Well Shakes....
Please, take his word for it then. Notice that I didn't say anything to the effect that they sounded "bad", or not "good enough", just that I haven't heard them described as "awesome".
I will not argue with anyone about monitors. I will especially not get into a silly arguement trying to compare NS-10's with something like the Event 20/20's.
I have heard any number of monitoring systems that sound better then NS-10's. Genelec, KRK, Event, Mackie, JBL, UREI, and there are many others that I am sure sound much better.
I will repeat this one more time just for you Shakes since you probably never caught when I have said it before.
Most engineers who have been working professionally for many years will swear by NS-10's mainly because they are the monitors they started out with, and invested a lot of time "learning" to hear on. No engineer in his right mind would claim that NS-10's "sound" better then any number of monitoring systems that have come along since them because they know that the NS-10's DON'T sound all that great. But they are used to their sound, and feel more comfortable mixing on them, and can't afford to learn to mix on another set of monitors.
I have many testimonials be top engineers that said if they had to relearn to mix on another set of monitors, they would pick something different then the NS-10's. Event 20/20's come up a lot in these testimonials, so do the Genelec's and KRK's.
If you haven't compared these monitoring systems side by side, well, you have no basis to make a comparison friend. I have used both the Event 20/20's and the NS-10's extensively, side by side, in the same sessions on numerous occasions. After many hours on NS-10's, my ears are very fatiqued, and I cannot trust at all what I am hearing. Also, I cannot trust the low end on the NS-10's at all!!! If the low end sounds good and beefy on them, then there is waaaaaaaaaay too much low end. The Event's do not suffer as badly in either thing. I can listen to them for hours and have far less hearing fatique, and I can trust the low end a whole bunch more then Nasty 10's.
It is a fact that in the last few years, Tannoy, Event, Mackie have outsold NS-10's by a wide margin. NS-10's while providing a nice tight midrange sound, just don't compare well to other monitoring systems available.
Now, if you are just starting out in engineering, ANY monitoring system would be fine to learn on. The thing is that you will need a few years before you can really KNOW the monitors and how good sounds sound on them. The reason I won't use NS-10's any more is because they are very annoying to listen to for extended periods of time, and since I must learn the monitors anyway, why not learn on something that sounds more pleasing to my ears. There is no way anybody can say that my mixes would improve by using NS-10's over the Event 20/20's unless I used NS-10's for a few years exclusively. You can turn this around too. I know people that use NS-10's, and when they hear the Event's, well, they agree that they are more pleasing to listen to, but they don't feel they could mix on them because they are not used to them.
Once again Shakes, NS-10's could only be described as awesome sounding by a deaf cow! They are not, and nobody who compares them to any number of monitoring systems would say that.
I also say again. If you are buying your first monitors, and are not used to professional monitors, it really doesn't matter what you buy. It will take you years to know how they sound. So if that is the case, you might as well purchase monitors that sound pleasing to your ears.
I will add this little bit here too. Many engineers who use NS-10's then hear the Event's make a very similar comment. They are amazed at how much more detail there is in the sound. Reverb trails that they never heard before are very present. The imaging is just outright superior too.
It doesn't take a "big time Nashville engineer" to know what a good speaker sounds like. Most big time engineers do not hear any better then the rest of us. They just know how to use the equipment available to get outstanding sound. But that doesn't make their subjective listen one iota better then anyone else's.
Peace...
Ed
) about Hafler amps as RE is about The Sound Room... but I guess if you know you are onto a good thing why not tell everyone about it... I guess that's the value of this place... you get to hear people's opinions rather than salesman opinions... I guess there is no better endorsement than REAL people using something and getting good results from it.
