Let's talk about monitoring options

i've used the mackie hr824's for the last 15 years, they sound mehhh..., but i know them very well, i've desired a new higher fi set up with my new build i'm undertaking, primarily for my own listening pleasure, so i'm going to be using some DIY ProAc 100 clones with some mods, and a Jim williams adcom gfa555 powering things up, along with a pair of 10" subs for switching in and out for fun.
   I will have the mackies on the desk next to my new monitors only until i completely understand the new monitors, then i will retire the mackies, i think if your room is correct acoustically, and you can trust your monitors, a single pair will translate in the ways that matter(at least to me), i do not consider lap top speakers and ear buds important in the least, and would never mix down with those listening devices in mind, let alone as a serious consideration.

I now have Adam A7X's with a sub and NS10's after using Mackie's 824's for 10 years.

It took me awhile to get used to theA7X's because the bass it so strong, but I've found that I now enjoy its more microscopic low end. Once I get my mix going with the AX7's I check the mix with the NS10's to check the midrange and to make sure the NS10's are picking up the bottom.

The hardest thing for me to judge is reverb layers. The best way for me to hear them is to solo one speaker. I also often solo one speaker as well to hear the relative levels of the instruments.

Here's mine in order of checking.

1st: JBL LSR4328P
2nd: NS-10's
3rd: Auratone 5S
4th: Cheapo earbuds at work
5th: Home stereo
6th: Over-ear headphones on gaming computer

I'm Dynaudio for my mains, BM5As x2 and BM9S subs x2 set up in a conventional vertical configuration. That is, the BM5As sit on top of the BM9S subs in the usual spot for nearfields, producing a 3-way system. I used to have a single sub (KRK) down on the floor in a 2.1 configuration but grew to dislike the loud but vague low end it produced. I am still working on the balance but it's better than before, by far. Secondaries are the obligatory Avantone Mixcubes, which I haven't used very much as of yet. Control is with a Dangerous Monitor ST. Secondary systems include my home theater system (Onkyo/Polk/Klipsch), a Samsung laptop ("JBL"), a 2013 Shelby GT500 (a gift from God, she is surely a car freak) and a 2012 F450 (Sony, I think). Also, various brands of earbuds (Apple, Philips S2) are used to get a sense of what our music sounds like on phones/iPads, etc.

True to our roots, as critical listeners we tend to pass/fail my mixes while listening in our vehicles. If a mix rocks in the Mustang, it will rock anywhere.

EDIT: Interesting, Freeforums has added a hypertext link to Amazon on the keywords "home theater system". I don't see any way of stopping it from being added. Not sure I like it.

Man you reminded me I forgot the Dollar Tree headphones !
The kids school bought a bunch of IPads, but 90% of the kids headsets jacks wouldn't fit the cases so I bought a bunch of $100 headphones that had a plug that would fit, kept a couple of pair, uncomfortable, but when doing educational/ corprate stuff these things scream "don't push me to hard"!
I started doing educational medical stuff when my wife and I went to baby classes and the sound on the hospitals own videos were just a mass of over powering bass through a TV speaker, I was working on a bunch of projects for the head of their arts out reach program and the dir hooked me up with their video Dept one it those you think you can do better movement and I said yes!
I use to use a pair of oval drivers mounted on an open baffle powered by a pair of the worst Diy chip amps ever!
Now I just use the dollar store headphones!

ADAM S2X/Sub12 here. Bose iPhone dock/speaker for high end TV-set style reference.
Btw tonycamphd I've also had some mehh experiences of those Mackie speakers, but at the school I'm teaching there's a top notch designed control room using those speakers, and at that place they are really wow!

I'm running a set of Quested S7R's, a set of Spiral Groove Studio One's powered with an Emotiva XPA-200, a pair Focal Spirit Pro headphones, and a single, powered Avantone mixcube. I have an opportunity to demo a set of Amphion One15's to compare to the SG's. I'm wondering if I need to look at a better power amp, not that the Emotiva is shabby (class A/B, 150 watts per channel @ 8ohms). I've heard good things about Jim Williams modded Adcom 545. Don't know how it compares to the Emotiva, though. May just be a lateral move.

Does Jim mod these as well?

