Monitoring Speakers

Other Gear
#1

Hello operators !

I’m gonna move soon in another place ! And I’m going to have a dedicated space for my music stuff :D.
So no more dragging cables on the floor of the living room and making music with headphones when my girlfriend watches TV.
Not sure I’m gonna have more time to make music, but I’m still looking for some nice monitoring speakers.

I like the Yamaha HS series, I’m in love with the design of these speakers. What about the sound ? What’s the difference between HS5 and HS7 apart from the sound power ?
My music room will measure ~12m2, and I’m probably going to plug them like this : stuff > Scarlett > mixer > speakers.

So, what do you think about these speakers ? Are you using them or already tried them ?
Or maybe you got some other advices ?

Cheers
V

#2

Hey V,


I use the HS5’s and 8’s at work every other day - they are pretty good speakers for the price. At home I have the MSP7s’s which are kind of like the “premium” version, which have a little mid-masking and more even lows.

I haven’t heard the HS7’s but going on the sound of the 5’s I’d say they’d be good for your room size. The HS8’s would be too big (there is a room roughly that size at work and I’ve complained to the tech guy a bunch of times that they are too woofy in there). The 5’s feel a little weak, and you will probably miss proper lowend. The 7’s should be a happy medium.

Other option is the JBL LSR range, which is very cheap and pretty good too. The HS’s are better sounding/translating IMO.

Stay away from the Rokits if you can, they sound ok and people have learned to love them, but I’ve found them very difficult to translate mixes across systems compared to the yammies. YMMV

Good luck!
#3

I use the Hs7 in a small room with a sub and they’re great. Sub optional, the speakers are good to around 60hz.

#4

I’d vouch for the JBL LSR305 over the HS5; the yamahas IMO have a sort of “nasally” quality in comparison.

I’m running those plus a 12" sub in my dorm room. (about the same size as the room you’re describing). A 5-6" mid-range driver should fill that space.

The LSR’s also have their fancy tweeter waveguide, which surprisingly seems not to be just some marketing nonsense. It does give them a nice, wide "sweet spot."

just another opinion.

#5

Thanks for your feedbacks and advices.

@millbastard You seem to have a professionnal experience with these and I like it !
When you said HS8 is too woofy, you mean the sub is not much reactive, “flabby” and latent ?

@beefinator & @Anfim How do you plug the sub in a monitoring system ?

#6

My sub (svs sb1000) has an audio thru-put that includes an 80Hz highpass (so I set the sub’s own low-end crossover to about 80Hz, too)


you could just as well use an external crossover splitting to the sub and monitors in parallel, but the thru-put feature is more convenient for me.
#7

As beefinator says, most studio subs have a built in crossover. Soundcard to sub, sub to speakers. The adam still passes audio through even when off, and has a volume control as well as the crossover to make sure you’re not overpowering the room.

#8


@millbastard You seem to have a professionnal experience with these and I like it !
When you said HS8 is too woofy, you mean the sub is not much reactive, "flabby" and latent ?


Yep, pretty much how you describe. The lowend on them is pretty deep (probably a bit hyped TBH), so unless you bass trap the hell out of your room you end up really losing some low end transients as the bass builds up. The room I use them in has two floor-to-ceiling bass traps in the back corners and it’s still not enough. The low end bounces around and builds up, and the real problem is that it starts to mask the mids, as your ear is distracted by all the lows. It’s the classic trap of having large monitors! I used to have a pair of MSP10’s (earlier equivalent of the HS8’s, just a weird name) when I was just starting out and couldn’t work out why my mixes weren’t translating well - all that bass masking the juicy bits. Switched to the 7’s and what I hear is what I get!

#9

Ok guys, thanks again for all these useful informations :slight_smile: