monitor ideas

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Buchanan

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hello this my first post

i have purchased my setup today and spent $16000 on equipment but i still need to buy monitors. It seems like genelecs are the standerd but i havnt heard them yet. my choices seem to be...........
Genelec 8050a
Dynaudio bm15a
OR what about jbl

any ideas?
thanks
 
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Keep in mind that those Wharfedales do sound OK, especially for their price, but what you are already looking at is well out of their league. Also keep in mind that there have been some serious sales issues with Deepwater. Also some of those serious issues are even Wharfedale sales. In the same price range you are currently looking in you could also look at ADAM, used PMC's, EMES, and Quested. There really are a lot of good options:)
 
Wharfedale Issues Resolved

As with any other business, there are periodic changes in management, etc
This was the case with Wharfedale. They graciously extended discounts and shipping refunds for the customers that suffered during this dilemma. As for Deepwater's performance, please allow the paying customers to draw the conclusions. Even better, give us the opportunity to prove our competence!

Thanks for your concern,
Deepwater
 
I own a pair of the Wharf 82a's. With your budget, definately skip them. I also followed the Deepwater sales issues. Skip him too.

Also, I think he was largely responsible for alot of the hype on these monitors. Yes, it's hype. Why would he do that I wonder? I hope he filled his pockets.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I own a pair of the Wharf 82a's. With your budget, definately skip them. I also followed the Deepwater sales issues. Skip him too.

Also, I think he was largely responsible for alot of the hype on these monitors. Yes, it's hype. Why would he do that I wonder? I hope he filled his pockets.
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can you guys expand a little bit on this please?
 
well, i for one want to know what bit you?

you get excellent quality, considering price. But if one looks at the BM15a, well, the wharf's are not for you (and yes, you shoudl be thankfull... )
 
guhlenn said:
well, i for one want to know what bit you?

you get excellent quality, considering price. But if one looks at the BM15a, well, the wharf's are not for you (and yes, you shoudl be thankfull... )
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First, the bass is loose and undefined. Second, the mids are hyped quite a bit. Third, while highs do seem mellow / somewhat flat, hi frequency stuff like cymbals tends to sound harsh thru them. It took me some time to come to grips with all this since these are my first set of, what some call "real" monitors.

For what I paid for my set, I can't complain too much. For what most people pay, I would complain.

I found that when mixing (I'll admit my mixing still sux), the vocals tend to be right up front. Take the mix else where and the vocals sit back in the mix. That's my beef with the mids.

When trying to mix bass guitar and kick, I just can't tell what's going on. Everything seems cloudy. A good analogy would be wearing fogged up glasses while trying to paint.

As for the hi's, cymbals and some times guitar parts tend to sound a little harsh. Maybe harsh is the wrong word. How about unmusical or unpleasant? Take the mix else where and that is'nt the case.

This is my experience. I spent the first few months with them listening to music every day for long periods of time. During that time and after that, I tracked and mixed every day in my home for a few more months.

I can't knock them too much for the money. I'm sure all the low budget monitors have their own quirks to work around. My main issue with these is all the hype that drove me to buy them in the first place.

I did recently get a set of passive monitors and an amp. I have'nt had much time with them yet but I can say that the bass is very defined, the mids don't seem hyped, and the hi's are unpleasant. This setup was more expensive than the Wharf monitors, but not that much more expensive. I think it's going to serve me well but only time and experience will tell.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
these are my first set of, what some call "real" monitors.

For what I paid for my set, I can't complain too much. For what most people pay, I would complain.

I can't knock them too much for the money. I'm sure all the low budget monitors have their own quirks to work around. My main issue with these is all the hype that drove me to buy them in the first place.
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so you are bitching that you were a cheap -ass and did't want to spend real cash? :-)

pun intended.

and the hype was about the passive model btw, which has the problems you mentioned too, although not that big of a problem to me. You might have exagerated them too.
 
I think the amps in the actives may have alot to do with the issues I mentioned. I would like to hear a set of the passives thru a decent amp, just to see.

guhlenn said:
so you are bitching that you were a cheap -ass and did't want to spend real cash? :-)

pun intended.

and the hype was about the passive model btw, which has the problems you mentioned too, although not that big of a problem to me. You might have exagerated them too.
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The bottom line is, in home recording, you only have so much money to get all the gear you need. User recommendations have a big influence on people with tight budgets. For all I knew, the Wharf's were right up there with the other low budget gems like the rnc, dmp3, or oktava 012's. Alot of us unexperienced guys look to the more experienced for advice. It does'nt help when a dealer is running around creating hype to make a buck.