Interesting responses…. tonycamphd I worked on a pair of Mackie HR's at my first job ever in a studio. It was a pretty interesting setup, the guy had two sets of event 3 way's (the blue passive ones) stacked on top of each other that we used when we tracked and would mix on the HR's. So, I guess I could say I sort of cut my teeth on those monitors, that was years ago and I was maybe 20 years old. What I do remember about them was that they had a good sounding lowend, but man they were harsh in the upper range, I had to get used to those, I didn't really do a lot mixing though lol, I was more of a runner/assistant there, but damn my boss knew those speakers inside and out and he was a great mixing engineer. His mixing lacked a little high end though  

I got those PSI's almost a year ago, sold my Proacs for them, and they are probably the most impressive speaker in terms of size and perceived size, they sound a helluva lot bigger than what they are, but there are really really technical speakers. I guess for me it took a while to realize they were just not for me, but they are really incredible, big bottom but fast like an NS10, but smooth like a proac…. you would think I'd want to keep them but they sound so detailed that it sort of takes my focus off the mix and I end up missing things, really simple things that make me look like (or expose me) a dumbass.

What I am finding though, is that I really like the KRK 10-3's. Not an expensive speaker, a new speaker, but they are 3-way and they sort of MAKE me focus on the midrange because they certainly emphasize it, which I guess is good for me. They've got a 10" woofer on them so it's really like having a system similar to what matt has, but it's all in one speaker. They've got a really big sweet spot too… I can move all over the place and the image doesn't really move, of course, because they were bigger than what I'd been mixing on I was able to move my desk about 2' away from them. That leads me to think that I might have been getting some midrange phase problems off my desk, which happens with desk's and consoles, especially the desk I have, it looks like a big console, an argosy. 

The thing about monitoring I'm finding, since owning my own shop, is that it's the one thing that seems to change all the time for a lot of people out there. I went back and watched Sound City last night and in several different pictures from the mid 70's to 90's the speakers in Sound City change over and over again, maybe that's something that mixing engineers will always do, seems like I will get a new set, get inspired, do some good work, then get tired of them and move on to something else. I'd really like to not do that, the resale on speakers isn't so great. 

tonycamphd 

I totally feel you on just wanting to sit back and mix with out the analytical side that some monitors can influence, I mean hell those PSI's are so detailed it's scary, but there is something about having a speaker that just plays the freaking mix back and let's you mix by feeling. It's really different strokes for different folks, honest to God it really is, there is no right or wrong with it. Some people might be able to have a set of monitors that are highly detailed and be able to make "super mixes" with them, but my attention span can't handle it, I'm ADD as hell and that type of monitoring isn't for me. Proacs, I wish I would had kept those, I love how smooth they are, how they sound in general, really great speaker and so simple of a design too. 

As far as the reflections that's something that plagues everyone that chooses to have a nice comfy desk that passes the eyeball test. The guys with little night stands are the ones laughing because they don't have to deal with that. What I discovered was that you have two options if you want that nice big desk; I don't see how having a bridge can be in the cards, if you are building bays into it for racking (that's why I bought mine, I don't have any racks, the desk holds all my gear, and still has two bays to fill up (like 4-4U a piece I think) and all the wiring is hidden and it's just clean and easy. With that being said, the draw back is the reflections, and it's usually in the mid range that it gets you. For the longest time, up until like a week ago, I just knew there was a null from 600-3k and would do my best, but I got so tired of having to go out to the car and write down the same exact problem I bought those big speakers. The deal with the 10-3's is that you can flip them on their side and depending on the orientation of the subwoofer, the tweeter and mid driver assembly can be rotated so they can act as either mid-field, or near-fields. The thing is, even when they are in the near-field orientation the still have a very very large sound and can put out something like 118db, so I was able to pull my desk and mix position far enough away from them that the reflection off the desk is gone. And damn is it making my life so much easier. 

Now, with the Proacs, I had issues here, I couldn't get too far away from them because I'd lose some mid range focus and get to much bottom, so, I had to mount them really really high on extra tall monitor stands and then angle them down to get the axis back. That was time consuming for sure. I used lasers and levels, but I was finally able to throw the right ingredients at it enough to be able to knock some of that cancellation down, maybe by 50%, which is a lot in our world. You are on the right track by placing them up high, but if you can put some angle on that desk when you build it and also have a cloud above you that will absorb in that range you should be better than I was given how much you've put into getting that room perfect. Just get the axis right when you go to aiming them down towards you and it will seem like the are sitting flat right in front of you. Proacs are great speakers, and for what you're wanting they will be perfect….. just a good, natural, smooth, and accurate pleasurable listening speaker. I'm curious how your build goes with these DIY ones, like the total cost, build difficulty all that, but after you get done I might just build me a set, I miss them for sure. I'd just have to find another Bryston 3B ST, that was the best amp I could find for those speakers. 

I think this is mostly true, but only once you reach a certain level of quality. My PMC TB1 pair blow the doors off of my Series II KRK V8's that I had for years. I knew how the KRK's sounded, but they were super fatiguing (for my ears anyway). Switching to the PMC's has made a world of difference for me.

Sorry to be clogging up your thread here, but these are the KRK's that you're using?  www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Rokit103G2/

And you like those better than the PSI? Interesting thread.