New Monitors & Room Measurements

[Whizzinby]

I use a pair of T7V’s and dump 2db of bass on the rear controls. These are the only studio monitors I’ve ever used so I’ve hesitated looking to upgrade them since I’m so accustomed to them. Studio stuff be tricky

 

[MirrorProfiles]

another good calculator here, itll show axial modes and also your Schroeder frequency

Acoustic calculator: Room modes

 

[Jarick]

Focals came in, just firing them up compared to the Adams.

These generally seem warmer tonality where the Adams are brighter. The Focals have a surprising amount of bass but need to be turned up a little more to kick it out. I think this will improve over time as they break in. Although the Focals are not as immediately bright as the Adam, it seems like they have more detail, especially in the upper mids / low treble.

Hiss on the Focals is not an issue, can't hear it past a foot away. With the Adams there was a loud hiss at my listening position of three feet away. Same with the Yamahas, no hiss after a foot. My old JBL's had a loud hiss like the Adams. Genelecs had no hiss I could detect.

I will say that both the Adam and Focal speakers are more pleasant to listen to than the Yamahas. I think if the Adam hiss wasn't so loud I'd be quite happy with those. I also think both the Adam and Focal monitors sound better than the JBL 305's I used to have.

Also outside of sonics, the Focals are very striking looking speakers, both the enclosure and the drivers. I've always been curious about Focals going back to my car audio and home audio enthusiast days.

 

[Orvillain]

I had some cheap Focals; the Alpha 65's. After a while they really started to get on my nerves. They'd distort when playing piano samples through them for example, and nothing I tried fixed it. I sold them at a loss in the end and ended up with the Yamaha HS8's that I've got, which for the money are very good IMO.

I've got a pair of M-Audio BX5's that I'll occasionally drag out to reference on, and I'm also quite curious about the KH120 II's. A pair of those for about £1300 isn't too bad, but my cashflow aint great at the moment so gonna have to wait to try those out.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Focal top end is kind of marmite. I can’t really get on with them but I know plenty who do.

They'd distort when playing piano samples through them for example, and nothing I tried fixed it

This sounds like a broken speaker rather than a design flaw to me, sustaining pianos can reveal stuff like this. I noticed a rattle in one of the ATC’s, and a blown amphion driver from a piano.

 

[Orvillain]

This sounds like a broken speaker rather than a design flaw to me, sustaining pianos can reveal stuff like this. I noticed a rattle in one of the ATC’s, and a blown amphion driver from a piano.

I wasn't given the chance to figure that out. Focal wouldn't take a look at them.

It was both speakers too, not just one.

 

[the swede]

I’d also recommend leaving no treatment on the front wall, the speakers will work more efficiently and the ambient sound around you will be livelier.

Didn’t know this… i think this is what many people (that isn’t serious) do first, just plaster the whole front wall with thin stuff that doesn’t do much good except maybe look good.

Noted!

I’m also realizing I’ll never be able to do a good treatment of my basement room. Concrete walls/floor/ceiling. Almost perfectly square…




But the corner things i made was really effective generally. They’re super thick and filled with a heavy and dense recycled plastics based material that is used instead of Rockwool in construction. The panels is also the same material. I’m ordering white versions of those to put in the ceiling. But I’m not taking this too far though, it’s just to dampen/diffuse the worst and make the room feel better. Resonances and standing waves are terrible here if i use something loud!
I’ll probably go with nothing to fancy as monitors… no larger than 5”. It is what is

Funny though when my wife put a old couch in the room it made the biggest difference on the low resonances

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Didn’t know this… i think this is what many people (that isn’t serious) do first, just plaster the whole front wall with thin stuff that doesn’t do much good except maybe look good.

Noted!

I’m also realizing I’ll never be able to do a good treatment of my basement room. Concrete walls/floor/ceiling. Almost perfectly square…

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View attachment 28359

But the corner things i made was really effective generally. They’re super thick and filled with a heavy and dense recycled plastics based material that is used instead of Rockwool in construction. The panels is also the same material. I’m ordering white versions of those to put in the ceiling. But I’m not taking this too far though, it’s just to dampen/diffuse the worst and make the room feel better. Resonances and standing waves are terrible here if i use something loud!
I’ll probably go with nothing to fancy as monitors… no larger than 5”. It is what is

Funny though when my wife put a old couch in the room it made the biggest difference on the low resonances

Looking good! The hard front wall is lending itself nicely for the lamps and decorations!

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

[...] Funny though when my wife put a old couch in the room it made the biggest difference on the low resonances

That's is a very tastefully decorated room. Why do you Scandinavians all have such a talent for this kind of thing? So clean and tidy.
And I really like your TGF avatar on the wall.

 

[the swede]

That's is a very tastefully decorated room. Why do you Scandinavians all have such a talent for this kind of thing? So clean and tidy.

I think thats a generalization but there’s probably some truth in it. Minimalism and neutral non obtrusive things.
Personally i am like that, can’t have much things, or to dramatic colors. Clean and tidy and. My wife is the opposite. She say that if I lived alone there would be nothing but a chair and a table.

