How does anyone switch speakers?

I used to be an NS10 guy. Then I woke up one morning, turned them on and said "yuck! $#@!@ no" and pulled them down and never put them up again. I moved to JBL on the original LSR's mostly due to being able to get a good deal on 5.1 set due to friends at JBL.  (I was doing a lot of feature film stem mixing and needed the 5.1 - and also hoped to get more into the surround CD market, but that never materialized.  I worked on the original LSR's for years, and finally moved to LSR8P's a few years ago. The original LSR's were a bit hard to get used to, but after getting the hang of them, they translated sooo good on everything from IMAX films, to features, to stereo systems to new small media players. They just worked. The switch to the newer 8P's was cause I was advised to by my new (2016) room designer (Jeff Hedback). I didn't regret it. Amazing sounding speakers - both fun AND translatable. Each of these "steps" made me more creative, deliver better mixes, and made mixing more "fun" than NS10's. I could make the NS10's sing, but alas, it just wasn't fun anymore.....it was fatiguing - and after spending 10+ hours a day in front of studio monitors for decades, sometimes fun has to come first.

I’ve switched speakers a lot, and I think once you get your listening environment treated/sounding good to where you are actually hearing what the speakers are doing you can, as the good doctor said, making the switch is easier.

I just dropped a pair of Neumann KH310’s into the studio and I’m mixing a couple records next week and I’m interested in seeing how it turns out/translates. But, even just spending a day with them yesterday I can tell it’ll be a lot more enjoyable.

That’s in the actually studio…and at home the little KH80’s are the best thing I’ve found. I’ve had everything from PMC IB2S to NS10’s to Auratones and for me, in a small space, close to the speakers, not having to impress anyone, they work great.

Honestly, with NS10’s, you could just get an additional set of speakers. Best of both worlds

Always best to have some time with both old and new so you can learn what both are doing right and wrong. Spend lots of time working on positioning.

I went from B&W matrix 805s to Dyn LYD48s about a year and a half ago. I am using Sonarworks, so that made the differences fairly minimal. Biggest thing for me was where my volume knob had to sit. the B&Ws powered by a modded Adcom 545 paired with (an admittedly stupidly overpowered) sub had a ton more headroom. The only change I had to make after the fact was to add the matching sub so I could get some headroom back.

I went through this last year. I know I needed more from my monitors, even though I enjoyed working on them and was making translatable mixes. My ME had little difficulty and any time I asked what he did, it was always typical and minor mastering basics. I still felt I was working harder to get what I wanted. Luckily I have a local friend who builds speakers as a 'hobby.' He generally makes larger full-range systems. I asked him about 3-ways and I went and listened to his rear speakers as a starting point. Those have a sealed woofer, along with a separate dipole dome mid and ribbon tweeter. About a month later he sent me photos of a one piece 3 way that was similar but had ribbon mid and tweeter in the dipole design along with the sealed woofer. I went over about a week later and listened to them for an hour or so and they sounded great. He'd already upgraded the woofer. We compared them to his much larger and more expensive builds and they sound REALLY similar.


Shortly after that he brought the whole system over, including a 4 channel amp for stereo mids and highs and we used the crown I was powering my Truth Audio monitors for the bass. There's a Dayton Audio controller taking care of DSP room tuning. He sent two different pink noise files to the speakers and used a calibration mic to get the system going. He came back a couple of times that week for further tweaks to really get them dialed in.

Then the fun part came. I just listened to music, mostly on CD, for the rest of the week. I brought my GF over, and we geeked out on some of our favorite records. Another friend came over with 7 of those huge CD binders and we spent an entire Saturday listening to a ton of her favorite stuff. She's a Prince completist so there was a lot of his music. She's African American, so she had a ton of stuff I didn't, and that was super eye opening as well.

I did a few tracking dates and I felt dealing with phase and polarity on drums was a little harder to get used to, but now it's not an issue.

I did a mix for a decent band I do monthly sessions with and sent it to Scott at Old Colony Mastering telling him I had new monitors and I wanted to know if he noticed any differences from other work (including by that band). The first sentence in his email return was "Yeah, you're gonna want to keep those."

Funny I was looking at the Dutch & Dutch. Something about spending 48 times as much as I spent on my NS10s and having people who own the Dutch and Dutch tell me they love my mixes really doesn’t help my decision haha

Haha no I got my first pair of NS10s that I still use today for $250 CAD

Consider PSI if you are shopping. I went from Presonus Scepters which I knew inside and out and translated well to PSI A21M's. Big jump but the easiest transition. The PSI's were so easy to learn. They were lean and clean (though everything was there). Issues in the mix were so easy to spot with the PSI's. However, after a few months, I had a need and had to sell them.

Recently, due to financial limits, I was able to pick up Genelec 8330's and Dynaudio LYD 48's. Going back to Presonus and then to these pairs has been problematic. The Scepter 8's really are exception for the cost. Now, the Genney's are mid-forward in a non-flattering way and the Dynaudio's are a scooped. I used GLM and Sonarworks respectively and redid the settings multiple times. I use some specific reference tracks and this is the only thing that has made it work. First i doubted the Genneys', then I doubted the Lyd's, then back and forth.

In the end, I have come to realize that the Genny's, though not lovable with the mid forward nature, do reveal tonality issues. For my ears, if I mix on the Genny's and the mix sounds good on both, I'm there. I can't say that it is reciprocal. They have become my NS10s. 

I guess my point is that it has gone both ways for me - once easy and another time, not so much. I know I won't buy Focal/Genelec/Dynaudio again unless I can extensively demo. Try PSIs.


 

I've had 3 sets of NS10's over the years.
I decided at a certain point that I wanted to look after my ears, so got rid of them for the last time.
The ear fatigue was relentless when tracking and mixing almost every day of the year.
I listen back to mixes from decades ago using NS10's and they are still really good.
Something about NS10's that really work.