Home theater hi-fi's as moniters?

[Fox]

I'm a total n00b to recording, so please forgive me if this is an incredibly stupid question. Is there anything inherently wrong with using high-quality home theater speakers as monitors? I have a pair of Martin-Logan Z2's that I could use, and they are remarkably transparent. Does the fact that they aren't near-field make them a bad choice?

 

[mikeh]

In general any speaker can be used as a monitor - you simply have to play enough reference material so that you truely understand the way various frequencies are reflected thru the speakers.

However, consumer speakers almost always are designed to make music sound "better" rather than to provide an accurate sound.

That being said, (and given that I don't anything about Martin Logan) - I have a hard time believing that home theator speakers do not have hyped low end etc. - which will make critical mixing difficult.

Perhaps they would be great for tracking and play back - but I would think you would want decent near fields for mixing.

 

[malcolm123]

When I first started trying to mix seriously I had two set of speakers. Some NS10s and Bose 301s. I knew the NS10s were for studio use because I would see them in all the studios (A friend gave me a set). So I came home and unplugged the mixer from running through a home amp with home speakers and hooked up the NS10s. My first conclusion was they sound like crap. Mainly because I knew nothing about monitors. they didnt thump and wasnt loud and " Good " sounding like my bose. So I spent maybe a year or so mixing on the boses. After about a year I could finally get a mix that sounded alright. Another 6 months mixes got better. So after reading in forums about Near Fields I decided to hook the NS10s back up and mix. AGAIN, they sound like crap but guess what. My mixes were better everywhere else after maybe a week of mixing on them.

conclusion.

Get some type of near field and decrease the Mixing Learning Curve.

Malcolm