Speaker and hifi advice

singerRecorder

New member
Hello,

here's my setup to listen to music : mac book pro, outputting to focusrite scarlett solo sound card, going to an old hifi with speakers (see photo attached). I am in a room that is not treated for sound. The environment is quiet, but there will be sound bouncing against the walls.

I am interesting in mixing, but I do not have a good enough skillset, and the room I mix in is not treated for sound. So I am not trying to achieve a very high quality level, because I know I cannot.

However I am wondering if there is something at a reasonable cost (say downward of $1,500) that could help me achieve better quality sound to hear music for mixing.

I am grateful for any advice, but let me try to ask a few specific questions:
- what do you think of these speakers (6 ohm, made by sony a while back. definitely not specialist equipment) ?
- what do you think of the hifi itself ? Does it matter at all, given that I just set it to "aux" ?
- Can I just upgrade speakers, and keep everything else the same ?


Thanks !
 

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If you have a budget of $1500, I don't know why you would not want to get a decent of monitors and do some acoustic treatment? Otherwise, invest in a good set of headphones.
 
Pretty much what he said ^^

Forget that stereo, or at least set aside and use it as a point of comparison.

Instead spend some time looking at what's within your budget in the way of powered monitors. These will connect directly to your Scarlet, and, so long as your room doesn't trip you up, will give you a more accurate and dependable sound.
 
+1. The biggest issue with using consumer hifi gear is that a lot of it alters the audio to make it sound 'better'.
Anything advertising mega-bass or super this or that isn't going to be giving you an accurate representation of the mix.

What you want from monitors is the truth.

There's plenty of 'hi-fi' gear that can be very useful, like simple amplifiers from Yamaha/Denon/Marrantz and speakers from Jamo/Kef/ect,
but anything that looks, or sounds, like it has bells and whistles probably isn't going to be that useful for accuracy.
 
An old MIDI/Mini system, that has very little to do with quality sound. Although the amp in in, set to aux is pretty useful but the speakers are horrible. They look great and sounded like a dogs dinner. Boom bass, tinny HF and a dull mid - turn them up and they thumped well. especially when you used the preset EQ curves. These of course are pointless for recording because you want truth not flattery.

There is a problem with Hi-fi enthusiasts, compared to music producers. They claim to want truthfulness but they actually want a rather strange sound, from our perspective. Not bad, but they want audio that flatters the source material, and we don't. We want as much as possible, reality so we can make sensible adjustments, knowing that Joe Bloggs in the street will tweak to taste - like adding salt to a meal in a restaurant before even tasting it.

Plenty of studio monitors at sensible prices, and plenty of room treatment available too.
 
Thanks all.

So if I summarize the advice : I can forget this hifi and these speakers, and I should buy powered speakers that will connect directly to my scarlet solo sound card.

Any recommendation, ideally from Amazon UK, for the studio monitors ? I know nothing at all... :/
 
For the kind of money you are talking about you can afford Neumann KH80's as well as some room treatment. That will give you a very accurate sound and then, if you want more bass, you could add the matching sub (although that would take you beyond your current budget).
 
For the kind of money you are talking about you can afford Neumann KH80's as well as some room treatment. That will give you a very accurate sound and then, if you want more bass, you could add the matching sub (although that would take you beyond your current budget).

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, I coudn't find Neuman KH80 on amazon.

I've started to do some acoustic treatment, but it's a been daunting to be honest. A lot of things to think about and then a lot of choice, for which I have no clue.

For example, I bought 4 bass traps. 2 for 40 euros. 2 for 4 euros (no, it's not a typo. I'll let you guess the manufacturing country...). I haven't received them yet, but I had no idea what the difference is from their description.
 
Amazon isn't the go to place for audio equipment. If you know what you want, it's often on there, but the big well known brands are usually better sourced elsewhere. In Europe, I always buy from Thomann in Germany because they stock the right stuff and happily take returns. I actually like the Adam A7 which has better results down low, having larger drivers.
 
Thanks for that. Unfortunately, I coudn't find Neuman KH80 on amazon.

I've started to do some acoustic treatment, but it's a been daunting to be honest. A lot of things to think about and then a lot of choice, for which I have no clue.

For example, I bought 4 bass traps. 2 for 40 euros. 2 for 4 euros (no, it's not a typo. I'll let you guess the manufacturing country...). I haven't received them yet, but I had no idea what the difference is from their description.

Unfortunately, anything you bought at those prices will not be true bass traps. Most likely some type of foam which will not absorb any low end frequencies.

Here's some monitor choices: Active Nearfield Monitors – Thomann UK
I don't see that Thomann sells any rockwool or compressed fibreglass traps, they do have some polyester ones (and too many foam ones).
 
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