High-end studio monitors, commonly referred to as expensive monitors, are often beyond the financial reach of amateur music producers, music mixers or home recorders. Is the sound they carry really that much more detailed, full, natural, showing the whole sound picture and details of the effects used in the mix? Or is it just a little different ?
Professional studio listening is more than that.
Hear more details:
How about from the beginning. Do you need expensive studio monitors to mix well? The answer seems simple - yes. The better the monitor, the more you will hear and be able to make a more informed decision in terms of changes to your mix. But before you spend your hard-earned money, read this article to the end. A pair of professional studio monitors alone won't take care of everything, won't make your mixes suddenly sound like productions Michael Brauer or Chris Lord Elge.
First of all, expensive does not always mean good. (Anyway, this statement applies not only to studio monitors - just look at the automotive market). On the market we have several leading manufacturers of professional studio monitors; ATC Loudspeakers, Genelec or Neumann and smaller manufactures that are trying to catch up with those on the podium. This thread is worth developing. Well, some of the brands that technologically derive from the original, e.g., used speakers created by the pioneers and now try to imitate the technology and shroud their speakers as „high-end” or prove that, in principle, apart from a slightly lower price, there are no differences based on sound or character.
However, this story ends when the one-to-one listening is confronted. I.e. a direct comparison of models in the same room with the same source device. Here, in principle, the same manufacturers always win. Thus, before deciding to try / listen to such monitors, it is worth digging a little deeper into the description of the design, technology to learn a little more about it. Approach the testing fully informed and with conviction, which brands have set trends, which others are trying to catch up. (We recommend a separate article on Monitor Technology ATC Loudspeakers).
So what do these „expensive studio monitors” have that you won't find in other low- or mid-range speakers? Let's start with the workmanship - and it's not about the finish of the cabinet, but the components from which both the speakers and the amplifier, power supply / electronics were made. This is what professional studio monitors are primarily characterized by - often handmade. The quality of components, quality control has a huge impact on the final sound. A professional speaker is characterized precisely by detail, clarity, evenness across the bandwidth and dynamics.
And here we seamlessly move to perhaps the most frequently asked question:
Which monitor sounds better?
Well, at a certain ceiling the term better / worse disappears, and the statement different appears. So why different when it should be the prototype with which we rise to the heights of sound engineering?
Otherwise, it mainly means a more-or-less even sound amplitude over the widest possible bandwidth - which gives us the confidence to hear exactly what comes out of our sound source. We can check such a value in the technical specifications of a studio speaker.
Most sound engineers strive for just this kind of „linear” listening, but there are also those who prefer a more colored sound, however, and choose studio listening with more low frequencies, for example. This is more often the preference of the music producer than the sound engineer. Professional studio speakers have another advantage; working at a low volume we can still hear everything and the established mix values will not change when the volume is changed. We are mainly talking about the low frequencies, which, with a good quality monitor, we can also control at low volumes.
Keep this in mind the next time you test studio monitors.
This feature is due to the high SPL values, which are in vain to be found in studio speakers for $1500. Another feature that has appeared for some time in selected manufacturers is the built-in DSP system, which calibrates the speakers to a given room, thus adjusting their sound character to the acoustic conditions. This does not mean that monitors without DSP cannot be calibrated (tuned) to a given room. There are several very good and, most importantly, not necessarily very expensive monitor calibration systems on the market, which definitely have more capabilities and are therefore more precise than the DSP modules built into the speakers.
Room acousticsa
In fact, most users have never actually heard their monitors, but only a combination of the sound of their monitors in their room. Here we come to the most important thing that should be solved definitely before deciding to buy expensive studio monitors. Room acoustics.
Our ears have the ability to adapt / learn a given room, and even if in the first or second contact with a poor room we feel its weaknesses, the next time we try to work in it, we slowly forget about the pains and know what is the weak point of the room, and most importantly we are able (at least so we think) to exclude bandwidth appropriate values.
Unfortunately, after what time in particular, when our mixes are verified not only in our (average quality) room, it turns out that it does not sound as good as we thought.
We have a lot of ready-made solutions or information on how to make the right contraptions yourself, which will be the solution for most in the form of passive acoustic treatment; bass traps, absorbing panels and perhaps some diffusion.
Here it is worth taking a peek at the professional literature on acoustics or turning to the professionals:
It's a shame for the room to make your monitor a sonically different tool from what it actually is. You can always contact contact us to arrange a personalized presentation of studio monitors in a professionally adapted room.
