Studio Monitors vs Hi-fi

awolf97 · 17th November 2011

This will be for a regular desk, not mixing/mastering. Should I go w/ Hi-fi bookshelf speakers or studio monitors? I will be quite close to them, they will be on the top shelf of my desk around ear level. Approx 4-5 ft away. I am worried because this will be in a room that has minimal treatment.
Any thoughts? obviously the Hi-fi would look nicer, but cost more (amps, etc)

tsvisser · 17th November 2011

Your question is a non-question... Hi-Fi merely means a product marketed to home audio consumers and studio monitors means marketed to music studio consumers. Neither market niche says anything definitive about the technical qualities of the speaker. Generalizations can be made, but again, are meaningless until you are talking about a specific unit.

robertG · 17th November 2011

HiFi is more expensive than pro.

Steffmo · 17th November 2011

HiFi speakers are generally engineered to sound great on finished mastered (at least somewhat compressed) material.

They are not meant to endure 10 minutes of raw bass drum hitting the cones while you work on the sound. Same with snare, bass, whatever.

Nice hifi speakers generally have a pretty short lifetime in a average studio. If you are only going to use them to reference material that is almost finished, fine. But continued cone pounding is going to kill them fast.

theblue1 · 17th November 2011

Speakers designed for near field monitoring will tend to have a narrower dispersion to diminish the amount of sound reaching sidewalls (early reflections that can confuse the ear), so the listening/mixing sweet spot will tend to be narrower. Monitors made for mixing will hopefully designed to be as accurate as possible -- since you need something neutral because the types of playback systems your listeners will be using will be all over the map. Shooting for the middle -- neutral and accurate -- helps in mixing.

Consumer hi fi speakers often have a number of deficiencies and sometimes those deficiencies are actually tinkered to make the speaker sound -- superficially -- more impressive. If you have a small, cheap speaker that is otherwise bass-shy, by tuning the port to emphasize boominess, you can get something that will sound -- superficially, to a rube -- more impressive (even as one bass notes blooms out and another disappears because such speakers are boomy -- but not even or accurate).

KillerV · 17th November 2011

While I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy a pair of HiFi speakers to monitor/mix with, I have yet to find something that I like more than my B&W's, which are marketed as such. My mixes translate exactly the way I want them too and I can hear EVERYTHING.

Here are some interesting articles on this topic:
MONITORS versus HI-FI SPEAKERS
MONITORS versus HI-FI SPEAKERS

awolf97 · 17th November 2011

Maybe I said this wrongly or I'm misunderstanding, but I will only be using these for pleasurable listening. I am not worried about how well they translate.

drbob1 · 18th November 2011

If you're listening to finished, already mastered material, go with Hi-Fi speakers. That's what they're designed for and the negatives for a studio (not focused enough, not flat enough in frequency response) may be useful to make them sound smoother in the room. Of course, like anything, DIY will be the most cost effective, with older speaker systems the next. I've had great results with mid-range to hi-end speakers from the 60s or 70s (at least if they're in good shape) and the prices are often very reasonable...

awolf97 · 18th November 2011

So far I have- Studio Monitors=more accurate, take up less space (no amps. etc...), durability, will end up costing less
Hi-fi=equally as good if not better on finished material, looks nicer (i dont really care)

awolf97 · 19th November 2011

I have a budget higher than $250, which is why I'm not immediately going w/ hi-fi. At the price point they are not so much hi-fi computer speakers, but bookshelf hi-fi speakers meant to fill a small room with sound. However, the SM's will still be nearfields, as I won't be dishing out 20k for giants mains any time soon.

I will be listening at at MAX of 4-5 ft, and SM's I think will be better suited at that range, as I'm thinking the hi-fi bookshelf speakers will sound overly bright/sharp. Any thoughts?

famousbass · 19th November 2011

Go 2nd hand. Used speakers are remarkably great. Bang for buck, I bought all my speakers 2nd hand except for the first set.
They're always much cheaper than you imagine.
It just takes one listen.
It's not the the guitar amp market. People don't usually slaughter speakers and then sell them, they upgrade, like we all do.

RusRant · 19th November 2011

The whole "studio monitors" thing is a lie, like adding pro or digital to a product to hype it to the masses. A well designed and implemented speaker system is a well designed speaker system. Cheap is cheap and good is good. The thought that it would matter what the market was for the design is silly. Keep in mind, the "industry standard" NS10's were a home audio speaker, not a "studio monitor"! Find a speaker you enjoy using and you are productive with, end of story.

bcgood · 19th November 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by RusRant

The whole "studio monitors" thing is a lie, like adding pro or digital to a product to hype it to the masses. A well designed and implemented speaker system is a well designed speaker system. Cheap is cheap and good is good. The thought that it would matter what the market was for the design is silly. Keep in mind, the "industry standard" NS10's were a home audio speaker, not a "studio monitor"! Find a speaker you enjoy using and you are productive with, end of story.

