Apollo Studio Acoustics (Part 8)

I have posted a lot about the acoustic treatment and measurements I'm doing in the studio. But another very important project is to select a decent pair of monitoring speakers. In my old studio I had a pair of Behringer Truths, but they are really not that good. So I went to both my regular suppliers and asked them if they could arrange that I could test some monitors in my own studio. The first pair I tested where the KRK VXT8's. For the price they are actually quite good, at that moment I was actually quite satisfied with them.

But I made a list with speakers I wanted to check out so I went on. Next on the list where these Genelec 8040's. The first thing I noticed was a much better stereo image and much more detailing a bit like they missed some low end compared to the KRK's. So I thought it would be good to maybe go for one size bigger even though I'm going to use them as near fields.

So then we went for the Genelec 8050's. And they do have much more low end. Of course because of the bigger size. But I decided that I like this better. In comparison to the 8040's they sound much more at ease. Like they don't have to work so much. I'm always amazed about all these monitor manufacturers drawing these straight lines when you look at the speaker characteristics graphics they provide, and they all sound differently ;) In the music i heard  layers I could only hear on my headphones before. So I liked these ones better than the KRK's instantly. The only thing I found was that they sounded  Ah well. I guess it is a matter of taste and also depending on your room and style of music what sounds right to you.

Together with the 8050's I also got a 7070A sub woofer on loan. I first listened to the 8050's without the sub woofer, but finally hooked it up any way. And man what a difference does that make :) I love that low rumble. I use that a lot in my music as well and since I hope to do stuff for movies in the future it could be a good thing to add a sub woofer. The nice thing is that it acts as a crossover as well. So you connect you audio outputs to the sub and then your monitors to the sub woofer. There is also a remote bypass switch on it, so you can listen with and without it. I really like this idea.

I like the Genelec setup I have now a lot, but I will test some more speakers soon. I'll update you on that of course. Last week by the way Toine from Soundscapes already did some acoustics measurements in my studio. He is a pro in this field and has a very scientific aproach to the whole matter. He instantly had some very good and creative recommendations. He is now going to put all the data he collected (measurements, room size) into a computer simulation program and I hope to get a rapport from him soon. Of course I will share his findings on my blog (with Toine's kind permission). But judging from his first impressions there is much more work to be done on the acoustiscs side. So keep following this thread on my blog if that interests you.