Former NS10 users: What did you switch to?

Pretty much, I've run NS10s and 7506s since the 90s as mix refs. Wasn't really an NS10 guy but producers kept bringing them in so I added them as amenities. Switched from K240Ms to 7506s as artists seemed to enjoy the boom and zing of them and now they work like an instant car check for me.

Those 7506’s rip my head off. Can’t stand em, so zippoppy - instant pain for me.

I use CLA-10 Actives instead of NS10's. Love that they have an A/B Class amp built in. I keep the volume knob on the back at around 9 o'clock and the tissue paper knob around 3 o'clock. The key to getting a good mix on these is LOW volume playback and good mains for reference imo.


If they are ripping your head off, you are referencing way too loud. I understand the whole "if the cone shakes your low end is too much" old school thing, but that's what having a main reference is for. Find other ways to scope out your low end and keep the 10's at LOW volume, and they will translate like the Rosetta Stone.

for volume and tone, they have that much detail ?

Oddly, I miss my HR824’s.

Playback “Easy Lover” LOUD and the impact of those Phil Collins drums are fantastic.

They’re not the most accurate monitors I’ve owned over the years but I thought they could deliver a very exciting big sound stage - I think it’s the passive woofer on the back?

I don't think I'd call HR824s tight in the bass region.

I was commenting on heightener’s comment and passive radiators have a different sound than ported monitors .

While yes the box is physically sealed, a passive radiator doesn’t function as sealed enclosure it functions just like a port. This is why every book and modeling software treats it like a port.
A passive radiator like a port operates out of phase of the woofer at its tuned frequency. The idea that a rear mounted passive radiator ( or port) will operate in phase with the front firing woofer only holds true if the baffle is smaller than the wavelength at the tuned frequency ( at say 50HZ your talking a baffle of 11.2 ft in each direction) , but a front mounted radiator will be out of phase of the woofer just like a port, but remember this is in phase with the woofer at its lowest frequency, not absolute phase. This why you don’t see rear ports or passive radiators in SR subs. You actually might array enough to end up with an effective baffle larger than the wave length of the system.

You can get funky with DSP and try to correct the phase but it really gets messy, in most cases you are probably going to have a high pass filter, plus probably a bit of EQ boost and then a all pass and if you try to introduce a phase alignment all pass the actual phase response just gets nasty, been there tried to do it won’t ever again..

The advantage of a passive radiator is it eliminates port Chuffing, but a well executed port can do the same.

So yes while the box is theoretically sealed ( go measure the back of an NS10 and you will understand the theoretical qualification) it functions just like a port and in the world of speaker design is considered a ported cabinet.
I’m actually suprised in an age of precision molded cabinets and modern drivers with tighter tolerances that we don’t see more Passive radiators, my hunch is it’s the fact that porting a molded cabinet is cheap. Even in the world of traditional wood cabinets port tubes are cheaper than passive radiators and fasteners.