Good budget speakers for checking audio

Hi

We've spent a big portion on our budget on quality audio gear (very good mic, preamp, recorder etc).

I crucially missed something key though - speakers to check the audio with. Damn... :grumpy:

I doubt our laptop's speakers are not going to be good enough.

Can someone recommend a solution (quality external laptop speakers?)? We don't have a Hi-Fi, just a high-spec laptop (Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook - NP900X4C-Pro).

Our budget? The lower the better now. Ideally under $200. If that's not possible then $400 would be a max.
 
There's really no speakers you can add to your laptop which is going to give you a good idea of what is going on with the sound for your budget. You'd be better off getting a set of professional headphones, some thing like the Sennheiser HD250s, which would be in your budget. Headphones are far from ideal and not suitable for mixing but they will give you a detailed, reasonably flat frequency response which you won't achieve with speakers attached to your laptop.

G
 
I'll share an experience of mine. I was at one of the local audiophile stores in town. I asked the salesman what bookshelf sized reference speakers he would recommend on a budget of $2000.00. He laughed at me. Seriously, out loud full belly roll laughter. I thought the guy was going to choke to death he was laughing so hard. When he finally regained his composure, he told me to mow a few more lawns and save up my pennies until I had a real budget. I'm 42 years old. The guy was a total dick but it drove home how expensive good quality reference speakers are.
 
I'll share an experience of mine. I was at one of the local audiophile stores in town. I asked the salesman what bookshelf sized reference speakers he would recommend on a budget of $2000.00. He laughed at me. Seriously, out loud full belly roll laughter. I thought the guy was going to choke to death he was laughing so hard. When he finally regained his composure, he told me to mow a few more lawns and save up my pennies until I had a real budget. I'm 42 years old. The guy was a total dick but it drove home how expensive good quality reference speakers are.

Unfortunately, your experience is not so uncommon. The audiophile world is a strange world indeed, built on a mixture of pseudo-science and an almost a religious zealot level of belief. The audiophile world and the professional audio world are two different worlds which don't have much to do with each other. The salesman you described was not only a "total dick" but a totally ignorant dick!

OK, for theatrical work you're going to need to add 2 or 3 zeros to your budget but for $2k or so you could achieve a monitoring environment suitable for professional low budget TV work and therefore perfectly good enough for many/most indie filmmaker applications. Something like the Genelec 8040B speakers will set you back just over $2k. Spend another few hundred on a measurement mic and some DIY acoustic treatment and for under $3k you have yourself a monitoring environment similar to a lot of commercial audio post facilities working in the low budget TV sector. If this is still a bit rich for you, the 8030B's are still a decent option which will keep you within your $2k budget (inc., measurement mic and some DIY acoustic treatment).

G
 
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I have a question too.

I think my ear is evolving and I'm finding more and more difficulty to enjoy badly compressed music when before I was like "dude, who cares". I was listening on some earplugs to a Vivaldi and found the experience horrible.

I decided to 1/find myself better audio files and 2/ invest in some good headphones.

Now for the headphones, I will be using them for everything. From gaming, to listening to music to audio monitoring on set to sound mixing (if I ever find the patient/talent). Also, I'm expecting to destroy the headphones cables in less than a year or maybe slightly more so I'd rather not spend too much on it t be able to buy them again if necessary.

Do you have any suggestions I can check out ? I used the BOSE OE2 or AE2 I was given on a set and liked it so much I kept them during launch to listen to some music on my phone. I also liked the sobriety of the design.
 
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Im not a pro sound guy but do like decent sound a lot :) so ill chip in.

Check out these, as they are affordable and are pretty good from what i have heard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/M-Audio-Stu...c_0?ie=UTF8&n=340837031&s=musical-instruments

Personally I prefer headphones tho for monitoring and I have these. They are awesome and at 38 ohms they run just fine on ipods etc for when you want to use for something else:

http://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/community/entries/216-audio-technica-ath-m50-review
 
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I think my ear is evolving and I'm finding more and more difficulty to enjoy badly compressed music when before I was like "dude, who cares". I was listening on some earplugs to a Vivaldi and found the experience horrible.