That's great Russ, but how do you decide what is a well designed speaker?

What sounds good?

RusRant · 19th November 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcgood

That's great Russ, but how do you decide what is a well designed speaker?

What sounds good?

Well, yes to an extent. They must be accurate, robust and sound right to the user. I would say to listen to several things you know well, and use your ears. Not really that it should sound good, but it should sound right for the source. It's not like just because they are "studio monitors" they will be somehow better. The are still all just speakers after all!

O.F.F. · 19th November 2011

Speakers are one huge set of design compromises and as far as I am concerned the sobriquet 'studio monitors' merely implies that a certain set of compromises has been chosen over another.
Some HiFi manufacturers choose the same or very similar set, many do not.

theblue1 · 19th November 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by RusRant

The whole "studio monitors" thing is a lie, like adding pro or digital to a product to hype it to the masses. A well designed and implemented speaker system is a well designed speaker system. Cheap is cheap and good is good. The thought that it would matter what the market was for the design is silly. Keep in mind, the "industry standard" NS10's were a home audio speaker, not a "studio monitor"! Find a speaker you enjoy using and you are productive with, end of story.

Overall, I agree -- but I don't think it's a "lie" that speakers designed for near field are usually intentionally designed with a narrower field of dispersion with the intent of cutting down early (side) reflection. Not all smaller speakers marketed to studio use are narrow dispersion, but, traditionally, many have been. And I think it makes sense.

ofajen · 19th November 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by O.F.F.

Speakers are one huge set of design compromises and as far as I am concerned the sobriquet 'studio monitors' merely implies that a certain set of compromises has been chosen over another.
Some HiFi manufacturers choose the same or very similar set, many do not.

Here's an interesting review that compares two "studio monitors" and two bookshelf "hi-fi" speakers, in the context of monitoring use. The differences weren't consistently one way or the other. The B&W speakers had better transient response and flatter frequency response than the KRoks, for example. Just gotta figure if it's a speaker that helps you do the right things.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul0.../monitors2.asp

Cheers,

Otto

bcgood · 19th November 2011

A well designed studio monitor is very flat. Much more flat and true to the source than most consumer speakers. Consumer speakers are designed to sound nice. Customers are buying them because they want the music they play over them to sound great. Two totally different design paradigms.

A good monitor is one that if you get your mix or master sounding good on them, it will sound good on every system the material is played on. From small clock radio to a boom box, the car all the way up to an expensive home stereo, hi-fi system.

This is no easy task and is what separates the great speaker systems from everything else.

Of course this is just the start. For that to really happen you need a very experienced and talented engineer behind the controls in a great room; but this is a whole other subject..

View Poll Results: Studio Monitors vs Hi-Fi
Studio Monitors	14	77.78%
Hi-Fi	4	22.22%
Voters: 18. You may not vote on this poll

17th November 2011	#1
awolf97 Gear Head Joined: May 2011 Posts: 31 Thread Starter	Studio Monitors vs Hi-fi This will be for a regular desk, not mixing/mastering. Should I go w/ Hi-fi bookshelf speakers or studio monitors? I will be quite close to them, they will be on the top shelf of my desk around ear level. Approx 4-5 ft away. I am worried because this will be in a room that has minimal treatment. Any thoughts? obviously the Hi-fi would look nicer, but cost more (amps, etc)

17th November 2011	#2
tsvisser Lives for gear Joined: Feb 2007 Location: Honolulu HI Posts: 1,852	Your question is a non-question... Hi-Fi merely means a product marketed to home audio consumers and studio monitors means marketed to music studio consumers. Neither market niche says anything definitive about the technical qualities of the speaker. Generalizations can be made, but again, are meaningless until you are talking about a specific unit. __________________ Audio Resource Honolulu

17th November 2011	#4
Steffmo Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2004 Location: West Haven, CT Posts: 3,018	HiFi speakers are generally engineered to sound great on finished mastered (at least somewhat compressed) material. They are not meant to endure 10 minutes of raw bass drum hitting the cones while you work on the sound. Same with snare, bass, whatever. Nice hifi speakers generally have a pretty short lifetime in a average studio. If you are only going to use them to reference material that is almost finished, fine. But continued cone pounding is going to kill them fast. __________________ What I like to point out is that a sucky band in a great studio will produce a pristine recording of crap.

