Help me choose a pair of monitors (budget max €3500)

[caught gesture]

oring".
So excellent for mixing, but not very exciting for writing. This is personal, anecdotal and unscientific of course, but worth mentioning.

A quick question: what are these speakers that Thomas Newman is using instead of studio monitors? I suppose an expensive model of B&W? I'm surprised by the choice, I swear I saw the same at James Newton Howard's studio, but except for these two composers, all the others are using studio monitors.

View attachment 178511

It seems he also has used PMC monitors extensively, including the PMC IB2S XBD-Actives. €53k for a pair!
I’m happy that you have made a decision and I hope that you will be happy with it. It is important that the monitors you choose inspire you, as well as give you a clear insight into your creations. I look forward to hearing your impressions.

 

[fmessier6]

They have peaky highs (the B&W house sound isn't flat). Anything would sound good in that room. Use it an an example of sound treatment. See the heavy curtain wall behind the speakers? See those panels on the wall? Floor with wall-to-wall dense carpet. That room will sound excellent.

At first glance the room didn't look anything special to me, but thanks for pointing out things that weren't obvious for me (except the panels on the walls).

What's the purpose of the curtain? Sound absorption? And the carpet?

It seems he also has used PMC monitors extensively, including the PMC IB2S XBD-Actives. €53k for a pair!
I’m happy that you have made a decision and I hope that you will be happy with it. It is important that the monitors you choose inspire you, as well as give you a clear insight into your creations. I look forward to hearing your impressions.

Thank you so much for the positive and encouraging words.

 

[TurtlePaul]

What's the purpose of the curtain? Sound absorption? And the carpet?

It is all absorption. For the curtains, it is really heavy curtain and often two or three layered curtains. Additionally, with the curtain wall, you can place the curtain about a foot from the real wall and have bass traps in those corners and foam panels covering that wall.

That room probably has an RT60 (how long it takes for echos to drop by 60 dB from the original source) of about 0.3 seconds, which is quite strong (the lower the better for mastering). That way, any reverb heard is known to be in the recording and not just created by your room.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Why is the right one more expensive lol

 

[fmessier6]

View attachment 178577
Why is the right one more expensive lol

Those prices! Where do you live, if I may ask? I paid €3800 for both...

 

[Pearljam5000]

Those prices! Where do you live, if I may ask? I paid €3800 for both...

lol
It's without VAT because I'm outside the EU but I pay it when they arrive to my country

 

[Septentrio]

View attachment 178577
Why is the right one more expensive lol

Soon enough you can snatch the B-stocks!

 

[Pearljam5000]

Soon enough you can snatch the B-stocks!

Lol
I was looking for them on Thomann yesterday

 

[mightycicadalord]

As a musician and engineer of a long time, I can spot the monitor chase because one is unhappy with their work, hoping it will be the fix. Best of luck op.

 

[fmessier6]

As a musician and engineer of a long time, I can spot the monitor chase because one is unhappy with their work, hoping it will be the fix. Best of luck op.

Thank you! As I mentioned in a previous post it was actually the opposite: everything was going great career-wise, and I've never been happier with my music. I simply decided to rearrange my room according to your suggestions and change speakers because I wanted to give myself a little treat.

What I believe I inadvertently found when I had my speakers in the previous configuration was the optimal placement for both the HS8 and my desk, to the point where for two years I didn't change a single thing in my room as it was working so well. I still had some nulls in bass, mind you, but mids and highs were great.

Even if the HS8 now point the longer wall, their sound in mids and highs is somehow more confused and less pristine, probably due to some sort of reflections. Hard to tell. Bass on the other hand on some frequencies is quite non-existent unless I power on my sub and make it do the hard lifting, which is far from ideal and will create other peaks and nulls as well.

But I'm happy anyway because my journey helped me understand so many different things about room acoustics. Well, maybe "happy" is not the right word because now I have the responsibility of treating my room, and living in pure ignorance was significantly more relaxing, to be honest.

