Quote:
Originally Posted by bonne
Out of curiousity, Bob, and following your logic here: have you gotten any mixes from equally talented mixing engineers using the 8050's?
Have the 8050 mixes tended to be problematic for reasons you see as being down to inherent problems with these monitors. Would be interesting to know.
Regards!
Jørn
Good question, Jorn! I haven't quizzed every mix engineer sending me stuff what they have, but to my knowledge no one's yet sent me an 8050 mix.
I have one client who was using the 1031's and who wanted to upgrade and I recommended the 8050s. I haven't heard any of his new mixes. His old mixes had a hair too much "bite" (we're talking trumpets that maybe had 1/2 dB too much 2K in them), and I never could understand how a monitor like the 1031 that tends to be bright would produce mixes that are bright until I thought about the theory of distortion masking. And certainly the new 8000 series is just a lower distortion monitor. The lower the distortion of your monitor, the more you will recognize when you're getting edge or distortion in your mix.
So, the jury is out. I prefer the 8040 to the 8050 now and Im sorry I recommended the 8050 to my client. I haven't asked him what he thinks of them yet! I think in the right room they can sound pretty neutral, but with the wrong circumstances they could produce a bit of presence boost.
The frequency response graphs in this thread showing comparative family curves are interesting because it's comparing like to like measured in the same way by the manufacturer. At around 2K I see a dip in the 8040 that's not there in the 8050... Maybe that contributes to my feeling there's a bit excess upper midrange presence in the 8050. That's a crossover-based thing, I'm sure, and there can be phase shift and other anomalies that are related to that range. The ear has to be the ultimate judge, in a properly-treated room. I suggest to anyone considering the purchase that you live with the speakers for a week and play lots of different material through them. Go with a dealer who is willing to exchange them for the alternate model.
I heard a pair of 8040's with the Genelec sub a couple of weeks ago in a Hi-Fi system in a small room (Mike Chafees) and they played amazingly loud when you wanted to impress people (he was pushing them past 90 dB average on rock and roll and it was starting to hurt my ears)... they tend to "saturate" at high levels, instead of clipping and this can be entertaining for short periods (I'm sure it's the protection circuit). I wouldn't push them too far for mixing, though.
BK