Want Advice/Opinions: Next Set of Monitors

[Derek Heeps]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

My challenge to that is the majority of video consumers listen on earpods, not even low-grade headphones these days, so this creates a whole new issue.

This is a discussion/fortune telling session I've had with several other pros in the past 2 years: We put so much energy into making our final output as visually and sonically as gorgeous as possible (at least the vast majority of us do), yet the buik of the audience is going to see and hear this work on cell phones. Not even decent computers with external audio anymore.

That being said, what's the point of all the work? 6K, 422/10 or 12-bit video? Hah! There's no cell phone at any price that can actuallly display all that data and individual pixels with any accurracy whatsoever.

And being listened to from the same device? Nobody's going to be able to appreciate a solid mix if all they've got are earbuds that can barely reproduce half of the audible frequencies humans can hear, the rest is either sub-sonic or just get turned into digital background noise from all the network compression. Video too suffers from big-time compression, no matter who it comes from. There's just no practical way to distribute even just standard HD at bitrates high enough to really showcase anything close to what we're seeing on our edit screens.

So why all the fuss, then?

Times have and are changing, fast. My hunch tells me the hundreds of millions dollars spent on making our content as close to original as possible is soon just going to go away. If all the world does is watch on mobile devices, not even port over to computers with fibre-download speeds... I think this is all just going to be overkill in less than 5 years.

We'll see...

A lot of kids watch videos with sound muted and rely on subtitles , sometimes subtitles cannot be turned off , and at that point I generally turn off , because I HATE that .

[Robert Lane]

More myth dispelled...

"Speaker Cable", the concept that you have to use purpose-built wire for audio purposes. Total nonsense.

The snooty audio industry has everybody convinced that the high-priced "quality" cable is what you need to get the best signal to your speakers. It's just more glossy marketing, the truth is speaker cable is just like ANY other copper wire out there - it moves electrical current from one place to another. That's it. "Oxygen free", "polarized" and other nose-high terms make it seem you'd better get that stuff or else. But it's just a sales pitch.

Instead, go to your local hardware store and get the largest gauge wire your system can handle, 12-gauge is a good place to start, and spend a fraction of what "speaker cable" costs. I just picked up a 25-foot roll of 12-gauge 3-wire (so you don't use the third wire, so what?) for less than $30 US. Had I picked up Mogami, Monster or any other audio-specific cable, and only 18-gauge at best, would have been over $120!!! C'mon...

This stuff is wrapped with insulation, a smooth soft exterior cover which looks awesome (and professional) and yeah, my speakers are rocking with the high-amp audio come from my receiver. (Now different from the Denon I started with.)

[Robert Lane]

Along with the speaker wire I've finally settled on my new audio setup for the renewed edit suite:

A pair of DCM 26 towers, which sound fantastic but I'm going to upgrade the tweeters soon and, a Nakamichi Receiver 2. Very musical and punchy, maybe a tad better than an NAD.

Although the 'michi can be used as a preamp to the Yamaha M45 or other power-amp, it's totally not needed in this setup. I need accurate audio, not window-cracking power. haha

So the test was a success and proved quite definitively:

- You CAN get high-quality, accurate audio monitoring from hi-fi components - that have zero floor-noise or hiss compared to the near-field cousins

- You DON'T have to spend thousands of dollars on a usable setup. This rig in total with the 12-gauge wire was less than $300!! Yes, you have to do your research, shop around but clearly the equipment is readily available.

The caveats:

- High-end near-fields (starting at over $5,000/pair) have their place. They do offer built-in electronic tuning to match the listening environment and the drivers are going to be utterly top-notch without question. Even with the unavoidable small amounts of floor-noise (hiss) they're going to sound amazing.

- Because the equipment used in this test is considered "vintage" you're going to run across equipment that might need a tuneup or have failed components. So keep in mind that while you may find an amazing deal on good stuff you might have the hassle of bringing it back to spec to be usable. But hell, we're still talking a fraction of the cost of even mid-level near-fields!

- Do your research on brands, especially receivers/integrated amps on the ones that actually deliver clean, high-current output. There's a lot of equipment that has tons of features, beautiful faces but don't really provide the quality of output we need for mixing. The best brands are: Carver, Adcom, NAD, Nakamichi, Denon (some models) - anything considered "discrete" or "Class-A" amplifier will do.

Regardless how successful my renewed business becomes I'm never going back to the classic self-powered speaker setup. I'm getting far too gorgeous sound from this "cheap" rig, far cleaner and more powerful than the Focal's I've had.

Cheers and happy holidays to all!!

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

I just picked up a 25-foot roll of 12-gauge 3-wire (so you don't use the third wire, so what?)

What, you don't ground your wooden speaker cabinets? That's just asking for more hum in the system. (J/K)

Don't forget to buy some speaker wire stands, to keep the wire up off the floor, where LF vibrations will induce stray current in the wires. (NOT kidding ... they actually sell this s**t at the high-end hi-fi shows.)

[Robert Lane]

Reminds me of flight school at 16yrs old: Instructor told me, "Go get me some propwash...". Took me two hours to figure out the joke was on me.

[Greg Miller]

Many years ago, my high school band director (I played baritone horn) said, "Tell your parents you want a new embouchure for Christmas."

