low cost powered monitors?

[Jon Fairhurst]

A good poor-man's trick is to use bookshelves in strategic places. Load them up with some books, pull the books toward the front, and stagger them. This does two things. The space behind the books acts as a bass trap, and the staggered books act as a diffuser - smearing the reflection a bit, unlike the sharp reflection of a flat, hard wall.

I've got one odd corner in my room. Untreated it would cause a bit of an echo chamber. I put in a floor to ceiling bookshelf, and turned it a few degrees. It hides the corner from buildup, kills any resonance, and tames the bass. It made a world of difference!

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

John, your trick only works if you don't have a wife.

My ex would walk into the room and see the books staggered, some hanging partially off the shelf and others deep into the shelf, and she'd face them all.
Of course, she'd do this at stores, too.

On the serious note, this is a good trick and one I'd forgotton. Don Davis had a book of goofy little things you can do on the cheap, and this was in there. I'd like to find a copy of that...

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

"Jon, your trick only works if you don't have a wife."

I'm married, but she gave up trying to keep my stuff organized a long, long time ago. :)

[Jeff Krepner]

Let's just say for the sake of argument, some ding-dong was using small home audio bookshelf speakers. How bad is that? I'm using some good home audio bookshelf speakers in addition to a pair of good Sony headphones. What am I missing? I assume bookshelf speakers are not meant for close range, but how does the pro-monitors differ? I guess the driver selection and placement are somehow setup to produce better close-range listening?

Thanks.
jeff

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Jeff Krepner

.... What am I missing? I assume bookshelf speakers are not meant for close range, but how does the pro-monitors differ? ...

The quick answer is the home audio speakers are intended to make music sound good, pleasing to the ear andforgive flaws. Pro monitors are designed to be accurate and consistent, revealing, to sound good when the mix is good and sound like c**p when its not <grin>.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Some years back I remember reading that there were some Tannoy consumer speakers that were flat enough that they gained some popularity as monitors.

To make use of most consumer speakers as monitors, you probably need to take a big chunk out of the 90 Hz range without killing the sounds 50Hz and below. You might also want to shelf down the highs. There may also be a resonant peak in the highs that need to be tamed. Listen to some pink noise (or a recording of the ocean) to see if you can hear a resonant peak, and pull it down.

It's far from ideal, but reduces the risk of making dull mixes on hyped monitors.

Make art no matter the tools at hand. (And save up for better tools...)

[Jeff Krepner]

Okay, that makes sense. Just like a pro video mon doesn't try and hide defects in the picture the way a consumer grade model does.

Jon, thanks for the tip on setting up consumer speakers.

Thanks.
Jeff

[Greg Hartzell]

I wanted to re-visit this thread for a variety of reason's. I have a few points and questions I would like to pose. So here it goes:

I started work with a new client and his system has creative computer speakers; man these speaskers suck. So I finally get the point I guess, don't rely on computer speakers. (to make matters worse, a former editor of his and acquaintance of mine recomended these speakers to him) The plastic roland multimedia speakers that I used in college easily bested these speakers.

Jad,

I don't get why you would go out and mod a pair of airplane headphones. All of the airplane headphones that I have heard (though I have never traveled first class) were not good. I don't see any reason why anybody that considers themselves indie filmmakers can't spend $100 or even $40 on a decent pair of headphones. This was the first investment that I made in school and my production values instantly went up.

On a similar note, I don't agree suggestion that any video editor or audio editor should invest in a pair of top of the line headphones (like the hd650 suggested). This investment is much better put towards loudspeakers. Spend 10 hours of straight editing, and you'll thank yourself. These headphones were designed to listen to stradivarius violins recorded with tenthousand dollar microphones, not audio recorded with a $2000 camcorder.

Other than that, I have a couple questions for all of the talented ears that have posted on this thread about a couple of monitors that I might be interested in. Has anybody auditioned the Samson Rubicon R5a's? I'm a big fan of electrostatic drivers and I figure that these may be a decent set of workstation speakers. Also, I might be interested in the Tannoy Reveal series of powered monitors. Tannoy has a very good rep on the consumer market, and I have seen these in a few suites. Would these worth a look at?

My two cents,

Thanks

[Kalunga Lima]

Hi Greg,

You'll find a pretty positive review of the Samson Rubicons in the July 2005 issue of Sound on Sound magazine:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul0...sonrudicon.htm

The Tannoy Reveals were also got a positive review in their July 1999 issue (that's about when I got my VX1000... goes to show how good sound gear is a long term investment):
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul9...nnoyreveal.htm

cheers
kl