn't hear the difference! So why'd I spend an extra $400 for the 824s? I'm gullible, pure and simple. "Why it's 2 louder, isn't it" to paraphrase Nigel.

Again, my simple suggestion - get thee to a music shop! Bring a buttload of CDs and try every speaker in the joint. My guess, you'll make multiple trips. It took me 2 years to make a choice! Oh yeah - and keep mixing. The more you can hear the individual elements of a composition, the more the differences in speakers will stand out.

[RSMITH123]

If you read interviews with mixing engineers, you will see a big disagreement with what you suggest about monitor volume.

Most pro's agree and suggest that you listen to it at different levels, 3 in particular. Normal, then check it loud and check it soft.

Personally, I have to say that I don't see the difference you mention in tone at different volume. Even if I did, I would first chalk it up to the human ear, not the speakers.

Help me guys... it's M_____'s curve?

BTW, why would you prefer speakers that exagerate the middle instead of present a flat response?

[Light]

It is called the Fletcher-Munson curve.

Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[ruebarb]

I've had a few discussions on the Mackie bulletin boards on HR 824's. I have em and used them to mix the demo my band did at www.nowhereradio.com/bstroublemakers

The general consenus is that they're good, but they tend to be a bit hard to mix with....we kept having mixes that didn't quite have enough high end. I'm usually going back and adding a couple 'db to the high end.

The room is important. The bass on those things is on the BACK of the speaker and radiates out. If you're like me and there's carpet back there, a lotta bass seems to get sucked out, so you compensate, and then the mixes are bass heavy.

I need a reference CD to get in the groove (usually Gin Blossom's New Miserable Experience) and I'm ready to go.

having said that...probably the best bang for the buck with Event 20/20's up next, but as been pointed out. you can get 20% more bang with Genelec's, but at about 120% of the buck.

RB

[RSMITH123]

How could someone recommend the 20/20's when they have such a scooped mid section?

[Johnboy Walton]

RSMITH123:
I would have totally agreed with you about the 824s tonality shifts had I not heard the JBL LSR28Ps. Granted, they're WAY scooped in the mids, but the bass response of those suckers never changes! They sound the same very quiet and very loud. JBL may have some compensating filters in there, like a loudness control, though, so who knows...

But you can also feel it in the floor. At a certain point, the 824s "knee over," and the bass gets really consistent. But up to that point it kinda lags. I'd like to think I've heard enough other speakers to tell the difference between Fletcher-Munson and the speaker, but I'm willing to admit I can be an idiot. It may just be that the 824s have such copious (and extended) low-end, that I have no real-world reference for how that kind of speaker sounds at varying levels. Either way, I just wanted to point out that, 824 or F-M, the Mackies like a fairly consistent volume level for mixing.

ruebarb:
I'll definitely second your comment about needing a reference CD!! The 824s high-end is SO much better than anything else I've owned that it's really easy to pull the highs back to compensate.

As for your comments about the room, that's something I wanted to say originally, but left out. No matter what speaker you get, your room is going to influence it. Some have gone so far as to recommend not even buying a speaker until you can try a bunch, blind, in the room in which you'll be mixing. It sounds like this won't be an option for jugalo180 (ICP fan?), but it's worth mentioning if you've got a room you'll be using for the forseeable future.