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Wich near field monitor for post?


Patrick Tresch

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Hello,

 

We are building a little studio for sound editing/pre-mixing in 5.1. The room is quite small 6x4 meters  (20x13 feet) ceiling at 3m20 (10.5 feet).

Wich near field monitor would you consider?

The picture will be projected on a 3.2 meter screen width.

Audio monitors will also be placed behind the screen.

Budget about 15'000$ for the speakers

Thanks a lot.

Patrick

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3 hours ago, Patrick Tresch said:

The room is quite small 6x4 meters  (20x13 feet) ceiling at 3m20 (10.5 feet).

Quite small? That's larger then most of the many NYC music recording studio control and mix rooms I have worked in. I have not worked in the mega budget film sound mix rooms.

 

Otherwise, audition as many sets as possible, Monitors and headphone are a subjective choice and most pro studios have alternate sets of speakers to switch to (stereo, mono, alternate subs).

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Is that $15k for stereo or for Atmos 7.2.4 or what?  Like how much monitor do you want?  The budget is about right for a decent Atmos rig not including room treatment, cabling and speaker mounts.  If all you want is 5.1 you can get something much tastier (like Neumann, bigger Genelecs).  I'd encourage you to work from the room to the potential speaker positions to the controller with the actual speaker choice coming last and observing all those other factors.  Auditioning monitors has been a serious hassle for a long time, made worse by Covid of course.  But I can tell you that in my career every time I WAS able to do a live head-to-head comparison of studio monitors I ended up with different speakers than I had walked in expecting to buy.  But this takes both time and a careful selection of listening material.  It also might require a trip to a different town or city that has a comparison room.  Where I live, for instance, there aren't any that contain speakers that I'd be interested in.

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Thanks a lot for your help.

With all those NAB and IBC dissapearing it's getting difficult to see them in action. None of these in our local stores... before taking the plane I was thinking of bringing up this question at this well informed community.

 

We where thinking of 7 speakers JBL LSR 708P and 1 JBL LSR310S, and also looking at some genelecs.

And we are also intereseted to know if mixing brands and models is a bad idea?

 

 

 

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I think it really comes down to taste. And as Rick and Philip was onto, testing makes a big difference. This can not be understated.

 

Genelecs were quite popular around me, and I still rate them highly - but I find that I can work a lot longer without fatigue with Adams, so I went that route. I know others that swear by their neumanns or rather cheap focals.

 

I guess you can mix brands, but often you'll find that manufacturers will pair a model of sub with their speakers with similair SPL rating, so it makes less calibration nessecary as they have already thought about it.

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You can mix brands if you want but I would prefer not to--I'd like to eliminate variables from the gig rather than add more of them.  I agree about Genelecs, I find them wearing for long days of niggly sound editing.   The JBLs mentioned are very solid, but I have heard of some QC problems with them in the last year.   Are you planning a 7.1 system (5.1 plus sides) or a 5.1.2 system (5.1 with 2 height speakers)?  I would advise getting the most capable (largest number of channels) monitor controller you can afford so you can easily add channels for an Atmos setup if you want.  

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Salut Patrick,

 

Personnaly, after many years using Dynaudio, I went to Neumann's KH series.

They are absolutely truthfull and I find that the premix that I've done with them translate very accurately in big rooms.

https://en-de.neumann.com/studio-monitors

 

Closer to you, there is PSI, among the finest monitors. https://www.psiaudio.swiss/

Very kind people, I am sure they will arrange a demo of their loudspeakers. 

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6 hours ago, tourtelot said:

I like the little Neumann KH80s for my small studio.  I find that they translate well to my home hi-fi playback rig.

 

Interesting. Those have four-inch/100mm and one-inch/25mm drivers. Tiny. You using them to mix dialog, music, both, more?

https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/kh-80

 

Also: $1000USD/pair.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KH80--neumann-kh-80-dsp-4-inch-powered-studio-monitor

 

 

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With a sub and bass management these would work fine for dialog--great even in a small room.  The Neumann DSP app tops out at 9 speakers, and I don't know if they are including a sub in that total.   So for sure 5.1, 5.1.2, 7.1, 7.2, and maybe 7.1.2, but not 7.1.4 with that app.  But by the time you get up to needing to control 9+ monitors you are going to want a dedicated monitor controller with delays etc (Trinnov, Grace, Intonato etc etc) anyhow.

