Size matters

David G. Smith

David G. Smith

Steak Knife Member
I have been working, or actually working around, small modern speakers with my computer/editing set up and have not been pleased with the sound I have for a long time. I have given up on that and gone back old school. A buddy of mine had a very decent stereo system, but wanted to go "Minimal" with his audio when he went HD in his entertainment center. He has had his old school Infinity speakers stored for a few years and decided to sell them to me for a song. I am so happy that he did. Hooking them up through line out from my Mac is amazing. I am all for advancement, progress and technological innovation... BUT.. when it comes to great sound, give me old school.

Computersetupcropped.jpg


Leftspeakercropped.jpg


RightspeakerCropped.jpg
 
Just as a word of caution... this may sound "great" by comparison, but home stereo speakers, even high-end ones, are not designed for flat accuracy in a mixing environment. They're still end-user speakers. So you may find that your audio sounds drastically different on other systems.

Also, room corners are really good at enhancing bass frequencies, skewing the frequency balance. That speaker propped up in the corner is just going to make the bass jump out too much. Some Auralex corner bass traps may be in order. In fact, a full room kit may help you immensely. No matter how good your speakers are, if the room is terrible you won't really get to hear your audio.
 
C2V said:
Just as a word of caution... this may sound "great" by comparison, but home stereo speakers, even high-end ones, are not designed for flat accuracy in a mixing environment. They're still end-user speakers. So you may find that your audio sounds drastically different on other systems.

Also, room corners are really good at enhancing bass frequencies, skewing the frequency balance. That speaker propped up in the corner is just going to make the bass jump out too much. Some Auralex corner bass traps may be in order. In fact, a full room kit may help you immensely. No matter how good your speakers are, if the room is terrible you won't really get to hear your audio.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I know that there are tons of other considerations to setting up a mixing facility, which I am not going to claim I have. It is just that I now have sound that is almost an order of magnitude over what I had.
 
actually it's not the "size" of the speaker that matters...but more the quality of the material etc...

You can have a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge speaker with very bad sound...and a veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy small speaker with great sound.

Physically and technically (because of frequency laws etc and converting electricity to movements of cones...)you do need a specific size to produce the right sound, that's why bass speakers (subwoofers are big) and
speakers for the high range can be smaller...


Also I see you're cables are not balanced. This may couse noise etc....
 
Last edited:
See that's what can happen. You make a nice step up and are happy about it and folks just start raining all over your parade.

Partly because folks (including me) are often interpreting a post in their own particular way. Your doing pict editing, so you just made a huge improvement in your quality and all the details that might not make this the best choice for a sound room don't really matter. Little computer speakers, with no exceptions I have come across, are horrible for sound work at any level. They are hugely uneven in response, usually with a big fake bass.

So yes home speakers usually have some hyped bass to make that R&R sound better but they are probably be a huge improvement over what you had, so good choice.

Don't worry about unbalanced wiring, your going out of the computer speaker jack for god sake.

If you want to do some critical sound work then yes you should make some changes but even for sound editorial your OK. I've worked in professional suites that were set up worse. Of course they were also going to a proper stage to be mixed.

So be happy and don't worry too much about the nit picking.
 
Noiz2 said:
See that's what can happen. You make a nice step up and are happy about it and folks just start raining all over your parade.

Partly because folks (including me) are often interpreting a post in their own particular way. Your doing pict editing, so you just made a huge improvement in your quality and all the details that might not make this the best choice for a sound room don't really matter. Little computer speakers, with no exceptions I have come across, are horrible for sound work at any level. They are hugely uneven in response, usually with a big fake bass.

So yes home speakers usually have some hyped bass to make that R&R sound better but they are probably be a huge improvement over what you had, so good choice.

Don't worry about unbalanced wiring, your going out of the computer speaker jack for god sake.

If you want to do some critical sound work then yes you should make some changes but even for sound editorial your OK. I've worked in professional suites that were set up worse. Of course they were also going to a proper stage to be mixed.

So be happy and don't worry too much about the nit picking.
Click to expand...

Excellent Post! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
I have to confess I didn't read the "image editor" part from the original post :-p

For picture edit it's a lot better indeed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top