Cheap Mixing/Mastering Room Tuneup

[ronnie]

I decided to update my room to better accommodate "typical" 21st Century listening modes. Like home and car systems with subs and small speakers. I know about Auratones etc., but those and the like are out of my present budget so I started to look around. I saw some good reviews on Behringer 1C Monitor Speakers which are two-ways with a 5" and a 1/2" tweeter rated at 100 Watts. And good reviews on the Dayton Audio SUB-650 6-1/2" 60 Watt Powered Subwoofer. I've been using Event 20/20's for many years with good results and I cannot complain as their very transparent and more than acceptably flat from 45Hz to 23kHz. I tested them with mics with known graphs and they pretty much line up without any eq at all. I wondered how much would I be changing things by adding the additional speakers. There's only one way to find out.

The Behringers sell for $79.99 the pair but I actually found an open box on Amazon for $17.99 claiming only the box had minor scratches. With Amazon Prime I had it in two days with free shipping. Well that turned out to be less than true because I couldn't see any problems with the box when it arrived and everything was in the original sealed condition. That was a score. If they didn't work out (which they did) I could always stick them on the patio. The Dayton Audio SUB-650 was $89 from Parts Express.

I hooked everything up so that I can switch in and out the Events, Behringers and Dayton Sub at will. The Events go through a Behringer A500. The Behringers go through a TASCAM reference amp. The Dayton is active. The first thing I noticed was obviously the extended range of the whole system when everything was switched in. The Behringers of course were weak on the low end, even though as far as 6" speakers go they had a decent bass sound. They should prove worthy for listening purposes on their own. A poor man's Auratones, if you will! I got the Sub crossover tuned to about 45db (just about where the Events start to rise and level across the spectrum) and phased properly. Hooked up the mike, set the levels with pink noise with and without the mike. Set a sweep sine from 40Hz to 22kHz and compared mike input to tone signal and and with some gain adjustment on the Behringers and the Sub was able to get the same response curve from the whole shebang as the Events alone. That's good. I just took a snapshot of the Behringers alone for reference purposes for when I listen to those alone so I don't get tempted to mangle the mix with eq as a result.

So now I have a perceptually wider range at the same (flat) frequency response that I had before! What a difference. I'm temped to mix and master with everything on because I don't need to compensate for anything after getting the gains all set correctly. Even at low levels the experience is much better and it sounds clear and clean right on up to LOUD. Good thing for Pink noise and sweeping Sine waves! Now I can trust my ears again.

I feel like I got a whole new room for less than $110.

[Nestor]

Yes, today we can do so, that's great

[braincell]

It's still good to listen to it in as many different homes and cars as possible. Of course these days most people use cheap earbuds and won't hear it very well anyway.

[garyb]

it's great that those speaks are nice for the money.
no speaker will actually work correctly until the room itself is addressed, however.

[ronnie]

it's great that those speaks are nice for the money.
no speaker will actually work correctly until the room itself is addressed, however.

True enough!