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i don't seem to understand why professional studio monitoring speakers are neccisary to mix a cd... no one is going to listen to the cd with professional speakers, they are going to listen to them through speakers attached to their cd player. so shouldn't the cd be mastered with the same type of speakers that will be playing the music to see what the song will actullay sound like? i run from my Monitor Out outputs into the AUX inputs on my Aiwa cd player, and i gotta tell you, it doesn't sound that bad.

am i missing something here or what?

When you mix a song to sound good on your stereo there is no guarantee that the mix will translate well to all the other different speaker systems other people might listen to it on. Because of its accuracy, a good professional monitor makes it much easier to do work that sounds good everywhere, which is the goal of mixing.

so basically they just are a good median of all speakers the song could be played on?

skatingbasser wrote:so basically they just are a good median of all speakers the song could be played on?

Kind of. Pro monitors are much "flatter" than home stereo speakers, as a rule. That means that their response is more even across the frequency spectrum. The idea is that when you listen to them you are hearing the music and not the speakers.

got it. thanks for clearing that up for me.

Actually speakers like the Yamaha NS10m were originally a home speaker and engineers, who thought like you, brought them into the studio and they became a standard among most studios. The B&Ws at electrical suit me fine. Altec made some odd ball studio monitors (other than the big reds) that i really enjoy also.

Chris

recommendations for good studio speakers? as always i'm on a tight budget, but i'm not only looking for something extremely cheap, just really worth the money and on the mid/low-end i guess. thanks.

skatingbasser wrote:recommendations for good studio speakers? as always i'm on a tight budget, but i'm not only looking for something extremely cheap, just really worth the money and on the mid/low-end i guess. thanks.

What's your budget? Do you already have a decent stereo power amp?

I've been seeing passive Tannoy PBM-6 and 8s go for under $200 a pair recently, and hooking those up to a 75-150 watt amp will give good results. This would probably be comparable if not better than the $450-600 active monitors out there. I always liked mixing on those Tannoys anyway...

For cheap, I've been really happy with my Yorkville YSM-1s. Mine are the older passive model at about $250/pair and they are powered with a Hafler P3000. I think they have a nice stereo image, good midrange detail and aren't too fatiguing. Not a ton of low end, but treating my room made a huge difference in that regard. I'm thinking about upgrading, but I'll probably keep these around as a second reference....

i have a 100 watt power amp... i'm not sure how decent it is

my budget would be around 200 i suppose