bleyrad said:
... And now you're going to start hearing things that make you want to spend more money and upgrade the rest of your signal chain
I could hear that even with my old speakers.
The best setting for the high-end is the cut (-2) position, even if your room is really dead. These are bright speakers so you have to watch out for making dull mixes.
You'll hear a lot of reverb detail and sibilance. This might make you want to turn down the verb a bit, or de-ess a lot, if you're used to listening on less detailed speakers. Don't get too carried away with that notion - when your mix goes back to consumer speakers it might sound too dry. But, do listen and trust them for the most part!
Yeah, I noticed that these are really bright, but I really like that. It's nice to be able to hear the full reverb tail and I've been listening to pro CD's on these so I've got good references when adding reverb and high end. Plus I am also keeping my old speakers connected, so I will be able to check on consumer speakers to tell if it is too dull and/or dry.
But what's really funny, is that my mixes sound "dull" on these speakers as if there's not enough high end when compared to pro mixes. And since these are such bright speakers I expected the highs to jump and out and take my head off in my mixes, but it was exactly the opposite, so I guess I can go even more with the highs in my mixes.
If your room is decent, mixing the bass is easy as pie with the yorkies. Just always reference some stuff before you start mixing bass and you'll be set. The bass extension is very good. Low, flat, and tight.
I'm in my living room right up against the wall, so it's not exactly ideal for mixing, but I don't have a whole lot of options at this point. lol I have noticed that the bass response is very good on these.
BTW the +2 bass setting provides the flattest response in a room without significant modes, as it is intended as a baffle step compensation.
I think that's what I'm on right now, I believe that was the default also.
Once you've safely set levels, turn the limiters off, as they engage a section of the amplifier circuit with poorer-quality opamps.
Just to be on the safe side I'll probably leave the limiters on, just in case something causes the speakers to peak (like accidentally double clicking a volume knob setting it back to zero causes the volume to JUMP way up because it was turned down before). I want to protect these speakers, so I think I'll just leave them on, they sound great to me as is.
Enjoy, trust these speakers and don't spend too much effort trying to "learn" them, instead just put on some material you're used to and relax while listening for a while.
Yep, that's exactly what I've been doing. After listening to several songs from professional CD's I went and listened to some of my previous stuff and was in for quite a surprise..... They really sucked! LOL!!
Get a good DAC to do the speakers justice!
I'd love to, but unfortunately I'm going to have to use the D/A on the Aardvark Q10 for a while longer. The pres I think need replacing before the D/A.... and that's more money that I don't have.
And when you're ready to upgrade monitors... there's still room for a lot more life in the Yorkies, with a $200 driver mod. I might do a post about this here soon, if people are interested.
I'm interested, definitely! That'll probably come later down the road, but it'd be great to have all the info for it.
Thanks for the great tips on setting these up!
-tkr
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