Nearfields for audiophile listening?

Oh, that's bad news.

With my hearing loss, I shouldn't be able to hear a HF hiss at all. But my ears are just weird and in some ways I'm more sensitive to audio faults than I used to be :/

 

I found the cheaper monitors are usually more noisy. There is no free lunch unfortunately and if you're sensitive and/or have a budget i'd go passive any day.

 

anyone ever checked out the APS coax? considering them for near-field mixing etc in a new space. also considering the yamaha hs series. i have pelonis model 42's in my other space, which are odd but i love for their transient accuracy and ergonomics. i have a high opinion of port-less speakers, i hate the bass complexity and decay issues ports create. front ports are better so you don't have back wall stuff.

i have audeze mm-500's to act as a mixing microscope, so when i buy monitors i don't need bass extension, i just look for transient accuracy and neutrality.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/aps-coax

i'm also thinking about the CLA NS-10 clone or some auratones. just need something honest to compose on, i can mix in the audezes. idk those APS's look sexy though

edit: oh, there's a coax2 https://www.aps-company.com/coax2-en/

 

So you don't like ported speakers/monitors? You prefer sealed/acoustic suspension monitors?

If answers are yes & yes, I totally agree. Not only do these designs interact less with the room, but to my ears, the bass sounds considerably more accurate, plus the drop-off in volume near the bottom of the range is benign, not affecting tonality. I've had 4 or 5 pairs of these types of speakers in my home office (music appreciation, not music pro) and they just work better here.

If you have access to a good amp, consider the ATC SCM12 Pro. They come up used once in awhile for ~$900 - $1100. In the nearfield application, these are accurate and dynamic, but also musical. I imagine these would be great speakers to mix on; they certainly are great to hear music on.

 

Can you do bookshelf speakers in middle of the room? I was thinking of picking up a Graham LS6 but my desk is in the middle of a long room. I currently have some microwalsh ohms against the wall and I'm 7ft away. I thought about having the LS6 on stands about 3 feet from the wall, so I would be about 4-5ft away from the speakers. I imagine I would have to get a sub though.

 

Of course you can, actually less comb effect in the bass compared to closer to the wall. Depending on how the speakers are designed, you may have to adjust any built in boundary controls or build a bit of a bass shelf with EQ or maybe not.

 

Mine are close to the middle of the room and there's a hole at 30Hz from that position which I think is a bit infuriating. But the rest of the bass is not too bumpy.

The rear wall reflection notch moves down in frequency, but I think you don't want to be in the midbass. So I think too far is definitely possible.

But if we're talking just 3ft that's not an issue. Maybe 3m is, though.

 

3 ft is the worst possible distance in most cases. Better off placing the speaker directly against the wall if space is cramped.
1 m away from back wall directly mucks up high bass (with good wide directivity speakers also mids) and gives too little benefit in soundstage depth.
Phase does not work out well with conventional speakers in around that distance.
The distances to boundaries are best spread out (like the 1.618 ratio) woofer to back wall, to side wall, to ceiling are usually close together in distances. In case of monitors placed on a desktop this adds it's own effect - to which some manufacturers offer a 150 Hz dip - but this only reduces the energy, phase is still altered.

Ain't it a combination of the room dimensions all combined that determines the holes and peaks the most?
At 30 Hz you are not only battling standing waves but the permeability of walls. Drywalls let that juice right trough without much reflection back. As do lighter windows. Or in the worst case when the construction is not rigid enough, they act as (randomly) tuned bass traps.

 

At 1m/3ft the 1/4 wavelength notch should be around 85Hz. Hard to absorb, true. And I'm sure it hurts bass kick a lot.

Just measured it:

The OBs are only 1m50 from the rear wall, but since it's a sloped ceiling with quite a bit of absorption behind the drywall I still get good bass extension.

• 1/4th wavelength notch should become a peak since the rear radiation is inverted, but I can't really see anything in the FR at the resulting 57Hz.
• 1/2 wavelength seems to result in a peak at 114Hz, however.
• For frequencies lower than the lowest room mode (23Hz) the front and back pressure equalizes and the SPL drops off very quickly.

The cardioid monitors are close to omni in the lower bass:

• 1/4th wavelength notch comes out to 28.5Hz and I think this is likely the 20dB dip I see at 30Hz. It wasn't there when the speakers were placed next to the OBs. It does hurt the subjective bass extension quite a bit, since they play into the 20Hz range.

The room is close to 7.5m long. There's now about 15kg of sheep's wool loosely packed near one corner of the room and even that doesn't do much. If anything the wardrobe seems to help more, as it acts as a helmholtz resonator for the 42Hz lengthwise mode. Either way the room is far from bad as far as bass modes go. It would be nice if it was wider, but I think it works.

 

After demoing the Genelec 8381A's, I've got to admit they are pretty damn impressive. Listened in an acoustically treated room from a 2,6 meter distance I cannot name any other speaker with equally impressive stereo image or instrument separation.



I tried them with various music: grunge metal, punk, jazz, techno - you name it. They seemed to handle everything extremely well, never running out of steam nor dynamics. I didn't find them particularly unlistenable even with more rough sounding recordings, like Nightwish - Dark Passion Play.

As they are active speakers with "integrated" amplifiers and dacs, you don't really get to color the sound to your preferences. The only thing you can do is to room correct the frequency response and perhaps apply some manual corrections to the end result with the Genelec's proprietary GLM system.

The sound could be described as "studio neutral" - there's hardly any excess warmth or timbral richness, but I guess that's what you get with a pair of studio monitors. What differentiates the 8381A's from the smaller siblings are the compression driver for treble and the unique midrange solution consisting of 4 drivers arranged around the coaxial driver & horn assembly. I think these both play a major role in the end result: I'd hardly call the treble delicate sounding, though it doesn't exhibit any unwanted sibilance either. Dynamics (here as well) seem endless and in general it would be easy to describe the sound as 'livelike'. Other thing that stays with you is how cohesive the speaker sounds - I'd imagine this would be a difficult thing to pull off with a 5-way speaker. The illusion is hardly broken even from a closer distance. For a speaker this size, I'd say this is quite impressive. Lastly, the hint of smoothness in the midrange of the smaller 8x31 models I've demoed seems to be all but eliminated. In my mind, this is only a positive thing, since I've always though there's a small discontinuity between treble and midrange in those models.

The 8381A's seem to be pretty sensitive to the quality of the digital source. After experimenting with a couple of streamers, Holo Audio Red seems to offer best synergy with most the natural tonal balance and lack of any treble nastities. Ifi Neo Stream sounds a tad brighter and less cohesive, though still with an impressive blackground. Bluesound Node 2 sounds just rough and fuzzy.

TLDR (unofficial, imho etc):

 

@Collusion ever heard the JBL M2's?

 

Unfortunately I have not. I wasn't even familiar with that particular model, though I'd love to demo them sometimes.