[Robert Lane]

Since this thread got so many views (kinda surprised, actually) I decided to share this announcement with you guy first before I make the formal public announcement in a few weeks.

This past weekend I had an epiphany about speakers as a whole: Regardless if self-powered near-field or passive hi-fi pair nobody has yet to make the "perfect speaker", as it were.

Right, nothing is perfect but I got frustrated of seeing so many offerings touting high-end technologies, exotic materials, years of research blah blah... yet in every case they'd miss the mark in one way or another. Just made no sense that so-called experts would make these often goofy choices in their designs yet still charge hundreds often thousands of dollars for what's supposed to be the best-of-the-best in speaker technology.

So I decided I'm going to make and sell my own speaker series and incorporate all the stuff that my own years of analysis and tests have revealed and use all the tricks I learned that makes for natural-sounding, good-looking and extremely accurate audio monitoring. But not strictly just for those of us in production, but anybody that really cares about getting the best possible sound from their equipment - without having to spend $10K or more on a set.

The new line is called, "Grumpy Quail Audio (TM)". Yes, there's a story behind the name. The first offering is going to be the "BirdStrike Mk1" (TM), a tall desktop-sized monitor but will have the output that would normally come from an enclosure 3x times it's size - a floor-standing tower. And I've created some proprietary tech of my own to get there:

WingTunnel (TM). A structure that does a couple things:

- Provides internal bracing to make the cabinet nearly vibration-free.
- Physically separates tweeter and main driver from each other, so they don't share any airspace and eliminates cross-frequency collisions which can muddy even the best of drivers.
- Makes for a long-path route for low frequencies to travel effectively making the speaker think it's an enclosure 4x times the size which allows for massive and accurate LFE excursion without having to crank up the bass on the amplifier or adding a sub.
- Effectively eliminates port "chuffing" common in many ported enclosures that lack proper cabinet tuning.

BirdBeak Port (TM) - Porting specifically for the tweeter since it does not share any air volume with the main driver.

KISSconnector (TM)
Did you know that banana plugs, while convenient and are associated with "pro" monitors are actually hollow? So that means no matter how big and dense your speaker cable might be only 50-60% of all the electrical energy being sent from the amp is transmitted to the speaker? Why invest in a Class-A amp or receiver if you're only going to send half its' energy to the speaker? Might as well just get some cheap Sony or Pioneer receiver at BestBuy and call it a day.

The final design of the KISSconnector (TM) isn't finalized but it's going to be a SOLID connection, not hollow.

There's a few other things that will separate GQA offerings from all others:

- No MDF materials, only genuine hardwoods.
I can understand that a speaker costing less than say $1,000 would use synthetic/blended wood for cost savings, but when I see "high-end" speakers costing upwards of $10K per copy still using MDF... I just don't get it.

- No mass production process; the entire build is done by hand. No power tools. The catchphrase for the company is, "Modern components meet old-world craftsmanship." (TM)

- All designs are Passive, NOT self-powered.
Regardless how perfect the amp might be there's just no getting around the fact that it's electrically impossible to completely separate all the electrical and RF energy between amp and speaker resulting in "hiss" or floor noise. What's the point in making a perfect enclosure if you're just going to deliver hiss when idle? Besides this way YOU can choose whatever amp you want or can afford. Wouldn't you rather have that choice than be stuck with whatever is inside?

- All designs are ported.
No sound we hear in the world occurs in a sealed room, nothing. So why would you create an enclosure with fantastic components and then prevent them from breathing??! All you're doing is restricting the speaker from doing it's job of reproducing all the frequencies it's supposed to. That marketing hype about having a, "tight, responsive enclosure.."? Total BS. Do you put a piece of shrink-wrap over your ears to hear better? Of course not. Sealed boxes are a really bad design choice, period.

- No A.I. used in the designs.
Computers don't hear audio in the real world, they don't have an inner-ear with stereocilia, or cochlea or inner-ear drum with a stirrup that vibrates or how the bones in our body directly affect how we react to LFE excursions. Even the jawbone and it's connective tissue right beneath the eardrum comes into play when we are listening to anything because it all receives and transmits open-air vibrations right up to the inner-ear components.

(Bet you didn't know that if we didn't have a lower jawbone we couldn't perceive LFE as well as we do, did you? Here's a test to prove it: Next time you're in a club with loud music, a pop-music concert or at a movie theatre or anywhere there's loud music playing try holding your jaw tight with your hands, and then let go. You'll be surprised in the audible difference your ears get.)

No technology can replicate how an organic device responds to vibrations in the air. Mics and oscilloscope testing and frequency charts can't replace the SINGLE BEST question there is: "How does it sound?" Only a human can do that, which requires hours of testing and a LOT of patience.

- No Subs.
Subs are a messy way of making up for anemic main speakers that can't produce enough low-end information. Not to mention when it comes to accurate monitoring for mixing getting a sub placed properly is nearly impossible unless you spend HOURS testing various setups and placements and, it requires not-so-cost-effective software to do it right.
I think it makes more sense to simply have a design that eliminates the need for a sub at all.

The first offering is the "BirdStrike Mk1" (TM), followed by the "MiniStrike Mk1" (TM) and the "BigStrike Mk1" (TM).

It's months away before the first unit ships but will share when the website launches.

Cheers to all.

[Dave Baker]

Brilliant! :)