#102

When I want more SPL than my Focal CMS 40s are capable of producing I go into the living room and use my Athena AS-F2s. They are ridiculously affordable but I love the way they sound (no, they aren’t audiophile speakers, but they don’t cost as much as audiophile speakers either). Not a club PA, so you’re not going to wake the neighbors, but I find them plenty loud for my living room.

That model is pretty old by now. I bet there’s better stuff that has entered the market in the last decade and a half.

#103

Bummer, apparently Klipsch bought Athena, so no idea what’s good in that range lately.

#104

i just ordered one of these since i’m often using headphones (fam likes to sleep) even though i have monitors/subwoofer.

they’re currently on sale if anyone is interested.

#105

I’ve been using a pair of Genelecs (the smaller ones) for a few months now after seeing the brand frequently pop up in this thread; I’m very satisfied with them!

That said, I use them both for making music on my modular, and to play music to listen to from my phone (this cheap BlueTooth adapter plugged in to my mixer makes life so convenient).

After mentioning this to a friend (who is a very talented musician), he told me he could never use his studio monitors to listen to music.

So I’m curious to hear what people here have to say about it. Do you use the same speakers for listening to music as you do for composing?

(I don’t like owning too much stuff and I’m happy with my setup so I’m not going to buy new speakers on top of the Genelecs, but still curious. I guess if I had the space and didn’t intend on moving soon, I’d save up for a pair of those huge electrostatic speakers :heart_eyes:)

#106

I listen to music on my Focal CMS 40s, my DT990s, some Athena AS-F2.2 loudspeakers in the living room, and in a Toyota truck. Each of those is pretty different. Can’t say I really have a preference.

1 Like
#107

I grew up with a few different models of Magnaplanars in the house, and when I first heard a pair of high end Martin Logan electrostats I wondered why people made such a fuss about them. Electrostats sound like good box speakers, but Magnepan speakers just have this astounding transparency - you literally cannot point to any part of the room and go “the speaker is there”, but you CAN point to various parts of the room and say “the vocalist is right here and she’s this tall”. They’re phenomenal and if I had a large enough room (I wouldn’t run them in a room smaller than 4 meters on the short side) I’d have a pair right now.

5 Likes
#108

Good call. My uncle has a pair of Magnaplanars and he lived with us for a while, so those were the speakers in the house when I was a teenager. Totally spoiled.

2 Likes
#109

I listen to music on four things on a regular basis:

  • Dynaudio BM5A mkIII
  • Noble in ear monitors
  • Car stereo
  • Home system: Harbeth C7ES3

The Harbeth’s are by far the best… I feel like the musicians are in the room.

The only ones of all of them that are crappy are the car speakers, but they’re ok enough that it’s fine for while in the car.

I do listen a lot on my Dynaudio monitors because I spend a lot of time in that room. They sound great and it’s totally enjoyable, but it doesn’t give me the same sensation as my main stereo. That might partly be because of the overall size/power, and the rest of the audio chain.

If I could afford the money and space I’d consider having a hi-if setup in my studio along with the monitors… but that’s unlikely to happen in the near future.

#110

Here’s what I enjoy music on:

  • Harbeth C7ES3 in the living room (entirely @emenel’s fault)
  • Abacus A-Box 5 in the studio (fantastic for the size and price)
  • Denon AH-D5000 headphones

All of these are very enjoyable to listen on.

#111

I have two systems at home:

  • genelec 1029a (quad)
  • atc acm10-2 (stereo)

In general I find genelec very fast, responsive and detailed to impulse-like microsounds. I live with them for over 20 years…
The atc are very organic and spacious. glad I’ve found them 2nd hand…

#112

Unity Audio The Rock MkII in a very small space. They sit a little over a meter away from my head. Sound great. I trust 'em.

They are fed signal from a Speck Electronics X.Sum line mixer, which is fed by an RME UFX connected to a late 2015 iMac.

#113

i have a now-older pair of krk rokit 8 in studio i love listening in there and i love working in there both as much as possible but usually i am work/play rather than listen and when i do listen it is usually in a consult x kind of way and not for actual lovely active listening music enjoyment discovery exploration.
i listen in car stock system in prius-v a ton and it sounds fine but too much bass
i listen in living room on some monitors in there now. doesn’t sound good.
i listen in breakfast room on old old bose that sometimes sounds ok but mostly too boomy (funky room isn’t ever going to sound right but its fun to blast ravel and prince and james brown).
i listen to ipod in crappy earbuds sounds thin but fine.
i listen on laptop faaaaaaaaar more than i should but it gives me a good idea of what is going on especially when also listening to things on other systems.
all that said, i think it is better to have music anywhere and everywhere even if it is less than ideal for any reason. and the only speakers i fully trust are my old rokit 8s. maybe not even that i fully trust them, just that i know my way around and enjoy working with and that leads to being able to finish as much music as i intend to work/play with/on.

#114

Never heard of this brand before! Pretty curious now! The c-box series looks as a fun addition for my small noodle corner, wonder how they compare to the Presonus Eris series :slight_smile: Their horns look pretty amazing as well.

#115

Personally, I’ve found that unless you have a really great room, the room makes vastly more difference than the speakers themselves do. I’ve had even a pair of very basic monitors (Canadian generic Yorkville 5" actives) sound fantastic in a decently treated room, and heard vastly nicer pairs sound worse in crappy rooms. Until your room is not the issue, you’ll get far more bang for your buck treating it than spending the dough on monitors.

That said, the best near-field monitors I ever heard were fairly basic hand-built 8" woofers in a bass-reflex enclosure with carefully time-aligned tweeters, bi-amped with matched amps (also handbuilt). People were looking around for the assumed-live musicians. But that was in a fantastic room too. Sounded as good as the JBL LSRs in the other studio. I guess I’m just a stronger believer in physics than in any particular manufacturer’s “magic”.

3 Likes
#116

I’ve got a C-Box as well. They are amazing.

1 Like
#117

Ok, you’re responsible for me ordering a test pair lol. Do you have the c3 or c4? I’m gonna trial the c3 as I’m looking for as small in size/big in sound as possible. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#118

C3 here. You won’t be disappointed.

1 Like
#119

Finally gave in and purchased a pair of Adam A7X monitors - used. They appear to be in mint condition - we will see when they arrive. I finally will have real monitors which is very exciting coming from the Monoprice monitors I’ve been getting by with up to this point. Very interested to see how they compare…

1 Like
#120

Looking to buy my first set of monitors.

Price range: <$400 ea. (roughly)
Room: roughly 13.3’ x 10’ (4m x 3m)
Desk position: up against the wall on one of the shorter walls. I can’t really move it out very far.

Current contenders: Yamaha HS8 vs Adam T7V (vs Yamaha HS7)

Thoughts? I’m leaning towards the HS8 largely because of the larger drivers as I like bass. :slight_smile: But my room currently isn’t treated (that will be dealt with eventually), and with the monitors near the wall, I wonder whether going with a smaller speaker (and/or eventually adding a sub) might be in my best interests.

#121

I’ve used the Adam T7Vs, and they sound better than they have any right to sound for $500/pair. I haven’t measured them, but I fully believe the spec that claims they get into the high 30Hz range.

2 Likes