What's the Difference Between....

[Zaphod B]

.....a speaker that's being sold as a near-field studio monitor, and

.....a speaker that's being sold as an accurate, high-end bookshelf speaker?

 

[Garry Sharp]

Well they can get quite close, it seems. For example this month's SOS carries a reviw of the AVI Pro Nine Plus passives, (a mere £799 a pair) which are recommended as nearfields for vocal / acoustic stuff but are also mainstream hi fi speakers. Also B&W's often perform both roles - you often hear of 303's being used, and I think Blue Bear uses 802's for some tasks.

However studio monitors do need to offer complete clarity, with consistent response throughout the frequency spectrum,and many hif speakers don't, they are designed to flatter the sound, make it "nicer" often by reducing mid range response. The AVI review commented that some hi fi people found they made the vocals too "forward", whereas that clarity is what you want in a near field.

I have just switched from hi-fi Wharfedals 8.2's, often recommended as good value for money as monitors, to a Genelec system, and the difference in clarity is amazing but the Gene's are not particularly "nice" to listen to.

 

[Massive Master]

Most nearfields are short-throw narrow-dispersion. They're made to sound accurate (as accurate as they can be, anyway) fairly close up. Essentially, to take the room out of the equation.