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17 hours ago, Jim Feeley said:

 

Interesting. Those have four-inch/100mm and one-inch/25mm drivers. Tiny. You using them to mix dialog, music, both, more?

https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/kh-80

 

Also: $1000USD/pair.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KH80--neumann-kh-80-dsp-4-inch-powered-studio-monitor

 

 

I mix location classical music on them.  I don't spend days on end in a studio so my view is limited.  But the KH80s sound, to me, very honest and they have built-in room correction software that is important in small (mostly) untreated rooms like the ones I mix in.

 

If you are mixing "for a living" with the KH80s, it would be a good idea, maybe vital, to also have the Neumann KH750 subwoofer.

 

D.

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Those $15k wont get you too far for a mid-high end setup. If it’s for the speakers only then you might be able to get a small setup. But if you don’t have a monitor controller, you’re going to be stretched thin. Spending a good bit of time and effort tuning your room will be insanely helpful. I really like the Focals, the ProAC’s, and the Barefoots. The thing is you just have to spend time with them. I’d try to audition as many as you can. Bring some reference material to playback so you know how the room/speaker setup reacts like. Not too sure where you’re located but you can always check them out at a post house or a dealer might be able to set up an appointment. I really like the Cranesong Avocet stuff and the Grace design monitor controllers.

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I really like the Neumann  KH120 for LR and center. I do not know the KH80 but I reckon they are used as LsRs by many. As Douglas said, with a KH750 subwoofer for the .1 you would have a coherent 5.1 affordable system in your price range. 

Ps: I only do sound editing for film with these and a bit of music mix for myself as well. 

Edited by Fred Salles
Adding ps
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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/29/2022 at 5:26 AM, Jim Feeley said:

 

Interesting. Those have four-inch/100mm and one-inch/25mm drivers. Tiny. You using them to mix dialog, music, both, more?

https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/kh-80

 

Also: $1000USD/pair.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KH80--neumann-kh-80-dsp-4-inch-powered-studio-monitor

 

Are you using any of them? What is your review about them

 

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  • 1 year later...

Neumann KH120ii (they just announced a new version) is in my option the best for small studios, it’s not overpowered, has a bit of this cinema „horn“ character. 
I combine them with a Genelec Sub (which allows 5.1 configuration), you can also go for a while Genelec setup. I use Genelec 8020 at home for some very small emergency editing stuff. 

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On 4/26/2023 at 1:08 PM, Patrick Tresch said:

PSI 😉 we went to the factory and where impressed by their sound. We have selected 3x A23-M for L center R.

 

I was looking into this for a while. Looks very neat and nice build along with Focal. 

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Since Patrick is all sorted, and since there's already some good information in this thread, I hope it's OK if I redirect it a little. I have some Event NFMs that I'd like to replace. So I'm starting to look around at monitors. Hoping to not spend more than 1200 USD/EUR. Just a pair, perhaps a sub. I've listened to various models and in my price range I really like the Neumann KH 80; same model that Douglas @tourtelot has (or at least had). But of course I haven't listened to everything. My needs are limited, though different from what many people on gearspace do (ie- I'm looking for basic audio post lower-end corp and doc, along with some music). So...

 

What monitors do you think I should audition that are priced under or near 1200 USD/EUR for a pair (or 2.1)?

 

 

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1 hour ago, Jim Feeley said:

Since Patrick is all sorted, and since there's already some good information in this thread, I hope it's OK if I redirect it a little. I have some Event NFMs that I'd like to replace. So I'm starting to look around at monitors. Hoping to not spend more than 1200 USD/EUR. Just a pair, perhaps a sub. I've listened to various models and in my price range I really like the Neumann KH 80; same model that Douglas @tourtelot has (or at least had). But of course I haven't listened to everything. My needs are limited, though different from what many people on gearspace do (ie- I'm looking for basic audio post lower-end corp and doc, along with some music). So...

 

What monitors do you think I should audition that are priced under or near 1200 USD/EUR for a pair (or 2.1)?

 

 

If I could get away with just needing 2 speakers I'd have Neumanns already.....

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