Open baffle studio monitors, a good idea?

[freddiediy]

I have about £400 for some studio monitors. Looking at common offerings, it seems everything is ported 5/6 inch bass with 1" tweeter. I think I might be able to do better.

I was wondering what people thought of the idea of 15" Eminence Alpha's in H frames up to about 180/200hz, then small open baffle desktop speakers with perhaps 8/10" driver for mid bass and a small 2"/3" full range driver for the rest of the range. Will probably use something like MiniDSP for crossover duties.

This'll be my first speaker project, so

a) I want to keep it as simple as possible
b) I want to keep it as cheap as possible (the idea being significantly better monitors/frequency range than common ported box for same/similar price)
c) Want to disturb the neighbours as little as possible, hence the OB design idea.

Am I on to something or barking up the wrong tree?.

[pinkmouse]

I'm sure, with practice, you would be able to do better, but, that's not really the point. Studio monitors are meant to be a reference, (good, bad or indifferent, but a reference). Without that reference, your recordings may well sound completely wrong on any other system. By all means build a mega open baffle monitor system, but do that second, after you have a known standard to compare to.

[freddiediy]

Fair do's.

How about the Eminence H frames regardless?. I'd like to avoid room resonances in the bass range, not annoy the neighbours too much and take the strain off of the smaller monitors.

Will open baffle subs integrate with ported mains?.

[pinkmouse]

Just a quick question. How many people do you know that have H baffle 15" drivers at home that will be listening to your music?

[freddiediy]

You have a good point, granted. But shouldn't one have the option of knowing what's going on in the lower registers, accurately as well as per the average speaker?.

[jerome69]

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[pinkmouse]

Originally Posted by freddiediy

You have a good point, granted. But shouldn't one have the option of knowing what's going on in the lower registers, accurately as well as per the average speaker?.

Indeed, you should, but you should do your primary mix for the 6.5 and tweeter, as that's what 99% of your audience will be using, (if that - I know a number of studios have an "El Cheapo" boom box with line in set up on top of the console to replicate the average listening experience!).

[c2cthomas]

Originally Posted by pinkmouse

(if that - I know a number of studios have an "El Cheapo" boom box with line in set up on top of the console to replicate the average listening experience!).

plus and "ipod" MP3 player thingie.

[Keriwena]

Just to agree with pinky, for monitoring a recording you want to be in the nearfield of the speakers so you only hear the signal. not room reflections. Obviously, open baffles would be counter-productive.

As far as the bass, you might have noticed people take their speakers outside to measure the bass response accurately. Again, the room is a problem, and short of building a properly tuned control room, I'd suggest good headphones as a bass reference monitor.

Mixing is a different story. There you want to listen to an "average" speaker, and as many as possible. We used to use car radio speakers mounted flat in a shelf behind the chair to approximate the "typical" environment. They were fed with the usual compression and bass boost you'd expect an AM radio station to use. These days, yeh, an MP3 through earbuds is probably a good idea if you're going mainstream, or computer monitors for the YouTube route.