Mackie HR824's Overkill?

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Vullkunnraven

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Ok so I have an interesting dilemma with regards to upgrading monitors. I have been working with Samson Resolve 65a's for about 18 months now, and really feel the reason to upgrade.

Some background:
*I mainly track in my project home studio (guitars, bass, keys/synth, and some vocals)
*Fair amount of editing
*Little mixing (as I send my mixes out to be done in bigger studios, however the same engineer sometimes does some 'pre-mixing')
*Music is post-rock, influenced by dredg, APC, System of A Down, Pink Floyd

Current Gear:
*As mentioned Samson Resolve 65a monitors -want to upgrade
*Royer R121 Ribbon, Sm57, MD 421, KSM 44, some other condensers and dynamics
*Chandler TG-2 Pre
*Mytek 96 AD and Mytek 96 DA
*Digi002r
*Mac G5 running PT and Reason 2.5
*The room is treated with fiberglass, aurelx foam/bass traps, and Real Traps.

The question?????
Would getting monitors in the $1200+ pair range seem overkill in this situation? My worry is that I mainly track, don't mix or master. The Samson's do not seem to give me a good reference anymore, as things going into my DAW end up sounding way different on playback in other sources (car stereo, computer speakers, etc.) I also looked at the Yorkville YSM1P, the Event 8's, and some KRK's... and before I listen and compare, I want to make sure I know which ballpark to be in.

Any answers will be appreciated.
 
Tracking is the most important step - Screw that up, and you're outta luck all down the line. Always, always always, the best possible monitoring you can get your hands on (along with proper room treatments, of course).

$1200 monitors doesn't sound like overkill. $12,000 monitors wouldn't be overkill.

Whether the Mackies are worth it is another story... Can't stand 'em myself. But I know a lot of people seem to like them for some reason.
 
I agree with John. Regardless of your situation, the best monitors you can get are always a good idea. Personally, I do not care for the Mackie monitors either. In your price range, I would look into Dynaudio or a small pair of Questeds, and even Truth Audio monitors.
 
i'll throw my shovel of sand on the pile that John and xstatic have started.

get the best monitors you can afford and treat your room so they're giving you the best representation possible.

that said, personally, i can't stand mixing on the 824's. everything sounds "weird" about them to me--the bottom, mids, highs.....i just don't like em. many folks love em, though, and mix just fine on em, which just goes to show how personal of a choice monitors are.

I'll also recommend the Event ASP8's as they're in the same pricerange. I love mine to death and find them to be FAR more neutral than the Mackies (and my mixes translate a whole lot better too!).


cheers,
wade
 
Massive Master said:
Tracking is the most important step - Screw that up, and you're outta luck all down the line. Always, always always, the best possible monitoring you can get your hands on (along with proper room treatments, of course).

$1200 monitors doesn't sound like overkill. $12,000 monitors wouldn't be overkill.

Whether the Mackies are worth it is another story... Can't stand 'em myself. But I know a lot of people seem to like them for some reason.
Click to expand...

- Thanks Massive! Good Stuff

Same goes to Xstatic and Wade... I'll take a listen/look at the dynaudio's and the Event's were originally top of my list. I know to certain extent monitor preference is subjective, but the Mackie's might be overhyped.


-Ari
 
I don't think the Mackies are overhyped

but that's just me.

You've gotta have something that will tell you how much bass you're putting on there, and in my limited listening experiece, they seem to do the job without overhyping (should that have the 'e' in it?) the bottom. They are are my short list. I haven't heard the Dynaudios but everything I ever read or heard about them was good, so at the very least you should check them out if at all possible.

I don't think it's overkill for tracking. The better the product you give the mixer to work with the more likely you'll be happy with the results. You say you don't mix on them, but complain about how things sound elsewhere, so are you mixing and listening elsewhere before you send it off to be really mixed? If so, that doesn't seem like a valid representation of the final product anyway, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Other than that, what is it about your current setup that you don't like?
 
Here's an old 2003 Article I liked...damn 4 years already? I still haven't made the Dyns yet!!

quote:
posted by "GawsDigitalUnderground"

Dan Richards was nice enough to offer to ride down to my studio today with a Jeepload of Monitors..Actually he brought the Mackie HR824's, Dynaudio BM5A's, and the 6's..We also compared them against my Behringer Truth's.

This is just my personal opinion of what I heard today..Take it for what it's worth comming from me!

