Monitors-vs-bookshelfs

[rama801]

am interested to buy a REVEAL 5A active monitor. The objective of this question is that I am not going to use it for studio purpose. I am going to use it for domestic home use only

Can we use near filed monitors at the home environment what will be the drawbacks of using monitors at the home environment.

Thank you for views already expressed.

Regards
RAMESH:banana:

[elwoodblues1969]

First off,I am curious as to why you chose to use studio monitors for general home use?
I myself,believe that they are a drastically better choice,for several reasons.
One example would be,that for home theatre purposes-they are ideal,as studio monitors would best compliment movies,because hearing movies at face value without adding equalization is more of a realistic theatre experience.Also,as far as I am concerned,they are ideal for just about any application because not only do you get quite a bit of clarity & durability over shelf stereos,you are also just paying for the bare essentials,instead of wasting money on all the bells & whistles of a shelf stereo.
One of the primary benefits of seperate components + monitors is the versatility to pick and choose just the right set up for your needs.
When you're dealing with a shelf stereo,you are buying into much inferior
quality amps,cd players & speakers and if ONE thing breaks in a shelf stereo,you have to replace the entire stereo.
For your purposes,Tannoys may not be the ideal choice due to their cost and you should at least explore more options.Also,since you want monitors as a "makeshift shelf stereo unit",you would probably be happier with monitors that have front mounted power & volume controls.

Happy monitoring!:cool:

[jpleong]

Of course, he could also be looking at individual home speakers by themselves such as those made by Klipsch, Boston Acoustics, and others...

Studio monitors are generally made to be more accurate while home theater speakers are made to be more pleasing. Since purchasing my Tannoys Reveals, I have thoroughly enjoyed using them as both a serious tool and a laid-back toy. The accuracy of the monitors has enhanced my listening experience by allowing me to hear very distinct but subtle nuances in music. I hear more "mistakes" as well. This realness enhances my listening experience. Other people would prefer that everything that comes out of their speakers sound good. So, ultimately, it comes down to what makes you happy. If you like being critical about things, studio monitors are definitely the way to go!

JP

BTW- Tannoy also has their own range of home and hi-fi speakers. Some use similar or the same components as used in some of their studio monitors.

[rama801]

First off,I am curious as to why you chose to use studio monitors for general home use?
I myself,believe that they are a drastically better choice,for several reasons.
One example would be,that for home theatre purposes-they are ideal,as studio monitors would best compliment movies,because hearing movies at face value without adding equalization is more of a realistic theatre experience.Also,as far as I am concerned,they are ideal for just about any application because not only do you get quite a bit of clarity & durability over shelf stereos,you are also just paying for the bare essentials,instead of wasting money on all the bells & whistles of a shelf stereo.
One of the primary benefits of seperate components + monitors is the versatility to pick and choose just the right set up for your needs.
When you're dealing with a shelf stereo,you are buying into much inferior
quality amps,cd players & speakers and if ONE thing breaks in a shelf stereo,you have to replace the entire stereo.
For your purposes,Tannoys may not be the ideal choice due to their cost and you should at least explore more options.Also,since you want monitors as a "makeshift shelf stereo unit",you would probably be happier with monitors that have front mounted power & volume controls.

Happy monitoring!:cool:

THANKYOU FOR YOUR REPLY .I THINK YOU CAUGHT THE MIND BEHIND SUCH DECISION. I OPTED TANNOYS BECAUSE IT IS LESS FATIGUING AND VERY ENJOYABLE . HOWEVER THANKYOU ONCE AGAIN FOR YOUR VIEWS

Regards
RAMESH:banana:

[rama801]

Of course, he could also be looking at individual home speakers by themselves such as those made by Klipsch, Boston Acoustics, and others...

Studio monitors are generally made to be more accurate while home theater speakers are made to be more pleasing. Since purchasing my Tannoys Reveals, I have thoroughly enjoyed using them as both a serious tool and a laid-back toy. The accuracy of the monitors has enhanced my listening experience by allowing me to hear very distinct but subtle nuances in music. I hear more "mistakes" as well. This realness enhances my listening experience. Other people would prefer that everything that comes out of their speakers sound good. So, ultimately, it comes down to what makes you happy. If you like being critical about things, studio monitors are definitely the way to go!

JP


BTW- Tannoy also has their own range of home and hi-fi speakers. Some use similar or the same components as used in some of their studio monitors.

THANKYOU FOR YOUR VIEWS .YOUR OPINION IS RIGHT.

Regards
RAMESH:banana:

[elwoodblues1969]

I don't think shelf stereos are made to sound beautiful.Shelf stereo cabinets are poorly manufactured with shotty materials.Usually the bass driver doubles as a tweeter as well,which is a major compromise is quality and added distortion.The eq's in these shelf stereos tend to be presets and they are designed in an attempt to improve the inadequecies of poorly made speaker cabinets.Bookshelf's are overpriced lemons for the most part and the inevitably malfunction in some way which is really costly.
Monitors do in fact,sound beautiful because of the precise design of the enclosures and the crossovers in them.The amps are custom designed for each driver and are alot more efficient than bookshelf amps and you don't need a equalizer to make them sound "beautiful".
The sound from a cd or dvd has already been through an equalization process,so there is no real reason to add more equalization-unless of course your trying to compensate for a trainwreck of a stereo.
If you do manage to find a decent sounding shelf stereo,then you've paid entirely too much and you are still in grave danger of blowing your speakers because amps in shelf stereos will never even come close to a good studio monitor.:cool:

[Rad]

Buying Tannoys for just home use strikes me as a bit inefficient. At least, I wouldn't recommend it.

