9000 euro is a lot of money for speakers. Unfortunately what I have found is that there is very little sonic difference between expensive and cheap speakers. You will not find a speaker with perfect sound not because it doesn't exist but because its not currently sold. Speakers have to be imperfect otherwise the speaker companies will have nothing to offer the market the next year. Just get yourself a pair of ATC or some other imperfect speaker and be happy. All speakers are horrible ive heard them all.
Best high end active monitors at around 6000-9000 EUR a pair
Dears,
I'm about to get a pair of nice studio monitors.
It'd be great if you can help me choose THE ones :)
Setup:
- My room is not the biggest but it's properly treated (all corners of the room and early reflections are treated with GIK acoustics panels, bass tritraps and soffits)
- Size is around 4*6 meters (but I might move to somewhere bigger soon). I would mostly listen to them at round 80-90db. 90-100db if I want to party hard.
- Listening distance around 1,8-2 meters.
- I own two Klipsch R-115SW (15 inch consumer subwoofers)
- I own a Minidsp SHD and I'll use it for room correction and integration with the two subs
Who I am and what I want from these monitors:
- I'm more of a "cut the bs" audiophile (though I hate this term.. who doesn't?) who just realized that studio monitors are hifi speakers with better bang for the buck (not always true, but most of time). This is never clear in the audiophile community... Nobody in the audiophile world wants you to know that. There must be a conspiracy… Audiophile magazine reviewers hardly ever mention studio monitors, while spending so much time bull****ting over uber expensive amplifiers (or cables or dacs or whatever) with magical properties. I'm just quite fed up with all this noise/nonsense.
- I'll start to produce some music as well (I know that these monitors are overkill for someone who's just starting up with music production.. But hey again, I'll be mostly using them for listening)
- Clarity, transparency, neutrality (whatever these terms might mean) are important, but I guess at this price range, they should all be sufficient at this job
IMPORTANT THINGS:
- I like the impact, the slam of big drivers giving you vibrations all over the body
- I like big sounds (I like to be immersed in music, possibly with a tab of lucy )
- That's why I would skip over small boxes with woofers smaller than 7 inches (I guess size does matter). Even if they're the most accurate monitors of the world, I don't care, I want physical energy
A few models popped up during my short research:
- Focal Trio11 BE (6600 EUR) (10 inch woofer) (30 Hz-40 kHz)
- Neumann KH420 (7300 EUR) (10 inch woofer) (26 Hz to 22 kHz ± 3 dB)
- EVE SC3012 (8600 EUR) (12 inch woofer) (25 Hz to 21 kHz ± 3 dB)
- Adam S5V (12000 EUR, probably too much money) (12 inch woofer) (25Hz–50kHz)
- Please feel free to recommend others!
Few questions:
1) The Focal flagship Trio11 BE is brand new, I think they launched in 2019. The Neumann KH420 are older (2014 release maybe?) but does this mean anything? Audio manufacturers don't seem to reinvent the wheel every other year.
2) Eve SC3012's got a good price for having a 12 inch woofer. I wonder… Does the bigger woofer really translate into a bigger slam for me? (in comparison to the 10 inch woofer Focal and Neumann)
3) I have a few doubts about subwoofer integration. As you know I own two Klipsch 15 inch subs. They're definitely not studio grade subs, but to be honest I'm not a sophiscated 30 hz vibration sommelier. So my main concern is… how should I set up the sub crossover? I know that normally people would set up around 70-80hz, but I think it doesn't make much sense in my case, since my mains can dig so low and so cleanly. I just wonder if it makes sense to set the crossover around 35-40hz, so that the subs will only take care of the lowest frequencies, leaving the rest to the mains.
So yeah.. There you have it. I want studio monitor precision, neutrality and big speaker energy/slam. Any other suggestions?
Thank you so much for your help, guys!
I'm about to get a pair of nice studio monitors.
It'd be great if you can help me choose THE ones :)
Setup:
- My room is not the biggest but it's properly treated (all corners of the room and early reflections are treated with GIK acoustics panels, bass tritraps and soffits)
- Size is around 4*6 meters (but I might move to somewhere bigger soon). I would mostly listen to them at round 80-90db. 90-100db if I want to party hard.
- Listening distance around 1,8-2 meters.
- I own two Klipsch R-115SW (15 inch consumer subwoofers)
- I own a Minidsp SHD and I'll use it for room correction and integration with the two subs
Who I am and what I want from these monitors:
- I'm more of a "cut the bs" audiophile (though I hate this term.. who doesn't?) who just realized that studio monitors are hifi speakers with better bang for the buck (not always true, but most of time). This is never clear in the audiophile community... Nobody in the audiophile world wants you to know that. There must be a conspiracy… Audiophile magazine reviewers hardly ever mention studio monitors, while spending so much time bull****ting over uber expensive amplifiers (or cables or dacs or whatever) with magical properties. I'm just quite fed up with all this noise/nonsense.
- I'll start to produce some music as well (I know that these monitors are overkill for someone who's just starting up with music production.. But hey again, I'll be mostly using them for listening)
- Clarity, transparency, neutrality (whatever these terms might mean) are important, but I guess at this price range, they should all be sufficient at this job
IMPORTANT THINGS:
- I like the impact, the slam of big drivers giving you vibrations all over the body
- I like big sounds (I like to be immersed in music, possibly with a tab of lucy )
- That's why I would skip over small boxes with woofers smaller than 7 inches (I guess size does matter). Even if they're the most accurate monitors of the world, I don't care, I want physical energy
A few models popped up during my short research:
- Focal Trio11 BE (6600 EUR) (10 inch woofer) (30 Hz-40 kHz)
- Neumann KH420 (7300 EUR) (10 inch woofer) (26 Hz to 22 kHz ± 3 dB)
- EVE SC3012 (8600 EUR) (12 inch woofer) (25 Hz to 21 kHz ± 3 dB)
- Adam S5V (12000 EUR, probably too much money) (12 inch woofer) (25Hz–50kHz)
- Please feel free to recommend others!
Few questions:
1) The Focal flagship Trio11 BE is brand new, I think they launched in 2019. The Neumann KH420 are older (2014 release maybe?) but does this mean anything? Audio manufacturers don't seem to reinvent the wheel every other year.
2) Eve SC3012's got a good price for having a 12 inch woofer. I wonder… Does the bigger woofer really translate into a bigger slam for me? (in comparison to the 10 inch woofer Focal and Neumann)
3) I have a few doubts about subwoofer integration. As you know I own two Klipsch 15 inch subs. They're definitely not studio grade subs, but to be honest I'm not a sophiscated 30 hz vibration sommelier. So my main concern is… how should I set up the sub crossover? I know that normally people would set up around 70-80hz, but I think it doesn't make much sense in my case, since my mains can dig so low and so cleanly. I just wonder if it makes sense to set the crossover around 35-40hz, so that the subs will only take care of the lowest frequencies, leaving the rest to the mains.
So yeah.. There you have it. I want studio monitor precision, neutrality and big speaker energy/slam. Any other suggestions?
Thank you so much for your help, guys!
7 responses Add your response