17th November 2011	#5
theblue1 Gear Guru Joined: Mar 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 15,099	Speakers designed for near field monitoring will tend to have a narrower dispersion to diminish the amount of sound reaching sidewalls (early reflections that can confuse the ear), so the listening/mixing sweet spot will tend to be narrower. Monitors made for mixing will hopefully designed to be as accurate as possible -- since you need something neutral because the types of playback systems your listeners will be using will be all over the map. Shooting for the middle -- neutral and accurate -- helps in mixing. Consumer hi fi speakers often have a number of deficiencies and sometimes those deficiencies are actually tinkered to make the speaker sound -- superficially -- more impressive. If you have a small, cheap speaker that is otherwise bass-shy, by tuning the port to emphasize boominess, you can get something that will sound -- superficially, to a rube -- more impressive (even as one bass notes blooms out and another disappears because such speakers are boomy -- but not even or accurate). __________________ day job \| A Year of Songs \| music and social stuff \| mutant pop on facebook \| roots acoustic on facebook

17th November 2011	#3
robertG Gear interested Joined: Nov 2011 Location: Montreal Posts: 4	HiFi is more expensive than pro.

17th November 2011	#6
KillerV Gear addict Joined: Jan 2007 Posts: 449	While I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy a pair of HiFi speakers to monitor/mix with, I have yet to find something that I like more than my B&W's, which are marketed as such. My mixes translate exactly the way I want them too and I can hear EVERYTHING. Here are some interesting articles on this topic: MONITORS versus HI-FI SPEAKERS MONITORS versus HI-FI SPEAKERS __________________ www.joellis.co.za

18th November 2011	#8
drbob1 Lives for gear Joined: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,420 3 Reviews written	If you're listening to finished, already mastered material, go with Hi-Fi speakers. That's what they're designed for and the negatives for a studio (not focused enough, not flat enough in frequency response) may be useful to make them sound smoother in the room. Of course, like anything, DIY will be the most cost effective, with older speaker systems the next. I've had great results with mid-range to hi-end speakers from the 60s or 70s (at least if they're in good shape) and the prices are often very reasonable...

19th November 2011	#10
awolf97 Gear Head Joined: May 2011 Posts: 31 Thread Starter	I have a budget higher than $250, which is why I'm not immediately going w/ hi-fi. At the price point they are not so much hi-fi computer speakers, but bookshelf hi-fi speakers meant to fill a small room with sound. However, the SM's will still be nearfields, as I won't be dishing out 20k for giants mains any time soon. I will be listening at at MAX of 4-5 ft, and SM's I think will be better suited at that range, as I'm thinking the hi-fi bookshelf speakers will sound overly bright/sharp. Any thoughts?

19th November 2011	#11
famousbass Lives for gear Joined: May 2011 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,131	Go 2nd hand. Used speakers are remarkably great. Bang for buck, I bought all my speakers 2nd hand except for the first set. They're always much cheaper than you imagine. It just takes one listen. It's not the the guitar amp market. People don't usually slaughter speakers and then sell them, they upgrade, like we all do.

19th November 2011	#12
RusRant Lives for gear Joined: Jul 2006 Location: B'ham, AL Posts: 998	The whole "studio monitors" thing is a lie, like adding pro or digital to a product to hype it to the masses. A well designed and implemented speaker system is a well designed speaker system. Cheap is cheap and good is good. The thought that it would matter what the market was for the design is silly. Keep in mind, the "industry standard" NS10's were a home audio speaker, not a "studio monitor"! Find a speaker you enjoy using and you are productive with, end of story.

19th November 2011	#15
O.F.F. Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2006 Posts: 2,288	Speakers are one huge set of design compromises and as far as I am concerned the sobriquet 'studio monitors' merely implies that a certain set of compromises has been chosen over another. Some HiFi manufacturers choose the same or very similar set, many do not.

19th November 2011	#18
bcgood Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2005 Posts: 5,953	A well designed studio monitor is very flat. Much more flat and true to the source than most consumer speakers. Consumer speakers are designed to sound nice. Customers are buying them because they want the music they play over them to sound great. Two totally different design paradigms. A good monitor is one that if you get your mix or master sounding good on them, it will sound good on every system the material is played on. From small clock radio to a boom box, the car all the way up to an expensive home stereo, hi-fi system. This is no easy task and is what separates the great speaker systems from everything else. Of course this is just the start. For that to really happen you need a very experienced and talented engineer behind the controls in a great room; but this is a whole other subject..

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