Calibration of studio monitors
We have already mentioned above the monitors' built-in DSP circuits and external calibration tools. It is such solutions, commonly referred to as room correction, that should properly be called speaker calibration. From software SonarWorks to powerful tools such as Amadeus, Trinnov or Maven whether the recently popular IK Multimedia Arc. Speaker calibration products measure the combined effects of your speakers and your room from the listening position, compare this to the speaker input, and use expression and phase manipulation to achieve an effect as close to a flat response as possible. That is, basically, the effect of what the best quality monitors have at the „start” in a professionally adapted room.
To clarify; the calibration system or built-in DSP should be used to further calibrate the monitors/adjust to the conditions, not to completely change their character. Most professional studio installations with pre-designed and executed acoustics realized by our company have been equipped with a processor type Prodigy, mainly because of Dolby Atmos systems, with which it is necessary to calibrate the system of multiple speakers; 5.1.4 or 7.1.4. We have yet to meet a user who would spend several or several thousand zlotys on a good quality calibration processor and regret the expense.
Positioning of speakers in the room
Where you locate your speakers relative to where you are has a huge impact on what you will hear. The less adapted the room, the more audible it will be.
The principle of sweet spot and equilateral triangle will always work well in this case. As for the height, each professional speaker manufacturer indicates the recommended position of the speaker in relation to the listener's ear in the accompanying manual ( example ).
Another important aspect is speaker stands. They serve two functions - they support the speaker at the right point in the space so that it can properly contribute to the sound field, but they are also the thing that resists the force exerted by moving drivers. There are plenty of products that try to isolate speakers from whatever they are placed on by disconnecting them from the room, such as the brand's ISO ACOUSTIC. Solid speaker stands make a significant difference. It is worth taking care of solid stands preferably backfilled with quartz sand so they will not transmit vibrations and will certainly protect our expensive monitors from falling.
Do expensive monitors need a sub ?
It depends on your needs; a sub is not a tool to make us hear more low frequencies, but a tool to make such a system, in combination with listening monitors, play uniformly (linearly) over a wider bandwidth than the monitors themselves - just play from lower frequencies. This is another feature of expensive listening systems. Here again, a noteworthy example is the sub ATC SCS70, which is designed to be used with several models of ATC brand (and other) speakers. Depending on the speaker model you are using this particular model with and the configuration; 2+1 / 2+2 or Dolby Atmos, the manufacturer suggests specific settings for polarity, signal level, crosover.
Such a number of different setting possibilities means that the sub will be tuned perfectly with our monitors. Thus, we have a chance to avoid the so-called bandwidth hole between the monitors and the sub or problems with phase.
Is it worth installing speakers in the wall?
It is a common practice to mount studio monitors in the wall, which makes the speakers go a little lower, and perhaps so there will be no need for them to use subs. This, by the way, is another argument in favor of professional monitors; the possibility of mounting in the wall. When buying expensive studio monitors, we can decide whether the speakers are to be delivered with amplifiers inside or outside plus additional mounting accessories.
5.1 multi-channel systems, Dolby Atmos, Immersive Audio in the studio
Increasingly, we are seeing clever solutions that offer virtualization of the mix space to try to provide a more monitor-like experience when mixing on headphones. One example is the VSX system from Slate. However, this will always be just a virtualization and an attempt to replicate a good room and a tuned, good-class listening system. The company DOLBY, which set the requirements for ATMOS systems, specifies exactly where the speakers are located and how they should be tuned in its guidelines, which can be read about HERE. By the same token, nothing can replace an acoustically well-prepared room combined with high-quality listening speakers.
So do you need expensive monitors to mix well?
Back to our original question - Do you need expensive monitors to mix music well? The answer is simple, good listening really helps. It makes it easier to hear details, details and create a recording by enhancing details that will not be heard on low-end speakers. This truth has been known for many years. As soon as Billy Woodman showed the world the first speaker from one of ATC Lodspeakers' most respected brands in 1974, the SCM50 model became a kind of standard in the professional listening community. Later, smaller models such as the SCM20 i SCM25 And so to this day it is an unmatched standard.
By the way, it is worth mentioning that the mentioned brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and is celebrating it by offering ATC speakers in a special ATC 50 for 50 offer which is worth reading about HERE.
Keep in mind that creating a truly classy monitoring environment requires much more commitment than just setting up expensive studio monitors in a random room. Therefore, it is always a good idea to talk to someone who can properly advise and suggest which model will be best for our room and our needs before planning and purchasing monitors.
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