Bailing on the Genelecs...ordered some 8" Yamaha monitors

[fretworn]

I LOVE the hs8s. But it’s a rare control room nowadays that can handle them. I have hs5’s or 50’s or whatever and also a pair I carry around. I should see if with the trapping I have now that the 8’s would be ok.

Good point.

I’m in a sizable 14’ x 28’ room; (but sideways currently - shared space atm)

 

[Whizzinby]

In for the Sade

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I tune my room to Daniel Lanois.

I tune my soul to Daniel lanois

 

[laxu]

Update after a couple days:

Still struggling to get the positioning right. The stands are too tall and don't really fit around the desk legs well, so I need the speakers 1-2 feet away from the corners of the desk. This makes the sound really distant or with some odd stereo phase issues. So I've reverted back to putting them on my little homemade bridge shelf. They are up on the Iso Acoustics stands which does really seem to help clean up the bass with the big drivers.

I briefly set them up alongside the JBL 306 monitors, and was absolutely shocked by the difference. The JBL's sounded like there are blankets over the speakers compared to the Yamahas. That's surprising because the JBL's sounded more open than the Genelecs, but the Yamahas had way more clarity and punch.

Looking at the frequency response graphs I can find now, I suppose that makes sense.

Here's the Yamaha HS7. The HS8 should have a flatter overall response with a little more bass, but wasn't tested by the same person. Notice the response is pretty flat, maybe tilting down by 1dB from 100 up to 10k:

Here's the JBL. Notice that it tilts down by about 5dB:

And here's the Genelec 8030. Again, the 8020 should be very similar with a little less bass extension. There's a tilt of about 5dB here as well:

So the other two monitors have a 5 dB tilt where the Yamahas are about a 1 dB tilt. That would likely explain the big difference I'm hearing.

You could probably use something like Room EQ Wizard to measure your room response if you have the mics to do so. It might be that your room somehow manages to eat a lot of high end or some other frequency that makes the other speakers sound like there's a blanket on them.

 

[Cirrus]

I tune Daniel Lanois to KLN Clone radio, LA's infinite repeat.

 

[Jarick]

You could probably use something like Room EQ Wizard to measure your room response if you have the mics to do so. It might be that your room somehow manages to eat a lot of high end or some other frequency that makes the other speakers sound like there's a blanket on them.

I spent a bit of time using REW and my ECM8000 reference mic to take measurements, and my room does seem to be a mess. Depending on the positioning of the speaker, there are some big dips and peaks in the 100-200 Hz range.

When I measured all three speakers from about 1m away in the same place, I saw two big things jump out at me:

1. The Yamahas have significantly more bass extension than the JBL's, which have significantly more bass extension than the Genelecs. This is basic physics going from an 8" woofer to a 6.5" woofer to a 4" woofer. But the Yamahas had acceptable bass down to about 55 Hz, where the JBL's were acceptable down to about 65 and the Genelecs only down to about 100.

2. The Yamahas definitely have more prominent midrange compared to the other two speakers, and more treble lift above 1k as well. The JBL's were actually pretty flat when measured this way and the Genelecs close behind.

As I got further away, the treble falls off and the Yamahas become more balanced, where the JBL and Genelec get darker sounding.

Just comparing the Yamaha and JBL today, same positioning on stands and same volume, the Yamahas have a much fuller low end and more clarity, maybe with a little boost in the mids but not too bad. The JBL's sound very flat and dull in comparison, like you have to turn them up louder to get much out of them, but even then you aren't really hearing the details especially in the high end. It's more like you have your musical notes and then a little splashy clarity on top. The Yamahas are more aggressive in putting all the details in front of you, but there's just a lot more content all around.

So I'm pretty confident the Yamahas are an upgrade to the JBL's, but of course I wonder if they are maybe too aggressive, and if I shouldn't check out some other options in the price range, like the Focal Alpha 65.

---

But bottom line, the speakers sound really good overall and I'm enjoying listening to things on these so much more than the Genelecs. When I listen to music, I focus on the melody, harmony, instrumentation, and the sonics (basically everything except the lyrics). This brings back enjoyment of the sonics in a really pleasing way.

 

[la szum]

I honestly don't use a Sub to get more Bass, but to take the heavy lifting off the Monitors.

Can also tune the sub 100Hz freqs to your room, and where (or where not) you may have
some low-end buildup.

I find not dumping all that low end into the Monitors allows them to breathe a bit more and
open up.

 

[fretworn]

I honestly don't use a Sub to get more Bass, but to take the heavy lifting off the Monitors.

Can also tune the sub 100Hz freqs to your room, and where (or where not) you may have
some low-end buildup.

I find not dumping all that low end into the Monitors allows them to breathe a bit more and
open up.

This ^^^

However, pulling up synthesizer patches in Logic makes me want to have something really deliver that solid “10 Hz tone/shake in the room” vibe …

Some of those sub drops are wicked. HS8 won’t do it.

 

[Jarick]

Been working on recording clips for a video but need to figure out my approach.

I think my angle is going to be, what's best for bedroom volume guitar. I don't see many videos like this with a shootout of clips between different monitoring sources. Only issue is trying to figure out how I want to capture them. I have a flat reference mic which captures the sound well, but positioning is key.

Took a run at miking the speakers all from about 1m away which made sense, but then the lows of the studio monitors were too much and the highs of the real cabinet were too much. So may go for more "amp in the room" with the speaker cab off axis and then a little more distance on the studio monitors...

 

[Jarick]

These monitors are damn good at showing off the source. Well recorded music sounds amazing. Really crappy recordings sound horrible. I was just watching YouTube and an ad came up with someone using a crappy mic and it was muffled and distorted and sounded like it was in another room. Then another video popped up with a really good opening track and that sounded super 3D with lots of highs and lows.

Truly feels like these are as much monitor as I could ever realistically need.

 

[fretworn]

These monitors are damn good at showing off the source. Well recorded music sounds amazing. Really crappy recordings sound horrible. I was just watching YouTube and an ad came up with someone using a crappy mic and it was muffled and distorted and sounded like it was in another room. Then another video popped up with a really good opening track and that sounded super 3D with lots of highs and lows.

Truly feels like these are as much monitor as I could ever realistically need.

I was very surprised that they had a Yamaha label lol

Like I said, I trusted Cliff and his assessment. Happy enough atm