Listening to monitors

[leavings]

I just bought a pair of alesis mk2 monitors; initially I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep them, but I'm becoming more sure of the purchase. Now that I've made the decision to stick with them, I'm wondering how careful I need to be with the usage I put them through.

I want to listen to a lot of professionally recorded music so my ears can grow into the monitors, and also so I can examine some of the professional effects and techniques. Is there any reason why I shouldn't do this? Is it bad to use my monitors as my stereo speakers, so long as I'm not pumping too much energy into them? Will they wear out? Are they less durable than normal stereo speakers?

Any input you have would be appreciated,
Peter

 

[kylen]

Those are the unpowered ones ?

I would think they'd be just fine to hook up to your home stereo amp to break them in and become adjusted to them a bit. You're going to use them as nearfield monitors while mixing or [home] mastering I assume later on ?

If so might as well get an SPL meter if you don't have one and get adjusted to what they sound like at different SPL at your listening position.

After a bit I guess you'll want to move them to where you'll actually be using them for your audio work and place them in the best spot in the room and check the acoustics out a little closer. The room can hype the speakers quite a bit. If you haven't done that already there are a bunch of acoustics threads around.

If the home stereo is the final destination then kick back and enjoy - I've got a set of powered M1's hooked up (slightly different model with bass ports) which have about 100-120 watts of power. I think they're fine for approx 3'-4' critical nearfield listening and 6'-8' or so for more general non-critical listening. Your model can take up to 200 watts I think. They should be able to take 85-90 dBA SPL at 3' safely I would think, probably for longer than you would like to listen to it !

Good Listening !
kylen

 

[leavings]

Sorry, let me clarify...

I have the alesis m1 mk2 active monitors, and I do plan on using them for mixing/mastering for the album I'm recording now. They're already set up for that purpose, and I mostly use my computer as my home stereo, so I wanted to know if pumping other music through the monitors from my computer was a good idea.

Thanks for the response,
Peter

 

[kylen]

Hi again leavings !

If you have the new M1's I think you have a higher crossover, mine is at 1.5KHz, I've got the older M1's. Trivia ? I wonder if it matters much...

Anyway - I use mine to listen to lots of reference material of different types. Sounds cool to me ! You're worried about burning them out maybe ?

Don't tell me we're gettin an M1 fan club goin here ! He He mine started sounding really good when I moved them out from the wall about 2 1/2 to 3 feet and tuned the room up a small bit with a cheap couch and some 4'x4' 703 panels wrapped in cotton batting and placed behind the speakers.

They sound pretty good when I walk around the room now - when I 'master' I have them toed out a bit wider so they focus somewhere behind my head about 9 inches (in the vertical position). Makes for a nice stereo field ! The M1's are also sitting on a set of MoPads for speaker stand isolation.

Really good sound!

kylen