I decided to 1/find myself better audio files

Classical music and recordings of "traditional" music are the last bastions of uncompressed music, so the recording was probably not at fault. Some iPods and similar devices have a "leveling" feature so that quieter music/passages is made louder using a limiting/compression scheme; that can definitely FUBAR a recording of something quiet.

and 2/ invest in some good headphones. I will be using them for everything. From gaming, to listening to music to audio monitoring on set to sound mixing (if I ever find the patient/talent).

The usual suspects are the Sony MDR-7506 ($100) and the Sennheiser HD-25 series ($130 to $200). Both have (relatively) flat frequency response, are closed back & over ear, fairly comfortable, and replacement parts are easily available for both.


I DO NOT recommend mixing using headphones.
 
Just out of intrest if you have some prefect flat response headphones and speakers why is it preferable to use speakers instead of headphones? In other words how does using speakers give you a better representation of of the final distributed mix over headphones? Is it just the enviromental differnce of a room or closed headphones on your head.
 
Can someone recommend a solution (quality external laptop speakers?)? Ideally under $200. If that's not possible then $400 would be a max.

You should really include a decent audio interface.

As far as speakers go...


JBL LSR2325P - $300/pr

Alesis M1 Active 520 - $200/pr

Alesis M1 Active MkII - $300/pr

Tannoy Reveal 501a - $270/pr



Not what I would use, but a good place to start......
 
In other words how does using speakers give you a better representation of of the final distributed mix over headphones? Is it just the enviromental differnce of a room or closed headphones on your head.

In a sense but not entirely. When you pan a sound to play out of say the right speaker, you hear the sound in both ears but in the right ear first, that is how we know it is coming from the right. Listening on headphones the sound panned to the right is only output to the right headphone speaker and ONLY heard by the right ear. This affects our perception of position both in terms of left/right position and in terms of perspective or depth, which in turn also affects the perception of relative balance of the sounds. It's also essentially impossible to level calibrate headphones and therefore judge frequency balance with any accuracy. In other words, if we create a mix with headphones, the mix will sound significantly different, very probably to the point of being wrong, when the mix is played on speakers and, most listeners will be using speakers. Whereas a mix created on speakers tends to translate better to headphones. If you're sure you audience is mostly or exclusively listening with headphones then by all means mix on headphones.

Just out of intrest if you have some prefect flat response headphones and speakers why is it preferable to use speakers instead of headphones?

I explained above why it's essential to mix on speakers in almost all cases. However, this causes other difficulties because in practice it's virtually impossible to get a perfectly flat response from speakers and it's pretty difficult to get a frequency response which is even anywhere near vaguely ball park flat.

G
 
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Your best bet is to mix with speakers, use headphones to check back and forth so you can enhance clarity (since headphones help spot things speakers don't and vice-versa) then listen to your mix on as many systems and in as many locations as possible.
 
... use headphones to check back and forth so you can enhance clarity (since headphones help spot things speakers don't and vice-versa) then listen to your mix on as many systems and in as many locations as possible.

It may (or may not!) be of interest for those not so experienced with the audio biz to know that this is the no/lo budget solution and is not what happens in commercial workflows (either in the film/TV audio post world or in the music recording world).

G
 
In a sense but not entirely. When you pan a sound to play out of say the right speaker, you hear the sound in both ears but in the right ear first, that is how we know it is coming from the right. Listening on headphones the sound panned to the right is only output to the right headphone speaker and ONLY heard by the right ear. This affects our perception of position both in terms of left/right position and in terms of perspective or depth, which in turn also affects the perception of relative balance of the sounds. It's also essentially impossible to level calibrate headphones and therefore judge frequency balance with any accuracy. In other words, if we create a mix with headphones, the mix will sound significantly different, very probably to the point of being wrong, when the mix is played on speakers and, most listeners will be using speakers. Whereas a mix created on speakers tends to translate better to headphones. If you're sure you audience is mostly or exclusively listening with headphones then by all means mix on headphones.

G

Ok cool that makes sense, good explination :)
 
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