Which Monitor?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rairun
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Rairun

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Hi all
I've never used studio monitors before.I'm gonna buy one of these for my home studio:

Adam Audio A7
Event Studio Precision 6
Genelec 8030A

Which one do you prefer?And why?

Thanks
 
Maybe not the answer you're looking for but I just want to add that any of these would be a very good choice of monitors, and you should make the final decision between them yourself. It all comes down to small differences between them, and it's your ears and preference of sound they gotta match.
 
Stefan Elmblad said:
Maybe not the answer you're looking for but I just want to add that any of these would be a very good choice of monitors, and you should make the final decision between them yourself. It all comes down to small differences between them, and it's your ears and preference of sound they gotta match.

Stefan, thanks for your opinion.Unfortunately i might not have a chance to listen them.So i'll rely on your opinions and the reviews on the internet.
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
 
I use genelecs most days at uni - we have them in all our studios there. I also use Mackie HD824s in another (vocal) studio I use, and for stuff I want to hear music out of I use Kef Concerto 1s (1999 issue).

I find that the Genelecs really need the sub-bass speaker (particularly if you're mixing stuff with kit on it) because they're designed to be used that way. Even in Studio 1 we've got the 3way 1037s - and have one of their 7070s connected to each of them. It's true what people say about them - if there's any flaws in the music, you'll hear them on the Gens, but I've found that when I'm working with music (as opposed to sound), the Mackies are more . . . comforting (?). They seem to handle bass in a way that feels different to most other speaker manufacturers as well.

You've got to hear them to know what they're about - even the mid-level music shops over here have a couple of pairs of Gens floating about.

I guess what I'm getting at is, if you're making music that'll stand up to them then the Genelec speakers will hold no punches. If there's any imperfections you'll know about it, and the end results can be fantastic.

Go play in a good music shop - it's the only way to choose that kind of gear.

Thom
 
Personally, I have never really cared for how any of the smaller Genelecs sounded, but I have not really tried their newest line. They have always sounded nice to listen to, but they have always felt to me like the mids were fairly scooped out. Mixing on the smaller ones has always been difficult for me.

The ADAM A7's are also kind of a weird monitor to me. Similar to the Genelecs in that the mids seem to be pretty scooped and the lows on the ADAM A7's seem "pushed" to me. Almost like they are trying to hard to make the speaker reach certain depths when they should have just let the speaker not go so low and maintain a tighter and more focused sound. Then again, I have never really been a huge fan of the ADAM monitors until you hit the S3's and up, but by that point you are paying pretty good money.

The Event precision series has always sounded pretty good to me. I like the solid mids, but definately prefer the natural feeling of the lows in the 8" monitors better. Neither of them hit very deep but at least the lower range on them seems natural. Like the speaker is pushing it and not trying to design the cab to resonate the lower range. What I did not like about the Event monitor's that sounded better to me on both the ADAM and Genelecs is that the highs from about 2k and up on the Events always feel kind of strident to me. Things tend to feel harsh to me on them in the high ranges and it makes me want to counter by taming the highs, and then mixes tend to come out a bit muddy.

My personal preference has been Dynaudio. The BM5's always sounded pretty decent to me for the mids and highs, but the lows sound a little artificial. The funny thing is that even with that slight artificial feeling in the lows, I found that it was pretty easy to learn. The BM6's in my opinion definately sound better than the BM5's. The lows seem to extend a little lower and feel more natural at the same time. Personally, I think the difference between the BM5 and the BM6 active monitors sound is in the amp and cabinet design. The BM5's are great at giving a good volume form a low powered and small speaker, but it always felt to me like they trying a little to hard to do that when the BM6 seems to just do it on its own. If your room is large enough you may want to consider the BM15's. They use a 10" driver and put out great solid mids. With a 10" driver in the BM15 you would think that it would reach a little lower than it does. Personally, its no replacement for a sub, but does some fairly low stuff with a pretty accurate feel. It doesn't really "bump" but I have found that I still have an easy time accurately judging bass frequencies and don't have to reference larger systems as often with the BM15 as opposed to the BM6.

One thing I love about the Dynaudios is that with all of them they seem to be much less "volume dependent" than the other speakers. The other monitors listed in this thread seem to change their overall tonality a lot more when shifting through different output volumes. The Dyanudio's seem to maintian their overall image and balance (both tonal and spacial) a lot better when you slowly shift from listening at a low output to a higher output. I also noticed that I tend to be able to work on the Dynaudio's for a considerably longer time without fatiguing than I can to the others.

It is important to remember though that this is all highly subjective. I may like the sound of one thing that you do not like at all and vice versa. Also, I have a lot more experience with the Dynaudio line than I do with all of the other lines. I have had a bunch of other monitors in my studio for small periods of time that other people have brought in, but I am much more familiar with my Dynaudios and often times familiarity can affect judgement. I still feel confident in my decision to go with and stay with Dynaudio, but I do also recognize that I am biased towards them and have not spent enough time with the other monitors I talked about to really "learn" them so I know that I may not have given them a completely fair shake. In any event, I have no doubt after years of experience and trying things that even if I were to spend more time with the others, but overall opinions and assesments would remain similar at least.

Good luck:) At least all of the monitors you are choosing between are pretty decent so there really isn't a "losing" scenario there:)
 
Thank you very much for your great replys.
My room is quite small, so 8" woofer is would be too much.
It seems that i'll go for ASP6:)
 
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