Phil Macino
05-23-2004, 11:33 AM
As I continue to build my project studio, I'm making improvements a long the way.
This weekend I addressed the monitor situation. I had been using M-Audio SP-5B's and found that a lot of my mixes were all over the place in regards to balance in the low-mids. I guess that can be expected with a 5" woofer. I tried messing with placement for a while, but found that every time I moved them I changed some other frequency properties in relation to what I was hearing in the mix. I also acoustically treated the room . I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't the driver size, but the fact that they are rear ported and I was done spending more on fixes than just fixing the root problem!
Based on that, I made the decision to try either a closed enclosure design or front ported, in what would be considered mid-priced monitors, ie: Mackie, the new Event "Studio Precisions", Tannoy, KRK, etc...
So, I spent the majority of yesterday A/B-ing monitors. In the end, I liked the sound of the Mackies for what I am doing, but here is the dilemma...It looks like Mackie has given the go ahead for some agressive pricing and was able to get a pretty good deal on a pair of HR624's. They are much better sounding to my ears than the M-Audio's (go figure).
But the way the price scale works I could return the 624's and get the 824's for $250 more! I'm seriously thinking about doing this just from an economic standpoint and am trying to weigh the practical pros and cons. But, I don't want economics to be the *only* reason. I don't want to feel that even though it was more of a discount, it wasn't the best purchase for my needs.
I've read that some people feel that the 824's are too bass heavy and I'm concerned that they might be too much for my room for critical listening. My project room is 11'x14'. But, I'm also concerned that by using the 624's I could be limiting myself from having "the monitor". Mackie lists about a 20 Hz difference in bottom end between the two +1dB.
I just bugs me to have already spent pretty close to the 824's and not be having the spec numbers of them. I know this is all subjective to room acoustics etc...The 624's sound great by all means. In fact I am even thinking that they might have eliminated some of the mentioned "boominess" by going to a smaller enclosure. The low end does sound very tight, but you can definately hear a drop off around 60Hz. The 824's are published to go down to 38 Hz.
So, I'm looking for input on 824's and if you have experiences with both them and the 624's....even better!
This weekend I addressed the monitor situation. I had been using M-Audio SP-5B's and found that a lot of my mixes were all over the place in regards to balance in the low-mids. I guess that can be expected with a 5" woofer. I tried messing with placement for a while, but found that every time I moved them I changed some other frequency properties in relation to what I was hearing in the mix. I also acoustically treated the room . I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't the driver size, but the fact that they are rear ported and I was done spending more on fixes than just fixing the root problem!
Based on that, I made the decision to try either a closed enclosure design or front ported, in what would be considered mid-priced monitors, ie: Mackie, the new Event "Studio Precisions", Tannoy, KRK, etc...
So, I spent the majority of yesterday A/B-ing monitors. In the end, I liked the sound of the Mackies for what I am doing, but here is the dilemma...It looks like Mackie has given the go ahead for some agressive pricing and was able to get a pretty good deal on a pair of HR624's. They are much better sounding to my ears than the M-Audio's (go figure).
But the way the price scale works I could return the 624's and get the 824's for $250 more! I'm seriously thinking about doing this just from an economic standpoint and am trying to weigh the practical pros and cons. But, I don't want economics to be the *only* reason. I don't want to feel that even though it was more of a discount, it wasn't the best purchase for my needs.
I've read that some people feel that the 824's are too bass heavy and I'm concerned that they might be too much for my room for critical listening. My project room is 11'x14'. But, I'm also concerned that by using the 624's I could be limiting myself from having "the monitor". Mackie lists about a 20 Hz difference in bottom end between the two +1dB.
I just bugs me to have already spent pretty close to the 824's and not be having the spec numbers of them. I know this is all subjective to room acoustics etc...The 624's sound great by all means. In fact I am even thinking that they might have eliminated some of the mentioned "boominess" by going to a smaller enclosure. The low end does sound very tight, but you can definately hear a drop off around 60Hz. The 824's are published to go down to 38 Hz.
So, I'm looking for input on 824's and if you have experiences with both them and the 624's....even better!