Grot Box / Real World Mixing monitors

[pazmag]

I'm a fairly experienced professional mix engineer and producer and have been considering adding some small computer / grot box type speakers to my studio setup. I currently use Event Opals as my main, Sennheiser HD650 headphones and a Pure Evoke2 DAB radio which is popular with many mix engineers. I also used NS10's but in recent years I'm aware that listening devices dictate to some degree what one should be referencing whilst mixing. Whilst Auratone's are indeed useful nobody I know listens to music on such speakers so I'm thinking more about the SONOS / Alexa type speakers...or maybe a pair of computer speakers such as Logitech or IK MUltimedia. However, the bigger the speaker the less useful it becomes as most people are listening on phones etc....so......whilst aware that this is a wholly subjective subject with an infinite number of possible answers, does anyone havfe any thoughts about a pair of small speakers which might be useful as a reference? Perhaps 2-3 inch drivers to replicate consumer listening?.......btw, I'm aware that I can listen on my phone....it's just a faff as I have to print a mix and send it to my phone!

 

[napilopez]

Hmm some of the speakers while the speakers you mentioned are small and to some degree bass limited, the Sonos and iLoud they're also generally quite neutral. So I wonder if they'll actually be that much different and more informative than what you get with your opals. By comparison to something like the Auratones and NS10s, those should sound like a tiny slice of heaven lol.

Most Sonos' I've seen measurements for actually measure quite well -- some as neutral as many studio monitors. Though I guess what you're looking for is SPL and bass limitations, in which case something like the Sonos 1 might be good. Similar story for the iLouds.

If you're looking for a consumer speaker that's representative of a common subset of listeners but deviates more from neutral to offer a different perspective from the Opals, maybe it's worth thinking out of the usual box a little more? Maybe this is a stretch and weird to have in a studio, but perhaps a sound bar of some sort?? It's probably one of the most common ways people play music these days at home, with smart TVs and whatnot.

A good amount of us young folk listen to music through cheap Bluetooth speakers too. So perhaps getting one or two of those would be a more modern take on a grot box.

Alexa and voice enabled speakers are certainly increasingly common too. Amazon Echo is relatively cheap and ubiquitous with the popularity of Amazon. Quality seems to have varied a good amount from the data I've seen so maybe that'd be a good consumer option.

Logitech desktop speakers could be a good idea, no idea if theyre any good or bad

 

[N9R]

JBL Charge 4 (discontinued but still available in retail - Charge 5 has no Aux In, which would be pretty important for this application)

 

[dfuller]

I still think the Auratones are useful especially given how much listening occurs on phone speakers. They're about as close as you can get to a phone speaker.

 

[pazmag]

I'm a fairly experienced professional mix engineer and producer and have been considering adding some small computer / grot box type speakers to my studio setup. I currently use Event Opals as my main, Sennheiser HD650 headphones and a Pure Evoke2 DAB radio which is popular with many mix engineers. I also used NS10's but in recent years I'm aware that listening devices dictate to some degree what one should be referencing whilst mixing. Whilst Auratone's are indeed useful nobody I know listens to music on such speakers so I'm thinking more about the SONOS / Alexa type speakers...or maybe a pair of computer speakers such as Logitech or IK MUltimedia. However, the bigger the speaker the less useful it becomes as most people are listening on phones etc....so......whilst aware that this is a wholly subjective subject with an infinite number of possible answers, does anyone havfe any thoughts about a pair of small speakers which might be useful as a reference? Perhaps 2-3 inch drivers to replicate consumer listening?.......btw, I'm aware that I can listen on my phone....it's just a faff as I have to print a mix and send it to my phone!

Thanks! Some good suggestions for investigation.

 

[Sancus]

For phones and other heavily DSP limited things I don't see why you couldn't dial in a quick high pass to test on any speaker, as that is what they're doing anyways. It should be pretty easy to determine where the bass disappears on a few phone models. F ex on my phone(Z Fold 2) there's nothing below 55hz and only the barest audible hint 55-100hz and it trends down sharply from 150hz so I would guess there's a fairly sharp(48db/oct?) high pass at 150hz.

 

[ZM1]

Hi pazmag, I have the exact same combination as you - opals and 650s . My 2 cents here– theres no specific mobile phone sound anymore, especially considering how good some of the newer iphones are. That said, I think it's better to monitor on a fairly band-limited and reasonably flat mono speaker to approximate a variety of consumer speakers. Trying to choose one consumer speaker as a reference for the rest would mean learning its characteristics like any studio monitor. That said, I think its still good to use the phones at hand as an additional reference – and it is possible to stream your audio to your ios device without printing mixes using the app Airfoil (there are a few others too).