B&W DM601 S3 as monitors!?

G

Gunther

New member
I am looking into using a pair of B&W DM601 S3 as both monitors for my small project studio and as speakers just to listen to music on.

I know they will do excellent for just listening to tunes, but will they function well as monitors also? I would bet they are cheaper than monitors of equal quality. I think I can get them for ~$400 for the pair, and I have a decent stereo amp to go with them.

Anyway I love B&W speakers... but still need a good tool to mix with. Was going to go with the yorkville YSM1p's but yorkville is out of stock and not building more till april!?! Will the B&W bookshelfs do?
 
For 400 dollars you could have:

Event 20/20 passives (Nice monitors)
Tannoy Reveal Passives (Pretty good, less bass though)

Alesis Monitor 1 actives
Yorkville Actives
M-Audio Studiophile Bx8's (add $79)

I would suggest any of those over stereo speakers. Period. NO Buts. . . Period. . . I mean it!

Beezoboy
 
On the subject of hi-fi speakers for monitors, what do people think of Eltax monitor 3's as monitors? How desperate is it for me to upgrade to Tannoys? or is the upgrade from the behringer mixer to the Mackie more important?
 
Beezoboy:

B&W makes really exceptional speakers... which is why I asked this question. Can you give me the reason why you so strongly think this is such a bad idea.


- Gunther
 
not a bad idea

i disagree.



some hi fi speakers are hyped. these are sort of bad for studio monitors. others are pretty flat. certainly as flat as many studio monitors... sometimes flatter.

it just depends on the model... same thing with amps... no reason not to use a hi fi amp, if it is the flat kind...


i believe that albini uses b&w hi fi speakers for monitors. you could look up and see what he uses...
 
Skywalker Sound uses them in their studios, so trust me, B&W's would be great monitors, they are flat as hell for a hi-fi speaker, and sound great... plus you can listen to them all day and not get ear fatigue...

Later,
Musik
 
Totally disagree with Beezoboy. The B&Ws would make good monitors though a DM601 may not have enough bass extension.

Do a search at Sound on Sound. They have actually reviewed DM602 s3 for use as monitors. Also look for their comparison on HiFi versus Monitor speakers. They measured and listened and found that a B&W DM303 was more accurate and suitable as a nearfield monitor than a KRK K-ROK (at moderate listening levels). They also tested a Wharfdale hifi speaker (inaccurate, not suitable) and a Dynaudio BM5 (accurate and able to play loud but expensive).

www.sospubs.co.uk

For home recording and nearfield monitoring at normal levels (about 85db) an accurate budget hifi speaker is more value than a budget studio monitor. Budget studio monitors are designed for reliability and ability to play loud (100db) and usually compromise on sound quality (speaker design is all about compromise). Budget HiFi gear also has a lower cost structure because of the huge volumes compared to pro audio gear.
Of course be aware that there are many inaccurate hifi speakers around so you have to do your research.
 
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Neil Ogilvie said:
On the subject of hi-fi speakers for monitors, what do people think of Eltax monitor 3's as monitors? How desperate is it for me to upgrade to Tannoys? or is the upgrade from the behringer mixer to the Mackie more important?
Click to expand...

A mackie is not much of an upgrade over a behringer (assuming your behringer works) other than with regards to reliability and after sales service. Do a google groups search on rec.audio.pro and see what most pros think of the sound quality of mackie mixers compared to behringer. Basically they consider behringer to be crap and mackie to be equally crap at twice the price. I would save your money. I heard an improvement in the preamps but not enough to replace a behringer.

No idea what your monitors are like but if they work for you ... Consider getting dedicated components as an upgrade eg mic pres, hifi pre for volume control, better power amp, better ADC / DAC, new mics etc and avoid going through any mixer if possible.
 
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Bad Idea, B&W make some great speakers, but they are useless as monitors. Ive even seem ads with Alan Parsons himself in them. and the reality is that they are only used to playback shit for the clients. He uses Yamaha NS10s like any other pro to mix on.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
Bad Idea, B&W make some great speakers, but they are useless as monitors.
Click to expand...
You'd better tell the guys at Abbey Road studios that all their B&W nautilus speakers are useless as monitors and they should replace them with NS-10s.
 
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It seems to me that once you put the word monitor on a speaker, the price goes up and so does the perceived accuracy.

Sound on sound gave the B&W's I am looking at a favorable review... when using them as monitors, not stereo speakers. (Thanks alfalfa for pointing me to sos.) They also seemed to indicate that the low end B&W's outperformed some real studio monitors in a variety of areas in a comparison test they did...

After reading that, I am feeling pretty confident that I am not making a bad choice. I speculate that they will outperform the Behringer truths and the m-audios... but I won’t say for sure till I give everything a fair listen... which I will.