And I really like your TGF avatar on the wall.

Haha, i wondered when someone noticed. I’ve posted before and no one made the connection.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

What a brutal week for me of setting shit up, testing, moving things around. Full week of 12 hour days, moving huge bits of treatment and furniture around. FINALLY got things dialled in where I feel like it’s as good as I can possibly do.

SO much easier to do that stuff if you start with an empty room and find your listening and speaker positions first. THEN start adding in treatment and fine tuning. I needed to move my speakers off the wall slightly to get the SBIR down low enough so it was out of the way of some room modes and into the range of the subwoofer.

Luckily, the room is measuring (and more importantly, sounding) better than ever. Having a small desk meant it was actually possible to fine tune all these positions. It’s really important to think about the trade offs in having a huge desk (and screen) in front of you.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

and the data so I can fully hijack the thread.

First a frequency plot because I guess for most people these will make the most sense. This is just speakers with no EQ applied, no sub involved. I'm not concerned about the dip because its low enough to be handled by the sub

Spectrogram, shows more of whats going on in the room. Imagine a waterfall plot thats actually useful. The goal is to have a relatively even decay although its fine for the low end to have a gradual rise

And lastly, the correction curve from MA1. My goal was really to have this doing as little as possible - I LOVE the phase correction for the speaker crossovers and generally feel like EQing speakers is kind of a band aid approach.

 

[Jarick]

Well the Adams are going back because of the hiss. Good sound otherwise.

Been running the Focals for a week and generally happy with them. But swapped back for the Yamahas last night and kind of liked the change. The midrange filled out a bit, and low and high end smoothed out a bit as well. The tone was a little warmer in a nice way.

Will keep listening on these but may not be surprised if I just end up keeping the Yammies.

 

[Jarick]

@the swede where did you get those corner treatments? Build or buy? Looks great!

 

[the swede]

@the swede where did you get those corner treatments? Build or buy? Looks great!

I made them. Built a frame and then wrapped with cheap IKEA blankets. The material inside is recycled polyester fiber material. It’s very much like the standard rockwool insulation stuff in weight and density. I thought it was a good alternative because rockwool needs to be sealed. And the panels i ordered from a company that make those, also the same material.

I’m going to order more of those panels, i like them.

 

[EOengineer]

Interesting read. I’ve personally only had great experiences with ADAM Audio monitors. I’ve owned and used daily a pair of S2A monitors for 15 years, and spent a couple years in a studio that used their S3As which were also great.

 

[EOengineer]

I made them. Built a frame and then wrapped with cheap IKEA blankets. The material inside is recycled polyester fiber material. It’s very much like the standard rockwool insulation stuff in weight and density. I thought it was a good alternative because rockwool needs to be sealed. And the panels i ordered from a company that make those, also the same material.

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I’m going to order more of those panels, i like them.

Brilliant idea building triangles and adding feet. I might steal this when I bass trap my room next year.

I’ve always built panels with 1x2 or 1x4 frame and OC703 in flat panels, mounting is a pain every time. Yours look more like furniture and far easier to place.

 

[Jarick]

Listening to the Focals I was thinking they are a bit hollow in the upper midrange, lacking a little clarity there. But then I put on my Sennheiser HD600 and they sounded similarly hollow. Thinking I’m probably used to the Yamahas which are boosted in that range.

 

[EOengineer]

Listening to the Focals I was thinking they are a bit hollow in the upper midrange, lacking a little clarity there. But then I put on my Sennheiser HD600 and they sounded similarly hollow. Thinking I’m probably used to the Yamahas which are boosted in that range.

Not claiming to be an authority in any way, shape, or form, but I’ve spent a lot of time in studios and in particular with very nice 7.2 and atmos systems, and my perspective shifted over the years from looking for some mythical super transparent monitor that existed to finding one that simply presented information in a way I could interpret and accurately reason about translation out to other systems.

Oddly, one doesn’t always seem to mean the other. Just use the tools you know well and I bet you get good results. There are still engineers out there mixing everything on NS10s.

 

[Jarick]

Not claiming to be an authority in any way, shape, or form, but I’ve spent a lot of time in studios and in particular with very nice 7.2 and atmos systems, and my perspective shifted over the years from looking for some mythical super transparent monitor that existed to finding one that simply presented information in a way I could interpret and accurately reason about translation out to other systems.

Oddly, one doesn’t always seem to mean the other. Just use the tools you know well and I bet you get good results. There are still engineers out there mixing everything on NS10s.

Totally get it! I think a big part of the appeal of the Yamahas is that they are so revealing because there's a bit of a lift in the upper mids. The old NS10's were really skewed tonally but again the people who learned those could translate things well.

I think for my purpose, I'm looking for a set of speakers that is reasonably accurate leaning on the more pleasing sound rather than analytical. Reason being, I don't necessarily want to find a fault in everything I'm doing because that's a distraction. I'm not doing heavy mix work so don't need that feedback.

And the Yamaha HS8's are really damn good speakers, but for the near field setup I want, the Focals seem to be better suited.