Hey, when you're green, you exagerate everything! You just don't know any better. :D The snowball was already pretty freakin huge by the time that I bought my set though. I will say this about the Wharf's, the technical support was awesome when I thought that I needed it (turned out to be a bad sound card in the end). Also, the imaging is nice. It blew me away the first time I hooked them up. I can still remember Ryan Adam's (not Brian!), voice hitting me right between the eyes like he was in my kitchen.

Damn it! Now I'm gonna have to ebay my Wharf's cause no one here is gonna want them! :D

Just in case anyone is interested, the new but still low budget setup I got was a pair of Art SLM-1's and a Art SLA-2 amp. For the money, I'm pretty impressed so far but I won't go bragging until I've spent some time with them. What I've noticed so far is the bass is nice and round. It does'nt sound hyped at all but it's there, it's clear, and I can tell what's going on below for a change. The imaging is just as good as the wharf's but the mid's don't seem hyped. I think vocals will translate better but I'll keep my mouth shut about that until I've had some time with them. Listening back to old projects in which the cymbals and guitars sounded "unpleasant" in the hi's, everything seems ok now. I also picked up a Hafler amp to compare with the Art amp. I have'nt had a chance to compare them yet but I'm pretty impressed with the Art amp so far.
 
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very true words about the warfes now. :) imaging and detail are their strengths. one of the major weaknesses is indeed that everything is so detailed and hits you in the face. I too tended to counteract that and got muffled recordings. but no biggie once you know about that. it actually helps me, kindof the magnifying glass thing.
 
guhlenn said:
very true words about the warfes now. :) imaging and detail are their strengths. one of the major weaknesses is indeed that everything is so detailed and hits you in the face. I too tended to counteract that and got muffled recordings. but no biggie once you know about that. it actually helps me, kindof the magnifying glass thing.
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I would'nt say "detailed". I would say forward or up front. I don't think hi detail is a quality that the Wharf's have.
 
Well, this migth be a matter of definition; when things are close to my eyes, i see better... so more detail.

:)
 
guhlenn said:
Well, this migth be a matter of definition; when things are close to my eyes, i see better... so more detail.

:)
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You may be right on that one. Maybe the hi's are pretty detailed although they're still unmusical.
 
hehehe, although we are totally off-topic, and I apologise for that, My grilfriend once said; these must be really good speakers, cuz i can hear much more going on, but I'd REALLY hate to listen to these just for fun. kindof agreed :)
 
guhlenn said:
hehehe, although we are totally off-topic, and I apologise for that, My grilfriend once said; these must be really good speakers, cuz i can hear much more going on, but I'd REALLY hate to listen to these just for fun. kindof agreed :)
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yep, agreed here also. when your girlfriend decides to ditch you, tell her that i'm available. :D she can mix for me too cause i suck at it.

i think the lack of a defined, round bass and the lack of nice sounding hi's are what make these not so good for pleasure listening.
 
The hype in this forum was actually about the active ones if I remember right. Personally I do not mind the Wharfedales. For the $350 or less a pair that you pay for active monitors, I think they are well worth it and compete well in their price bracket. Would I compare them to Dynaudio, Genelec, ADAM etc...? Not a chance. It really would not be fair to Wharfedale. In fact, it seems to me that Deepwater's recommending them in here to someone that is looking at monitors like this is kind of irresponsible and really does speak of some sort of hidden agenda once you find out that he is a dealer for a bunch of cheap companies. He was behind a lot of the Soundcraft Spirit hype as well which has now also faded out. Its almost too bad too becuase once the truth surfaced and the issues arose and his credibility died, it left a bad taste in people's mouths about a lot of the stuff he was pedalling. The reason its too bad is that those product lines did not deserve that kind of misrepresentation.

Now, for Buchanan, the original poster... If you are looking at Genelec 8050a's, then it sounds like you have a pretty sizable budget to be working with. In fact, you may want to be looking at something besides the BM15a in this price range. You could be into the AIR series with sub, maybe M2's or even M3's. You could also be looking at ADAM s3's, or maybe P33's. Maybe a larger used Quested? If you can afford it, maybe look at Barefoot monitors (like I said, if you can afford it and can afford to wait on the waiting list;) ).

Basically, Genelec is somewhat of a standard, but it is also one that has greatly changed over the last years. Don't be afraid to NOT buy Genelec or JBL, but they may also end up being right for you. Buying monitors is a bit of a personal thing. We all hear differently and have different likes and dislikes. If the speakers I listed are out of your budget, you could look into more affordable offerings by the same companies I listed. Personally, I do not care for the smaller ADAM's, and am iffy about the Dynaudio BM5's, but I like the BM6's, m1's, AIR 6 and up:)
 
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