I guess it can be said that monitors are designed to be revealing and hi-fi speakers are designed to sound good… But do you really think a low end monitor will being out the details and portray sound with the accuracy and detail of a classy speaker like the B&W with all that companies knowledge at hand? I think for 400$ this may be a very good choice.
I guess my results will tell us if I am right.

What I would like to know is how the B&W DM601 S3s stack against the Tannoy Reveal Passives. Anyone ever do a comparison? I think Ill have to do one myself before buying anything...
 
Not that I am saying that just any bookshelf hi-fi speaker will work as a near-field... just that the B&Ws are exceptional and might work in this function very well.
 
If you are just doing electronic stuff it might be ok, but myself I wouldn't run a live bass guitar or any miced instrument through a hi-fi speaker. They are just not built to cope with it. Trust me, I've blown a few! :)
Also I don't think all those big boys using B&W's are using them during tracking or even mixing, but rather for mastering; which is a completely different thing.
 
BasPer said:

Also I don't think all those big boys using B&W's are using them during tracking or even mixing, but rather for mastering; which is a completely different thing.
Click to expand...
Why dont you look at their website and see if it looks like a mastering setup or a tracking / mixing setup ...

www.abbeyroad.com

... looks like a recording / mixing setup to me. Studios 1, 2 and the penthouse have B&Ws. I'd appreciate anyone elses opinion.
 
Gunther, to me it sounds like you had your mind pretty well made up before asking the question. So if you have heard good reviews and don't mind taking the risks, then by all means do it.

There is one thing to ponder though. The guys that work and mix at Abby Road could probably do a great mix on 99 cent headphones, or Labtec computer monitors. If you aren't a mixing guru and really aren't used to mixing you might want to invest in monitors that have been tried and tested by people that are Homerecordists. If we can make a mix sound good on Tannoy Reveals then you probably can too, if not now, then in time.

I don't know your level of proficiency and I am not accusing you of being a noob. I would say try and stick with tried and true if you are not of a much higher level of proficiency, or you might get burnt. You can only spend $400, and I am guessing that it is hard earned. You have done your research which is good. Just remember that we (on this board) don't get paid to tell you whether a product is good or bad. Some reviewers in Magazines get things on the side sometimes by writing a favorable review.

Beez
 
Beezoboy, in your first post your recommend the M-Audio Studiophile BX-8. Is this a tried and proven monitor?

I havent heard one but I am worried when a speaker manufacturer doesnt quote bounds (eg+-3db) on their frequency response or provide any plots. How is an inexperienced listener to know if the speaker is even accurate?

Perhaps you use one regularly and can tell us more about them...
 
Beez:

I am not an expert... I am a noob. But I do know a thing or 2 about speakers, so I am not totally clueless either.

Did I have my mind made up before I posted? Kinda... yeah. But I will give a serious listen to the Tannoy reveals before I buy the B&Ws. thanks for the suggestion.

I still get the feeling that if B&W advertised the same speakers as monitors, people would feel differently about them.
I got the feeling that in your original dismissal of the B&Ws was because they were branded as audiophile speakers and not as monitors. It did not sound like you were against them because you actually heard these speakers and thought them to be inferior.
 
Gunther

Well I had never heard a U87, before I bought one, except on people's recordings and I had never heard a Sennheiser 441 until I bought it, or a Beyer M88. What I had heard was nothing but good things about these mics on THIS and other forums. Then I went and looked and nearly every big studio I looked at had at least one of these mics on thier lists as well. So that made me think they might be pretty useful. So I bought them, and have gotten good results also.

I am not accusing those speakers of being bad. It just happens that I have NEVER heard of them and have been an avid reader of this forum for over a year. Also I read in the RecPit quite often and all the magazines. I don't get SOS though.

I just want to tell you not to trust SOS as much as you trust this forum and others. WHY? We are real people who record in our rooms in our houses. Not studios. Regular rooms. Some of us try and acoustically treat them and some don't. Overall though, many people are getting very good results. Some people's recordings here sound absolutely professional. I mean I mix on Monitor 1 mkII's and I can get a good mix on them, but they are built for that purpose. I have listened to the Tannoy's, both actives and passives, and use them both nearly daily at my school. They are a pleasure to work on, although the room that they are in sucks. My roomate has the Studiophiles, and they are quite good too. Yorkvilles are the only ones I haven't heard but they get VERY good reviews on this forum.

Do a search and type in Yorkvilles, and Tannoy's and you'll get TONS of good and bad on both. This will give you the real world ins and out of both speakers. Do a search on B&W and you'll get most likely nothing.

Now it is time for you to decide for yourself
Beez
 
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