Background:
I've always struggled with mix translation from my ageing set of Alesis monitors, so I set about looking for a new pair to get closer to something I could rely on when mixing down and (I know it's not ideal) self mastering.
I have a small room- 3.5 length by 2.5 width by 2.5 height (meters) which is well treated with bass traps in all four corners and some early reflection points treated both side walls, rear walls and ceiling points. My setup is Ableton, Novation Nova, Motu 828Mk2 Firewire. I plan to add some more hardware synths at some point...
I produce electronic music (mainly deep house / nu disco and some electronica).
Considerations:
Size - Due to the size of my room I didn't want to go above 5" but I did consider a couple pf 6.5" options.
Budget - I was looking at £400-700
Options - I narrowed down to the following "prosumer" monitors:
Focal Alpha 50 (or 65)
Adam A5x
Equator D5
Eve Audio SC205
Dynaudio BM5a 2
Auditioning:
My only local store only had the Adams and Focals, and couldn't audition both of them (and only one set in store), not ideal. So I hunted around for somewhere to listen. This proved problematic and ended in a 2 hour drive to Bournemouth in order to compare 4 out of the 5 models in a treated room (they didn't have the Equators).
I took a mixture of music with me that I knew well (hip hop, jazz, chill out, classical, disco, house, techno etc) and set about listening.
I quickly felt that the focals and Eves were the two to choose between in terms of sound. Both were flat but not too bright in the highs, very detailed in the mids and a surprising amount of bass extension for 5", plenty of low end punch without being too boomy. The stereo imaging was slightly better in the focals.
I ruled out the Adams (too bright) and Dynaudios (just ok - comparable to the Focals and much more expensive).
In the end there was little to choose between the Eve and the Focals on sound and the Eve's were almost twice the price so I settled on the Focals.
First Impressions:
The monitors have been in my studio for a few days now and are just about broken in so here are my initial impressions of working with them.
Setup: Not too much to do here other than unplug the old monitors and plug in the new ones. There were some little sticky rubber feet which I used (the monitors are placed on desktop monitor stands - an Ikea hack job). I have left them flat for now and not adjusted the settings.
The first negative came when I wanted to calibrate the monitors with pink noise. Often there is a slight difference in volume between each speaker so it is best to calibrate them to the same volume. There is however no individual volume control on the Focals which makes this impossible to do. As it happens there was only a tiny difference between them (less than 1/2 a db) so I decided I could live with this. Considering the price point this was not too much of an issue for me, however it was a tad frustrating. Other things I already noticed in the store were the lack of clipping indicator, so for those who are a bit volume happy this could be an issue, and that the power switch is on the rear, easily accessible for me but could be an issue depending on where you have them placed.
Sound
I set about listening to my reference material with the speakers in place. I immediately noticed the more subtle highs on the focals compared to my Alesis monitors which I had to cut the treble on to make usable. My mixes on the Alesis monitors would often be dull and I would often have to rework the volumes on high hats, snares and lead synth lines to make them clearer.
I felt like I could hear a lot more detail in the mids which is an area I also struggled with on the Alesis (it would often be muddy as sounds mingled together incoherently)!
The bass was a little more hyped at high volume in my room than in the store, probably because of the acoustic limitations of a small bedroom situation. When at my normal working volume this was not an issue (which it was with the rear ported Alesis which boomed a fair bit as the bass was so hyped).
Creating: I found I was making eq and compression decisions as I went much quicker than before due to the better detail. Picking sounds was easier and this helped the creative process some. All in all a pleasant experience.
Mixing Down: Because a lot of the work had been done during the creation phase, mixing down was a fairly simple task but I was able to tweak easily and make decisions quickly. First mix translated pretty well onto other systems and as I learn the sound over time I'm sure this will improve even more.
Summary:
Great little monitors with a couple of drawbacks.
Bass: Clear, punchy and not too boomy.
Mids: Detailed and easy to hear individual sounds.
Treble: Clear and bright, but not hyped.
Stereo Imaging: Superb, easy to hear where sounds are in the "space" of the mix
Small Negatives: Lacking some options (LF and HF shelving adjustment but no volume control, no clipping indicator, and rear power could be an issue).
If budget was no consideration I may have gone for the Eve's but common sense told me that £350 (the cheapest set I auditioned) vs £640 was a no brainer.