To get the "true sound" of a monitor, the acoustic space matters A LOT. Even controlled studio environments that are treated with thousands of dollars worth of acoustic treatment have acoustic issues with spekars, let alone a home setup. So, in the home setup your speakes will work the same way as any other speaker and suffer from the same acoustic issues as any other speaker, such as resonanses, bass reflections, phase cancellations, et cetera. In the mud of all of these "home sound effects", the improvement in quality that the Tannoys will give you over a quality home speaker is very likely, if not 100% certain, to get completely lost.

Also, here is the place to mention a widely held misconception that studio professionals encounter every day with clients. Many a time it has happened that you mix something and play it to a client they say it doesn't sound as "good" as on their home speakers. The reason is that monitors are made to sound EVEN, not BEAUTIFUL. Many of the consumer speakrers are made with hyped bass/treble that many people like a lot. But if such a consumer gets a pair of studio monitors at home, the result is... disappointment.

[Roadpebble]

I agree that studio monitors are far better in sound and construction than your average, run-of-the-mill bookshelf speakers. This is more true if you get active monitors. The reason for that is that the active monitors use some sort of electronic crossover, a Linkwitz-Riley configuration or variation thereof, as opposed to a passive crossover which consists of lossy and sound altering components (inductors, capacitors, resistors). In a bookshelf speaker you will find that for a crossover each speaker is equipped with one inductor, one capacitor, and a resistor. This is about the worst you could do for your sound. Not only is is the lowest order of filters, it does nothing to match the actual impeadence of your speaker to the crossover network. At least in a passive studio monitor they pay a little more attention to make sure that the speakers are matched to the electronics in the crossover, so you definitely have an 8 ohm load that covers only the range of 20Hz - 3000Hz, and so on. If this is not done that speaker has no business in your studio.
With the active crossovers you get more perfect cutoff frequencies between your speakers and they are less likely, if constructed well, to color the audio before it is passed on to the amplifier and to the speaker.
Now, studio monitors are better than bookshelfs, that is the very nature of the studio monitor; however, what Rad said about the listening space should not be overlooked as well.
One difference here though is that you are not mixing audio that is to be played on another system that is to be located outside of that particular listening environment. For this reason studios are acousically treated as they are. In actuallity, since the room is for your own personal playback only, you could treat the sound with an equalizer and tune things that way. Personally, I would opt for treaing the entire room, it might be a purist thing, but unless you spend most of your day sitting in front of your sound system it is more cost effective to use an equalizer.

That's my two bits.


EDIT: Why the devil is this posting things out of order?! This should be post #10.

[rama801]

Buying Tannoys for just home use strikes me as a bit inefficient. At least, I wouldn't recommend it.

To get the "true sound" of a monitor, the acoustic space matters A LOT. Even controlled studio environments that are treated with thousands of dollars worth of acoustic treatment have acoustic issues with spekars, let alone a home setup. So, in the home setup your speakes will work the same way as any other speaker and suffer from the same acoustic issues as any other speaker, such as resonanses, bass reflections, phase cancellations, et cetera. In the mud of all of these "home sound effects", the improvement in quality that the Tannoys will give you over a quality home speaker is very likely, if not 100% certain, to get completely lost.

Also, here is the place to mention a widely held misconception that studio professionals encounter every day with clients. Many a time it has happened that you mix something and play it to a client they say it doesn't sound as "good" as on their home speakers. The reason is that monitors are made to sound EVEN, not BEAUTIFUL. Many of the consumer speakrers are made with hyped bass/treble that many people like a lot. But if such a consumer gets a pair of studio monitors at home, the result is... disappointment.

Thanks for your views:banana:

[rama801]

I don't think shelf stereos are made to sound beautiful.Shelf stereo cabinets are poorly manufactured with shotty materials.Usually the bass driver doubles as a tweeter as well,which is a major compromise is quality and added distortion.The eq's in these shelf stereos tend to be presets and they are designed in an attempt to improve the inadequecies of poorly made speaker cabinets.Bookshelf's are overpriced lemons for the most part and the inevitably malfunction in some way which is really costly.
Monitors do in fact,sound beautiful because of the precise design of the enclosures and the crossovers in them.The amps are custom designed for each driver and are alot more efficient than bookshelf amps and you don't need a equalizer to make them sound "beautiful".
The sound from a cd or dvd has already been through an equalization process,so there is no real reason to add more equalization-unless of course your trying to compensate for a trainwreck of a stereo.
If you do manage to find a decent sounding shelf stereo,then you've paid entirely too much and you are still in grave danger of blowing your speakers because amps in shelf stereos will never even come close to a good studio monitor.:cool:

THANKYOU ONCE AGAIN:bounce:

[Byll]

Seems as if either rama801 or a moderator moved this thread from a different place on the site. Responses were lost. Such is life.

Best.
Byll

[DAS]

Seems as if either rama801 or a moderator moved this thread from a different place on the site. Responses were lost. Such is life.

Best.
Byll

I don't think so. I know I didn't. I believe there are two very similar sounding threads going, so you may be thinking of "the other" one. This is one of the disadvantages of people starting the same topic in two different places.