Sep30Written by:Rip Rowan
Sunday, September 30, 2001 1:26 PM  ConclusionsFirst, the obvious: NS10, May You Rest In Peace. Now that Yamaha no longer makes the NS10, and now that so many new, great alternatives abound, I think we’ve finally seen the beginning of the end of that speaker. For me, that’s just fine. I like the NS10, but there are much better speakers out there. It’s time to move on. Secondly, these are some great speakers. I was quite impressed with the overall quality present in the lineup. Computer-aided design has improved the quality of speakers more than any other aspect of recording technology. Probably half of these speakers were among the best sounding speakers I’ve ever heard (and as a recovering audiophile, I’ve heard quite a few esoteric speaks in the last 20 years). Thirdly, can we just close the books on the concept of digital speakers? This is a bad idea whose time will never come. While we’re at it, let’s close the books on the idea of speaker modeling. Speaker cabinet modeling is a great effect when you’re recording an electric guitar, but it has no place in pro audio mixing. In summary, I can categorize the monitors I listened to into three distinct groups:
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Rip’s Picks
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Dynaudio BM6A: outrageous accuracy, excellent frequency response, superb imaging, shockingly petite, utterly impressive. Premium priced.
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Genelec 1031A: industry standards for a reason. Excellent overall performance. Exorbitantly priced.
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Mackie HR824: great sound, balanced frequency response, high power, the most robust low bass performance in the group. Aggressively priced.
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Worthy of Your Time
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JBL LSR28: usable sound but did not meet my expectations. Maybe you’ll like them better than I did. JBL fans be sure to check these out.
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Event 20/20 bas: the price / performance champion. If you can’t afford the other speakers in this comparison, you can at least get the job done with these. Better than some speakers at twice their price.
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Behringer Truth: slightly unrefined but a strong price/performance contender.
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Don't Go There
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Tannoy 800A: underpowered, substandard bass response and midrange / treble distortion.
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Yamaha MSP10: poor amplifiers, insufficient bass, and aggressive treble. Not horrible but not worth the price. You can do better.
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Roland DS-90: digital speakers - a complete misapplication of your money. Send a message: buy something else.
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KRK V8: personally, the biggest disappointment of the bunch. The best thing I can say for them is that they’ll play real loud.
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Needless to say, a number of our readers who own speakers in our Don’t Go There category will be offended that I didn’t love your prized pair of monitors. The best I can do is call ‘em like I hear ‘em. Hopefully this article will help you find the monitors you need to get the best mixes you can get. Either way, if you have used any of these monitors, be sure to write in and let us know what you think.
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Contents
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Event 20/20bas (currently offline)
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Tags:1 comment(s) so far...
I'd love to see another one of these reviews conducted with today's speaker lineups. Has much changed in the last 8 years???
By Justin on
Thursday, October 01, 2009 7:48 PM
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