The Behringers vs the Mackies..There was a difference. I won't say that the Truth's were better, but I can't say they were that much worse either..Dan and I both pretty much agreed that if you factor in the price difference, we didn't hear that much improvement to warrant paying $1,200 for the Mackies, vs, the $400 for the Truths...Now if money isn't a concern, I wouldn't hesitate buying the Mackies over the Truths. The Mackies seemed to have more low end, and were abit clearer. But $800 worth? I don't know. Seems like a good Eq between the recorder and the Truth's, and you'd have the Mackies..But that's just my 2 cents.

Now, the Mackie HR 824's vs the Dynaudio..Well, what can I say, not really in the same ball park to my ears..The Dynaudio BM5A's just rocked..Tight focused bass, not muddy. Crystal clear high's, etc, etc. I was really impressed. We ran some of my mixes through each and with the Dynaudio's, you could hear clearly the reverb trails, the sizzle in the cymbals, and everything. Things that I couldn't hear with the Truth's, and the Mackies were right up there in the BM5's. What can I say, I'm buying the Dynaudio BM5's..

It would have been great to get to spend a couple of weeks with both sets of monitors, and got to do some actual tracking, and mixing with them, but for a short days listen, the Dynaudio's seemed like the clear winner of my moolah..



What we auditioned:

Behringer Truth
Mackie HR824
Dynaudio BM5A's
Dynaudio BM6A's

I agree pretty much with the studio owner [ if you read his comments at the link. ] I thought the Truth's sounded like they were muffled. I didn't hear any real improvement when comparing the Truth's to the Mackie's. The Mackie's had more low-end - and a little better separation of instruments, but not by much. And I couldn't justify the $1200+ cost of the Mackie's over the $399 cost of the Truth's.

Next were the BM5A's. Immediately there was a noticable difference. With the 5A's I could easily hear details of the program material that were not at all evident on the Truths or the Mackie's. With the 5A's I could hear all the reverb tails, the top of the snare and cymbals, and overall clear separation of instruments. The bass was tighter but still full.

I think the model numbers Dynaudio gave the 5A's and 6A's is a little confusing – and some people might think the 6A's have 6" woofers and the 5A's would have 5" woofers. Not so. The BM5A's and BM6A's both have 6.89" woofers. 5A's have 50W amps on tweeter and woofer. 6A's have 100W amps. The 6A's have the BM series styling. The 5A's have the AIR series styling.

The 6A's sounded near to the 5A's until we turned up the 6A's louder. That's when the 100W amps showed the 6A's to have more horsepower. But for the small size control room the 5A's more than do the job.

In the end, we thought the 5A's [ also considering price ] were the best tool for the job. At under $900 the 5A's kicked the $1200+ Mackie's to the curb. The owner is buying the 5A's.

One of my pairs of personal monitors are Dynaudio AIR 15's with a Benchmark DAC1. So, I'm used to that $3000+ monitor sound on a daily basis. The 5A's deliver the same type of sound [ clarity, imagery, depth, no ear fatigue ] in a smaller package.


Dan Richards
The Listening Sessions
Pro Audio Consulting Services
Direct Toll-Free (866) 409-3686
-------------------------------------
TLS Intensive Recording Workshop - Jan 21-27, 2007 Myrtle Beach, SC


Posted 05-25-05 06:12 AM Hide Post
An interesting monitor shootout that's been on the web for many years, since 2001, is ProRec's Rip Rowan's BM6A review along with quite a few other monitors. In his review he chose the 6A's for overall sound quality, but took off some points for the, then, $2500/pr price tag. But he did write, "These were one of the most expensive speakers in our lineup - and also my favorite. The Dynaudio BM6As were just lovely." A typical price for the 6A's today in 2005 is around $1699 – and a really deal would be $1499 including shipping – so look around. The Mackie HR824, which was priced as approx $1600 a pair can now be found for closer to $1300/pr. Also the HR824's in his review were made in the US. The current HR824's – and the one's in our mini-review – are made in China.

Well, things do change – don't they. I guess since price isn't the issue it was over four years ago, now Rip can finally have the 6A monitors he really wanted all along. : )


Dan Richards
The Listening Sessions
Pro Audio Consulting Services
Direct Toll-Free (866) 409-3686
-------------------------------------
TLS Intensive Recording Workshop - Jan 21-27, 2007 Myrtle Beach, SC
 
hey what about the JBL LSR's?? they look cool, no experience with them whatsoever though.
 
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