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Monitors for Small Synth Studio

steeltrack

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Jan 16, 2025
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First time poster, long time reader, and I could use some advice.

I have a small home synth studio, and when I'm doing production I'm rarely in the primary listening position. I currently have Neumann KH 120 A monitors, and I feel like they don't "follow" me around the studio very well. I've been doing some research and I'm wondering if this is due to their narrow beamwidth. I've tried to mitigate this by kicking them out a bit more, but I still feel like outside of the primary listening position I'm losing a lot of detail.

My room is treated and about 12' x 9'. Budget is flexible, space is not, so large three ways aren't really an option. I've been considering Focal Shape 65s, Focal Solo6s, Barefoot Footprint 02s, Dynaudio Core 5s, or Adam A7Vs. Maybe as a step up, Genelec Ones, but those seem like overkill given I'll do critical mixing/mastering elsewhere.

Thanks!
 
hmm, this is an interesting one because it sounds like you only have space for nearfield monitors but you're not using them nearfield, exactly.

I think wider tweeter dispersion is the best you can do other than going crazy and getting OB speakers or something.

Other than changing the angle, have you tried moving the speakers, specifically putting them further apart?

Alternatively... Wireless headphones so you can move around freely with no impact on sound? Wireless adapters for wired cans exist, I think.
 
Gets speakers that synths cannot blow out. They will do it if you ask them to.
 
@kemmler3D you hit on exactly what I've been struggling with. I've got them fairly far apart now, but I move vertically as well. I've also been thinking if focusing more on headphones while producing is the more practical approach. A wireless adapter is a fun idea.

@JohnnyAudio I feel like I spend half my time gain staging :)
 
I would try fairly strong toe-in (center lines crossing over at or in front of MLP) as suggested by Earl Geddes for extending the sweetspot with narrow directivity speakers.

Other than that though, point source speakers are always going to have relative strong falloff of level with distance in a well-treated room. So short of going full line source, this may take an unorthodox approach like a wireless headphone monitoring system, or a headphone cable dangling from the ceiling anyway.
 
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