Room Treatment and Monitor Choice

[ecc83]

I just checked and found that the legendary LS3/5a small monitors are only specified to +/- 3dB between 80Hz and 20kHz. These are serious BBC designed monitors and a brand new pair would set you back just under £3k these days. Of course you can achieve better value for money these days with something like the Neumann KH120 but they are still above £1k per pair. The Neumann's claim a variation of only +/- 1dB between 100Hz and 10kHz.

If I understand you correctly James you are pointing out that making a speaker with that FR specification is not a trivial exercise? If so that is my point. Throwing a generic commercial (albeit quite a decent one?) drive unit in a box is very unlikely to result in a response within 10dB up and down 100Hz to 10kHz. Also, starting with a free air resonance of 71Hz the system Fo will likely be well above 100Hz. Now you CAN run a speaker system below its system resonance but input power doubles per octave below Fo (IIRC, I know it gets big quickly) and distortion rises at an alarming rate.

And remember, that £3k does not include a very good stereo power amplifier.

Dave

 

[jamesperrett]

Yes, I was backing up your point Dave with some numbers relating to speakers that I know fairly well. I'm no fan of grot boxes in a commercial studio - if they are used then the mixing engineer should supply them because every engineer will have different tastes. We used to have NS10s in the studio but I feel our mixes were improved when the NS10s were replaced by the more accurate LS3/5as.

 

[mjbphotos]

I use JBL LSR305 (first gen). With limited space, I can't keep them feet away from the wall, so have 4" Roxul AFB panels behind them with a couple of inches between the ports and the panels.
For front-facing ports, the Kali Audio monitors are well thought of.

I always thought that the 80Hz for acoustic guitar low frequency made sense - until I recorded my Taylor dreadnought and looked at the frequency spectrum - there's quite a bit of action below 80Hz, which is what gives a wooden acoustic guitar it's 'flavor'.

 

[ecc83]

I use JBL LSR305 (first gen). With limited space, I can't keep them feet away from the wall, so have 4" Roxul AFB panels behind them with a couple of inches between the ports and the panels.
For front-facing ports, the Kali Audio monitors are well thought of.

I always thought that the 80Hz for acoustic guitar low frequency made sense - until I recorded my Taylor dreadnought and looked at the frequency spectrum - there's quite a bit of action below 80Hz, which is what gives a wooden acoustic guitar it's 'flavor'.

Some say "flavour" Mike, other might say "mud"! I would posit that most of the noise of a steel string acoustic below 80Hz is non-music related bumps and groans?

Son records nylon strung classical guitar and the very essence of that is to play ultra cleanly. No fret buzz or squeaks from lazy technique and certainly no out of band 'bumps'!

I know I am am an old fart but I would like to remind folk that people actually LISTEN to instruments at a distance, several metres in a classical recital where much of the 'intimate' noises would not be heard. Plus mics are generally 1/2mtr+ away and not sniffing the sound hole.

There was an old saying in audio engineering "The wider you open the window (f passband) the more the **** flies in!"

Dave.