Nearfields for audiophile listening?

Yes, i agree to this point. At first, i bought only 2 8010 monitors, but i was missing the bass impact. After adding the 7040 Sub, i feel like completing the setup.
It's been 10 months, i never felt like upgrading my set up.

Initially i was about to buy Wharfedale 240 floorstands + Yamah RN602/ Marantz PM6005. I don't know how, but i end up buying Genelecs.

 

MM-1s are special case, to be listened nearfield on cramped desks (whilst working on you computer for example), their reason for existence is this and they are very good at it. If you have proper placement with stands and good room treatment I'd go with the small Genelecs + sub - without a sub they miss too much information below 85hz considering the money they cost

 

Anyone heard the Kef Eggs?

 

I upgraded from a pair of Audio Engine A5+ to SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers. It was a significant upgrade in every area, and I am very happy with my purchase.

I thought about going with the KEF-LS50 but I didn't want to spend 1500 CAD on desktop speakers, and I wasn't sure the bass would be what I was looking for. The SVS have nice low end where required and great detail and imaging.

 

I'm sure the Ultra's were a significant upgrade from the Audio Engine's. I use to own them and found them really enjoyable- They are not the perfect speakers but their bass and presence were incredible for their size. It was like having a pair floor standers with me on the desk. Plus it was very easy to couple them with my SVS sub compared to many other speakers I've tried. From my time with them I found that they really improved when being fed with more power. When I switched my source from a 2V unbalanced dac to a 4V balanced dac they came alive! Enjoy them!

 

Dumb question: are all studio monitors nearfields?

 

Simple answer: Nope.

Fuzzy answer: How do you define "near"field?

 

Near field is up to 2m from speakers. Further is mid and far field.

 

Depends if you can fit these on your desk

http://www.meyersound.com/news/press/eq800_x10.htm

Which are a steal at £7,000

http://www.larkingslist.com/index.php/second-hand-monitors/meyey-sound-x-10-buy

 

As you know, the proper way to listen to studio monitors is to be in an equilateral triangle between them. So, 2m from the monitor base is around 2.31m from the actual speakers. It's a "soft" convention because usually you keep near fields on stands near your desk or on the monitor shelves on your big SSL desk.

There are studio monitors which fall into the mid and far field category. Usually these are large driver 2-ways and larger 3-ways. What prevents you from using them near field would be that they wouldn't sum properly. I'm one of the loonies who use 12" speakers near-field-ishly because they are coaxials, so summing is less of an issue. Speakers with off-set drivers need some space, so you get a uniform wave.

Overall mid and far field studio monitors are a very niche thing, because going beyond near field means you're putting more indirect sound into your music. Hence they pretty much require a good room and careful placement. With many large studios closing down you can get screaming deals like the one above, just don't expect that it will be easy to get Abbey Road in your room.

P.S. I've talked to a few dozen studio pros and basically what they hinted was that usually they'd do 80% of their work on near fields and only double check on the large soffit mounts. Many studios kept far fields only to impress clients with high spl and good low end sound.

 

Lol, this means I listen to my OB speakers nearfield. On the right axis (same distance between the two drivers) summing isn't a problem even at 1m or closer.
Also in my case the off-axis response is far less neutral than on-axis, so it's a good idea to get the least amount of room reverb.

(I also don't think the off-axis response should be perfectly neutral. I think it's a good idea to have a dip around 3-4kHz off-axis, along with some treble rolloff. I actually have measurements that show that the effect your ear has on the sound depends on the direct vs reflected energy, distance, speaker off-axis response, etc. In other words: What you measure with an omni mic is not what you hear.)

 

The iLoud Micro Monitors look interesting (despite their name) as computer speaker/small nearfield option.

 

dem claims



Yeesh I wonder how hard the DSP is pushed.

 

Interesting thread!
I'm going to complete my office desktop setup (Yggdrasil -> Mjolnir2) with a pair of monitors. I look forward to hearing the MJ2 as a tube buffer
My HD800 finally sounds as good as I would've hoped for but I can't do headphones 8 hours a day 5 days a week, too much sweaty ears etc
Hence, enter near fields !

I like the Genelec design but it bothers me that although the SAM versions of 8330 that would fit my desk well from a size point of view and has what seems to be a nice room correction feature (mic+software) it doesn't have the possibility to bypass the internal DAC in which case Yggdrasil becomes obsolete.

Is that correctly understood and if so, I'll gratefully take any advice on alternative powered monitors to be used with equipment forementioned.

 

The normal Genelec G3/8030's (or the M3, but those have different shape). Those are the analog versions of the SAM monitors.

 

Bypass? I don't know, but if you want the DSP/room correction, that is going to happen in digital, so I guess that either the analog input does not have this feature, or there will have to be ADC/DSP/DAC processing.

Because you have spent a lot of money on your choice of DAC, then I would suggest sticking to classic Genelec designs without the DSP.

 

Yep that's what I thought, thanks!

 

That's right and the G series should be identical to their 8000 series counterpart except for the design...?

 

Soundwise the same. I remember the Gseries comes in different colours en the powerled are white and not green.

Here are the differences.

Soundwise the same. I remember the Gseries comes in different colours en the powerled are white and not green.
From Genelec forums.

G Three:
XLR and RCA input connectors
Home audio series input sensitivity (-10 dB)
White LED
Intelligent Signal Sensing
"Clean" front panel
Tabletop room EQ setting
LED off setting
All cables are colour matched
Mystic black and Polar white colour options

8030A:
XLR input connector
Professional series input sensitivity (+10 dB)
Green LED
No ISS
Volume control knob and power switch on the front panel
No tabletop room EQ
No LED off setting
Black power cables for all
Matt black colour option.

The G3's auto-off/on function is extremely useful over the 8030's.

 

The 8030B is the current model, which does have ISS. They also have bass and treble tilt to accommodate various placement requirements. The LED is not too obnoxious .

8030 also has an output XLR which is attenuated by the volume control, so you can put a sub or chain of monitors (up to 6) downstream that all are slaved to that volume control.