Studio Monitor Purchase- Clueless and conflicted.

JeremiahEdward

New member
Hello,

I am looking for a good pair of studio monitors to mix orchestral and film score music on. I have read several reviews on several different brands and it just turns into a product flame war and I cannot get any objective and unbiased user reviews.

Any idea what monitors would be best for film music? Or will any good set of monitors do? I have $600 allotted to spend on speakers.. I was looking at the yamaha hs50m monitors. Any experience with these and will they suit my purposes??

Many thanks for any advice!
 
I have read several reviews on several different brands and it just turns into a product flame war and I cannot get any objective and unbiased user reviews.
Objectivity is almost impossible when asking people to tell you what they think on a certain matter.
If you look back even over the last year of threads, you'll see plenty of bias here. That's what makes debate; bias.
That said, do a search here, say, type in "Monitors" and I'm sure of the threads that come up, you'll find info that will help you on your way.
 
It's subjective...personal...and only matters how a pair of monitors sound in YOUR studio for YOUR purpose.

Not sure about the Yammies....but for orchestral I would aim for clean/transparent/un-hyped/flat monitors...for film though, you may want some of the THX sub vibe...?

Awhile back I recall some folks saying that some of the Tannoy models were great for that type of music...can't recall which model, but they had the tweeter mounted inside the center of the speaker (not above it).

The Mackie 824 plus a sub will give you serious theater THX vibe...though you better have a room that can handle it.
 
I'd save up. You might find a used set of B&W DM602S3's and a decent amp, but for orchestral work, that's not even really what I'd be after (although in that price range, I don't think I'd want anything else).

Full range, lots of headroom (power), normal throw and dispersion are what you're after -- I'd do whatever I could to avoid nearfields.

In *any* case - You'd better have a room that can handle it.
 
FWIW the Yamaha speakers are in some ways the industry standard but not because of audio fidelity but because they are a happy medium between ultrafidelity and poo. The H550M is a powered version of the old Yamaha NS10 speakers that became a mainstay in most studios, originally they were a pretty average book shelf speaker so became a good "reference comparison" speaker, Yamaha took that and jacked up the prices astronomically for the historically uninformed. Very few just use a pair of NS10 H550M speakers only for reference or mixing, they will have a hi fidelity and switch to the yamaha to compare the mix. Same with the other ubiquitous reference speaker Avantone Auratones.
Due to the size and budget of my studio I use a Focusrite VRM box for comparing mixes after working them out on my mains and near field speakers, and will take the VRM box and near fields for mixing at a conference I am going to record next month.
Go for the highest fidelity speakers you can afford, most of todays powered monitors are quite good.
 
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