Members wednesdaysworse Posted March 16, 2006 Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 Looking to upgrade my studio monitors. Currently using Alesis Monitor 1 (old version). My ears are tuned to passive, but am willing to consider active in 6.5" or 8"range. My price range is under $2000. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members opiepac Posted March 16, 2006 Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 I don't understand your "tuned to passive" comment. The sound gets amplified whether you use passive or active monitors. Its just a matter of where. Whether you use a separate amp or its within the monitors. Quality monitors are quality monitors. You can get quality monitors in either active or passive configurations. If you already have a good amp and want to keep using it, then stay w/ passives. If you want to ditch it to save space, go active. Good monitors are Dynaudio, Mackie, Genelec, and a lot of others. Some will say some of these brands suck, others will rave. It really depends on your ears, and what makes your mixes come out the best. Try a bunch for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wednesdaysworse Posted March 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 When a passive system's single amplifier must reproduce the whole audio spectrum, low frequencies rapidly "use up" the amp's headroom. As higher frequencies "ride along" on lower frequency waveforms, they can be chopped off or distorted even though the high frequencies themselves would not be clipping. Separating highs from lows via an active electronic crossover lets a bi-amped system use two different amplifiers. Each is free to drive just one transducer to its safe maximum limit without intermodulation distortion or other interaction between the two drivers. however, the biamp method is basically only used in studios, so can be decieving and misleading since not many real-life systems use this method. so, with active bi-amping, you get better clarity, and more intricate detail, but perhaps in a less realistic manner. since i have been mixing passive for years, then i tend to think there would be an aural learning curve in adjusting to active monitors. since i have heard how my current alesis monitor ones translate to real audio systems and movie theaters, i am comfortable with my knowledge of their bias. hence, i'm looking for comments on this active/passive opinion, as well as for reasonable recomendations for someone coming off of alesis monitor ones (old model, pre alesis name buy-out) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wednesdaysworse Posted March 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 monitors currently being considered . . . . event studio precision 8 passive event studio precision 6 passive event studio precision 8 active event studio precision 6 active new alesis monitor ones (mkII) i hear these aren't as good as the old alesis but i'm up for comments since i'm used to them. i guess i'm really up for any reccomendations, as long as they are backed up with good reasons. i'm particularly picky about true frequency response. so if a speaker claims to go down to 40hz, i want to hear that low E on the bass string, cleanly. i'm not too picky about anything over 21khz . . . since i feel the ultra sound is over kill. i hope there's some advice out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members opiepac Posted March 16, 2006 Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 Oh I see, the bi-amped thing makes a difference. Didn't think of that. On a budget, the now discontinued Yamaha MSP5's are nice. If you spend more, I'd go with the Mackies or the Dynaudios. Both are great, but are different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wednesdaysworse Posted March 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 Bump Any thoughts out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ZJD Posted March 16, 2006 Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 PHIL???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 You rang? Well, I'm particularly fond of the ADAM line.www.adam-audio.comI've probably had twenty or thirty sets of nearfields over the years, and I finally found "the" nearfields for me - You can have my ADAM S3-A's when you pry them from my cold, dead hands / ears. However, those will set you back close to $5,500 a pair, so they're out of your price range. But if you have the means.... The ADAM speaker line all use the same ART folded ribbon tweeter, which sounds spectacular - sweet and open, with incredible HF extension (35 kHz) without harshness. No ear fatigue here. And they have incredible stereo imaging and detail, and a lot of depth of field. It's really easy to hear into the mix with them. The bass is tight and controlled and without a trace of flab or mush. I wanted "balanced and accurate" too, and these puppies certainly qualify. Mixing on anything else these days is nearly unthinkable for me. I generally prefer actives, because the amps and drivers can be well matched to each other... not to say that you can't get great results with passives, but a lot of people don't really make good decisions on amps IMO. Anyway, if you want to go passive, I would highly recommend checking out a pair of ADAM AMF-10's. Under a kilobuck per pair - $750 to be exact, IIRC. If you can swing it though, the powered P11-A's are even sweeter. A pair will cost about $100 over your $2,000 budget point, but IMO, they would be well worth it. Sweetwater sells them. And so does Fletcher at Mercenary. Disclaimer: I have appeared in a couple of ADAM ads over the years, but that was / is an uncompensated endorsement. I "endorse" them because I use them and love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 BTW, if I had someone pointing a gun to my head and forcing me to use something else, I'd probably ask for a pair of Dynaudio BM 15A's. But that would only be if I couldn't find an opening to take the gun away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Marshall Posted March 16, 2006 Members Share Posted March 16, 2006 i have a pair of m-audio bx8's that i love. They are well under a grand... im sure you could do better with your budget though. I am used to them and can get a pretty good mix with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 since i have been mixing passive for years, then i tend to think there would be an aural learning curve in adjusting to active monitors.There's a learning curve whenever you switch to any new monitors - passives or actives. You have to learn their characteristics and quirks, and how to compensate for them so that things will "translate" well outside of the room on other speakers / systems. However, with the ADAM's, my learning curve was different than with any other speakers - it was less about learning what they were doing to mess up the sound and more a matter of just learning to trust what I was hearing and not worrying about "compensating". For me, that's a "biggie" - I want the truth and I don't want to have to guess or compensate, and while speakers are one of the most personal of all preference things for engineers / producers, for me, I have finally found speakers I can trust... that's why I had to have 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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