 

[fmessier6]

Without opening another thread, since I already mentioned this issue here, might as well update.

I'm trying to diagnose why am I hearing some low volume crackle on my HS8 when I rotate the volume knob on my Komplete Kontrol 2.

Some sort of "ffttt fffttt", as you might expect from some dust in the volume knob. But the Komplete Kontrol 2 is brand new.

Inverting the left and right cables swaps the problem to the right speaker, but both manifest this problem, one slightly louder than the other.

I tried rotating the pot many times back and forth (it solves the problem for half an hour) and using compressed air, with no long lasting positive results.

The worst is when I leave the interface untouched for a few minutes. As soon as I move the knob, both speakers immediately produce this noise even with the slightest movement.

Could this speaker crackle/dust noise be caused by some sort of electrical interference?

 

[caught gesture]

Have you tried different cables? These things are usually a process of elimination. It seems that by changing the interface you have eliminated that being the problem.

 

[fmessier6]

I can only change it with a Focusrite Scarlett 1st Gen, and it had the same issue but on the left channel, that's why I changed it in the first place, actually. Even with different cables, anything that came out that left channel would exhibit this specific kind of noise/issue.

Since then, my balanced jack cables have been replaced with these new Cordial.

The problem showed (marginally) even on the KH310, so that's why I ruled out the Yamahas.

 

[RobL]

Found THIS.
Not sure if your issue is the same?

 

[J-B]

Probably a faulty volume pot. Your description of the issue surely sounds like that. During the years I’ve had so many on so many different devices.

 

[fmessier6]

Interesting update: I connected my old Focusrite 2i2 1st gen, and the problem still persists.

This would possibly rule out the possibility of the Komplete Audio 2 being faulty. Interesting.

AUDIO SAMPLE I recorded today to give a rough idea.

The four balanced Cordial cables are brand new, maybe it's something that has to do with electricity?

 

[caught gesture]

Have you eliminated your computer as being the source of the problem? It seems to be your only constant (you have switched out everything else) other than the electricity supply.

 

[fmessier6]

Have you eliminated your computer as being the source of the problem? It seems to be your only constant (you have switched out everything else) other than the electricity supply.

I already tried everything under the sun, unfortunately.
- I unplugged both USB interfaces from my computer, and by turning the volume knob, the problem persists on my Scarlett even if the interface isn't connected to my computer.

- I eliminated my computer altogether (unplugged it from the socket, but left the speakers on)

- I turned off and unplugged my external AC unit

- I turned off and unplugged my subwoofer

The only remaining thing would be to connect the monitors and the computer to different outlets but it's impossible.

I basically bring electricity into this room with an extension cord.

A solution could be to move the HS8 and the Focusrite into another room and try a different socket / power outlet altogether. Otherwise I have no way to diagnose this further.

I'll also test this with the Quested monitors that will arrive on Monday, but the problem was also present with the Neumann KH310 so I assume there won't be any major differences here.

 

[fmessier6]

Tested with a completely different audio card, computer, cable and room, and plugged directly into the wall socket. The problem still persists.

I officially give up, I run out of options.

(The problem was there even with the KH310)

UPDATE: Moving the knob back and forth 50 times fixed the issue on the Focusrite. I think both audio interfaces are faulty, and it's not a problem of electricity or speakers.

Actually, the same happened with the Komplete Kontrol 2: if I quicly moved the knob back and forth for a hundred times, the problem would go away for a few minutes, even an hour.

So I think both cards are faulty since they both have the same type of potentiometers. Also, the Komplete Kontrol 2 worked for a month before I witnessed this issue.

Worth mentioning that when turned to the max output level on the back, both HS8 monitors output a strong low pitched white noise, like listening to the sea at the beach. Don't know if this is normal or related. Their power cables have two pins and not three, maybe this is also relevant?

 

[Zaireeka]

Maybe try using a contact-cleaner spray to fix that potentiometer issue.