I've always struggled with mix translation from my ageing set of Alesis monitors, so I set about looking for a new pair to get closer to something I could rely on when mixing down and (I know it's not ideal) self mastering.
I have a small room- 3.5 length by 2.5 width by 2.5 height (meters) which is well treated with bass traps in all four corners and some early reflection points treated both side walls, rear walls and ceiling points. My setup is Ableton, Novation Nova, Motu 828Mk2 Firewire. I plan to add some more hardware synths at some point...
I produce electronic music (mainly deep house / nu disco and some electronica).
Considerations:
Size - Due to the size of my room I didn't want to go above 5" but I did consider a couple pf 6.5" options.
Budget - I was looking at £400-700
Options - I narrowed down to the following "prosumer" monitors:
Focal Alpha 50 (or 65)
Adam A5x
Equator D5
Eve Audio SC205
Dynaudio BM5a 2
Auditioning:
My only local store only had the Adams and Focals, and couldn't audition both of them (and only one set in store), not ideal. So I hunted around for somewhere to listen. This proved problematic and ended in a 2 hour drive to Bournemouth in order to compare 4 out of the 5 models in a treated room (they didn't have the Equators).
I took a mixture of music with me that I knew well (hip hop, jazz, chill out, classical, disco, house, techno etc) and set about listening.
I quickly felt that the focals and Eves were the two to choose between in terms of sound. Both were flat but not too bright in the highs, very detailed in the mids and a surprising amount of bass extension for 5", plenty of low end punch without being too boomy. The stereo imaging was slightly better in the focals.
I ruled out the Adams (too bright) and Dynaudios (just ok - comparable to the Focals and much more expensive).
In the end there was little to choose between the Eve and the Focals on sound and the Eve's were almost twice the price so I settled on the Focals.
First Impressions:
The monitors have been in my studio for a few days now and are just about broken in so here are my initial impressions of working with them.
Setup: Not too much to do here other than unplug the old monitors and plug in the new ones. There were some little sticky rubber feet which I used (the monitors are placed on desktop monitor stands - an Ikea hack job). I have left them flat for now and not adjusted the settings.
The first negative came when I wanted to calibrate the monitors with pink noise. Often there is a slight difference in volume between each speaker so it is best to calibrate them to the same volume. There is however no individual volume control on the Focals which makes this impossible to do. As it happens there was only a tiny difference between them (less than 1/2 a db) so I decided I could live with this. Considering the price point this was not too much of an issue for me, however it was a tad frustrating. Other things I already noticed in the store were the lack of clipping indicator, so for those who are a bit volume happy this could be an issue, and that the power switch is on the rear, easily accessible for me but could be an issue depending on where you have them placed.
Sound
I set about listening to my reference material with the speakers in place. I immediately noticed the more subtle highs on the focals compared to my Alesis monitors which I had to cut the treble on to make usable. My mixes on the Alesis monitors would often be dull and I would often have to rework the volumes on high hats, snares and lead synth lines to make them clearer.
I felt like I could hear a lot more detail in the mids which is an area I also struggled with on the Alesis (it would often be muddy as sounds mingled together incoherently)!
The bass was a little more hyped at high volume in my room than in the store, probably because of the acoustic limitations of a small bedroom situation. When at my normal working volume this was not an issue (which it was with the rear ported Alesis which boomed a fair bit as the bass was so hyped).
Creating: I found I was making eq and compression decisions as I went much quicker than before due to the better detail. Picking sounds was easier and this helped the creative process some. All in all a pleasant experience.
Mixing Down: Because a lot of the work had been done during the creation phase, mixing down was a fairly simple task but I was able to tweak easily and make decisions quickly. First mix translated pretty well onto other systems and as I learn the sound over time I'm sure this will improve even more.
Summary:
Great little monitors with a couple of drawbacks.
Bass: Clear, punchy and not too boomy.
Mids: Detailed and easy to hear individual sounds.
Treble: Clear and bright, but not hyped.
Stereo Imaging: Superb, easy to hear where sounds are in the "space" of the mix
Small Negatives: Lacking some options (LF and HF shelving adjustment but no volume control, no clipping indicator, and rear power could be an issue).
If budget was no consideration I may have gone for the Eve's but common sense told me that £350 (the cheapest set I auditioned) vs £640 was a no brainer.
Focal Alpha 50
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