Small Active Monitors for classical location recordings

[Norm@gear]

+1 for K+M O300. Sound of big monitors from small boxes. Very flat and detailed, great bass, excellent stereo picture.
thumbsup
Norm

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by audio ergo sum

What is that talkback box on the right. Custom made? I'm looking for one of those...

Yes - made by me in the early '90's.

The internals are an ancient Allen and Heath "Aux Box" which I use for the mic. amp. The mic. is a cheap Canford Audio dynamic. There are also relays inside for operating the red lights.

The switches are British Post Office lever switches (expensive but with absolute perfect ergonomics) that you push up to lock on and pull down for momentary connect.

There are four headphone sockets wired in parallel and a long snake that runs to the recording space. In the space is a red light and a K+H M51 powered loudspeaker for talkback and will also put my voice with take number on the "tape" - I can also run extension headphones out there if necessary.

I built it for my first CD project with John Lenehan when I was in another room about 70 metres away and needed good communications and it has done sterling service ever since.

[klaukholm]

When we searching for location classical speakers, we ended up with Lipinski L707
The carry cases they come with are fantastic for this use and work nicely as treatment for the room as well, when combined with a number of asc traps.
Great detail, natural sound.
At home you put a sub with them and you have mastering quality.
I truly feel these are the portable version of BW 801's with extra detail.

[fifthcircle]

How are you powering your 707s?

--Ben

[klaukholm]

Hi Ben,
we are powering them with a five ch Hypex amp on location.
back at home we have used both our krells and the hypex which make distinct difference in how they sound.
The jury is out until we settle on the right combination of subwoofers and speakers, but the nicest/warmest sound is the hypex. The krell is less round in the bass and the result is a hyper detailed mid/high end that is ridiculously revealing.

Amps make a big difference on these guys.

I will also have to use a dedicated sub for the LSRS L505 as I am finding it difficult to balance front/back ratios correctly as the smaller ones have a much higher rolloff.

I would be interested in hearing what you think of them.

[0VU]

For small speakers I'm currently mostly using ATC SCM20ASL Pros (the funny shaped metal ones). With these I have a 5.1 setup so I can take either a 5.1 surround rig, or take a pair and the matching sub, or for jobs not needing the extra LF extension/power. just take a pair of the 20s. They're fairly compact and sound great but are extremely heavy so not ideal for anyone needing easy portability.

I've also got a pair of Dynaudio C2s which are great for smaller control rooms or where you have to work almost on top of the speakers, and a pair of Acoustic Energy AE1s. These are really 'hi-fi' speakers with no pretensions of being 'studio monitors' but they're clean and accurate sounding and, for really small spaces, work very well - once you're used to them (but then the same is probably true of any speaker). Oh, and a pair of Rogers/BBC LS3/5As.


I've been offered a pair of Lipinski L707s at a very attractive price but so far I've only heard them very briefly, and before making a decision I was going to give them a proper go on some forthcoming mixing/editing (and maybe recording) sessions alongside something I know better so it's interesting to hear that someone else is already using for the same kind of work I do.

klaukholm, could I ask whether you feel that the Lipinskis work well enough alone for orchestral location work or is the sub a necessity for larger scale work, and just how fussy are they about the amps used to drive them? The pair I've been offered will come with Hypex amps and at the moment, I've already got Chord (both stereo and monoblocks), Musical Fidelity, Dynaudio (MC2), and Quad amps. Are they particularly power hungry? I'm currently carrying around ATC SCM100ASLs for larger jobs but my back would thank me for moving to something a little smaller to cover things not needing the full range of the SCM100As plus sub but needing more LF extension than the SCM20ASL Pros can offer (though they're not exactly lacking in LF, they relsove some surprisingly low frequencies but they can't deliver them with enough energy for full range monitoring).

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by 0VU

For small speakers I'm currently mostly using ATS SCM20ASL Pros (the funny shaped metal ones).

You mean ATC SCM20ASL Pros

Bl**dy wonderful loudspeakers (if you have deep pockets and strong arms).

[klaukholm]

The Lipinskis have bass extension, but they are bass light.
The main use of a sub is to reinforce the bass and warm the sound up a bit.
What you hear down there is clear. I just did a movie in 5.0 with them and I think I will bring one or two subs next time I do a film, but for classical work I rather like the uncluttered bass range.
I have worked on other speakers that seem to give more bass, but all of them are somewhat dishonest, with the exeption of the 801's which are my yardsticks.

I really like the 20asl's though. We regularly work on the 20-2 in surround.
While the lipinskis take some learning in the bass range when used without a sub, I find the atc's to require some learning in the mid/treble.
The lipinskis have the same or more detail in the mids and treble without giving me a surprise when I play back on the 801's

I would have been happy to only work on the atc's, buty I have had non-classical people through that have reacted to them. The words used were nasal.

I am hoping the lipinskis will sound more neutral to other clients while maintaining the detail I want for proper orchestral engineeering as well as the producing part.

I don't know how amp fuzzy the lips are. I would look no further than a hypex build which is very inexpensive (400ucd is plenty, even the 180s are sufficient for most use) I hear Belcanto works well with them as well, so there is no reason to go krell on them (we have that option)

[charlienyc]

Originally Posted by audio ergo sum

What is that talkback box on the right. Custom made? I'm looking for one of those...

there's more info here:
Custom talkback unit

look at the last reply in the thread for specific info on John's custom box.