Studio monitors response curves measured today with REW (input please)...

[rob aylestone]

I learned long ago that buying cheap products that were a little less than perfect, and tweaking them, was always a bit of an illusion. In my office, I run a pair of RCF 5" monitors. I have 5 pairs of them, in flight cases for stage edge fills. For music serious listening, they're just OK, but I know what they sound like, and I know that if I can hear the bass guitar on the E string, then that E will be way, way too loud in the mix. I can deal with it. Tweaking cheaper speakers is just pointless. They are what they are. Same with the folk who spend hours turning a cheap Chinese mic into a U86 and a half. It will always be nearly an 87. For years I toured with an EAW all in one PA cab - big 15" for bass, and a mid and hi unit. Loved them - always sounded good, but when I bought a new, better and mega expensive system, I wished I'd carried on with the old one! The new one was, in every way measurable, better. The trouble was, I liked the sound of the old one. Two boxes, lovely sound, but folk at the front were deafened and people at the back struggled to hear in many venues. Twelve boxes dangling gave the same volume everywhere, but just wasn't as nice. Luckily, people only heard it for two hours, and thought it great!

 

[Papanate]

I learned long ago that buying cheap products that were a little less than perfect, and tweaking them, was always a bit of an illusion. In my office, I run a pair of RCF 5" monitors. I have 5 pairs of them, in flight cases for stage edge fills. For music serious listening, they're just OK, but I know what they sound like, and I know that if I can hear the bass guitar on the E string, then that E will be way, way too loud in the mix. I can deal with it. Tweaking cheaper speakers is just pointless. They are what they are. Same with the folk who spend hours turning a cheap Chinese mic into a U86 and a half. It will always be nearly an 87. For years I toured with an EAW all in one PA cab - big 15" for bass, and a mid and hi unit. Loved them - always sounded good, but when I bought a new, better and mega expensive system, I wished I'd carried on with the old one! The new one was, in every way measurable, better. The trouble was, I liked the sound of the old one. Two boxes, lovely sound, but folk at the front were deafened and people at the back struggled to hear in many venues. Twelve boxes dangling gave the same volume everywhere, but just wasn't as nice. Luckily, people only heard it for two hours, and thought it great!

EAW 650s? I always thought they sounded great.

 

[Ally-007]

Today, I measured the two Behringer Truth B2031A speakers, outdoors, plus a third speaker which is the older variant called B2031. Here are the readings. The mic was in the same position for all three speakers (26" away from speaker, pointing at the spot between the woofer and tweeter). Admittedly, there was a little bit of extraneous background noise, such as distant cars, occasional distant pidgeon crooning, etc, but the difference between the readings looks bizzare to me. Speaker No2 looks wild! Only the older variant (B2031, the bottom graph), looks nice and flat (ish). Unfortunately I only have one of those! It's possible that I was doing something wrong during the measurement process. The mic was on the verge of feedback, in order to get the levels acceptable, according to REW.

 

[rob aylestone]

EAW 650s? I always thought they sounded great.

No - LA325's Very heavy, and probably at least 5 coats of paint through their life, but never let us down.