NS-10 Vs ???

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:52 am

Hi, I've got a pair of Yamaha NS-10M and I guide them with a Kenwood graphic equalizer and a Pioneer stereo hi-fi amplifier.
I've bougth them with some friends, and now we need to sell them.
I've got some question:

1) Do you have any suggetion about a monitor (nearfield or at max midfield) comparable with the ns10?

2) In my situation do you choose an active or a passive monitor?

3)I've read that NS-10s doesn't play exceptionlly well, and is exactly for this reason that they has been chosen to be a standard. (if you can make your music sounds well on them, it will sounds better everywhere). It's true? Or it's an "urban legend"?

4)I've read the tread about monitors of a few days ago, And I've found it veey intersting and useful, but now i need some more specific comparison between the NS-10 and your experience.

The price I'm intended to spend is about the equivalent to buy a pair of NS-10M nowadays plus a nice monitor amplifier, so it's quite variable.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:55 am

i think it's well known what my views on the NS-10s are and i shan't bang on about them again (though you can guess it's not positive

) but speakers/amplifiers are probably the only bit of gear i'm evangelical about - i always recommend PMC speakers and Bryston amps, though sadly they seem too expensive for most people (OK you could drop the Bryston, but PMCs are really not that expensive).

Seems odd that people can spend thousands on their bikes or car, whereas musicians baulk at spending £1000 for decent monitors. Get a loan, rob a bank, just get decent monitors.

Back on topic, the NS-10s really are bad (that's sort of the point, though i'm sure Yamaha didn't plan it that way) and you shouldn't really mix on them, they're there to try your mix on after you've done a mix on decent monitors too see if it works on crap systems (i.e. average Joe Public's Hi-Fi).

Well i recommend PMC TB-2s or perhaps the smaller DB-1s, others here will recommend some other good speakers (though once you've owned PMCs it's hard to even bother looking at the 'competition'). Avoid Behringer's and stump up as much cash as you can, with speakers you pretty much get what you pay for.

Also i'm not sure of the validty of using an EQ in circuit, i always like to keep my monitoring as flat as possible, unless you have some really horrible room acoustic you have to compensate for i'd probably avoid using it.

Mr A

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mr Arkadin on 2004-12-10 08:03 ]</font>

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:10 pm

<div align="center"><img src="http://www.abluesky.com/m/j/040525_002_1.jpg" align="middle" alt="ABLUESKY">
</div>
http://www.abluesky.com/p_s_gb/p3s7.html
Without ANY doupts!

Best,
Andre

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:15 pm

We use the Blue Sky 5.1 system the studio I work at, they ae very accurate very revealing monitors, I would highly recommend them.

OTOH, Bryston and PMC is an awesome combination, can't argue with that.

I second the "no equalizer" comment. If your room has acoustic anomalies, fix them, don't compensate for them.

Dynaudio makes some awfully nice speakers as well.

I have no idea what a pair of NS10's would have cost, because I think that they truly suck, and have no idea how people began to believe that they were some kind of standard. So, I have no idea what you can afford. The above suggestions may be way out of your range.

R

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:02 pm

blue sky is an excellent choice(pmc and bryston is nice but$$$). i love my blue sky system ones(the media desk and pro desk look really cool too!)! for a budget, i suggest the yorkvilles. get the ysm1p(powered). boy will you be amazed at what you have been missing and how much easier it is to get a good mix(after learnig the speaks a bit) with any of those three...

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 5:48 pm

I have a pair of ADAM 2.5a, but I kept my old NS10pro, for two reasons, the first one because their price is very low as used for now, and it's not worth to sell them too cheap, the second one because no matter how do they suck, they are actually a comparison standard, and not being in production anymore, they entered in the realm of the vintage stuff, a piece of music enginering hystory...

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:53 pm

3)I've read that NS-10s doesn't play exceptionlly well, and is exactly for this reason that they has been chosen to be a standard. (if you can make your music sounds well on them, it will sounds better everywhere). It's true? Or it's an "urban legend"?

It sure used to be believed so. And it's quote hard to do stuff that sounds creamy on ns10ms.. But seriously, the era is totally over, and it's more healthier that way I think. You can choose to try to make your mixes sound good on 10m's. But you're more free than ever before to choose not to, and people won't attack you just because it didn't sound good on a 10m.

4)I've read the tread about monitors of a few days ago, And I've found it veey intersting and useful, but now i need some more specific comparison between the NS-10 and your experience.

Don't compare the 10m's with modern nearfields. Personally I don't think it's worth the comparison. Just totally different aesthetics behind the technology I think. Compared to most modern nearfields, the 10m's will just come accross as strange, harsh, exaggerates the vocals, and even cuts out a lot of bass.

Well, actually, looking back to my 10m era, which lasted about 2 years I think, I remember that my vocal mixes were really good. But everything else sucked. So they're actually quite okay for vocal stuff I think. But thinking twice, I guess I can do the same with almost any other post NF-1 monitors so...

Post by **hubird** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:33 pm

A.D.A.M nearfields t.m.o. are part of the top 5 of the world:
http://www.adam-audio.de/professional/

I would like to compare the PMC's to ADAMs, or to the famous Genelecs 1030 (or whatever number).
I don't know PMC, you make me curious

But at the moment I'm considering to complete my ADAM nearfierlds with an ADAM subwoofer Sub10.
ADAM is much less known than Genelec, specially outside Europe, but I consider them as even better (as did the German Keyboards magazin test, some time ago already).
Not really low-budget tho...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-12-10 22:35 ]</font>

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:42 pm

Mackie HR824. I'm one of those Mackie fanatics. I use them along with a pair of warm headphones in case the mix gets too warm, along with a pair of bright headphones in case the mix is too bright. All my mixes sound great everywhere!

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 5:33 am

Thanks a lot to everybody!

Now I take a cople of minutes to check some reviews and prices.

I've read in a magazine that exist some monitors (a whole category of) made for home studio and pc based solutions, and they are very cheap, but they are advertised like "TRUE" monitor.
This thing smells me bad, becouse i've begun to have this idea in my mind:
"they are cheap becouse they have bad quality and bad response. Someone could call them "monitor" becouse nowadays there's a lot of people that works with computer without a minimum knowledge, so they never recognize a good sound rather than a bad sound, but they "WANT" monitors."

What do you think? If there's this risk, how would I think about the monitor with the inscription "ideal for Home and computer-based studio" ?

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 5:53 am

go for active monitors. mackie is nice, another is genelec

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:34 am

Or Event...

I have Event PS8, love them. I don't plan changing them for a long long time.

I've work on genelecs too...

Post by **garyb** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:44 pm

all those choices are great, mackie, genelec and especially the adams. the only "computer" nearfield i would get is the blue sky. otherwise, get one of the professional speaks. all the speaks in this thread are great. all have their strengths and weaknesses. for some strange reason the ones with the least number of audio downsides tend to be the most expensive.....

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2004-12-11 13:46 ]</font>

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 8:50 am

the bluesky media desk system IS a professional_fullrange_ nearfield-monitor:

<img src="http://www.audiodesignlabs.com/aguide1.jpg">

More infos:
http://www.abluesky.com/asp/forum/viewm ... opicid=155

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AndreD on 2004-12-12 08:55 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 3:36 pm

yes the blue skys are wonderful....