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A Finnish speaker manufacturer has been making studio quality speakers with fraction of cost of that. http://www.genelec.com/ http://www.genelec.com/ You see

by vlehto 11y ago

A Finnish speaker manufacturer has been making studio quality speakers with fraction of cost of that. http://www.genelec.com/ http://www.genelec.com/ You see this stuff in professional anechoic chambers and mixing studios. I have friend who has PhD in audio signal processing and he doesn't see much point going beyond genelecs. The only downside is that you might get "too accurate" playback for hobbyist taste. EDIT: Actually the price point is quite similar. Sorry.

cJ0th 11y ago
There is a German firm which goes by the name Beringer. They cloned a genelec model: http://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_b2031a_truth_aktivmonitor.htm http://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_b2031a_truth_aktivmonitor... Many people refuse to acknowledge that you can work professionally with their products. However, I've seen those speakers in many studios where professional work gets done.
- vlehto 11y ago
  I have audion engineer friend who has love/hate relationship with Behringer. Some years back they had quality problems. Good behringer is good, but you might get a bad specimen too. I have experience with their cheap end mixer, and it was good until it started to slowly break down. One component at the time. Luckily it had some excess potential, so in terms of play hours/price it was still OK.
  - radiowave 11y ago
    My assessment of Behringer is much the same. Sometimes it's fine to use their stuff, sometimes it's worth paying more. One problem though is that the existence of a company like Behringer making cheap products that are often good enough, is that it can tend to destroy the mid-market stuff that used to exist. Once that happens, your choice is either to buy something dirt cheap, or some ridiculously expensive "boutique" item, because there's nothing left in between any more. (I'm not suggesting this is Behringer's fault, it just seems to be how things go when a mass market comes along.)
- conradfr 11y ago
  To add to what vlehto said : Behringer was somehow the "China of the music & audio world" : cheap clones of more expensive pro gears. While usually visually decent, it could be hit or miss soundwise. Mic preamps, guitar pedals or cabinets were bad for example while monitors (like the one you linked) were OK for the price. Recently they bought companies like Midas and TC Electronics and I think their products have been getting better. Not enough for me to consider them usually but still :) About speakers the real problem will only be the room and the benefits of expensive speakers are usually wasted because of that. There is only so much you can do treat a living room without cluttering it. The WAF of bass traps is not high.
  - fit2rule 11y ago
    The reason Behringer is so loathed in the pro audio community is that they are notorious for cloning other peoples products - literally opening up the competition, seeing whats inside, and reproducing the design - with cheaper components - "in China" and so on. So while we do get cheaper products that are 'good enough' from Behringer, for a long time they had a deleterious effect on the industry - I know of a number of products that didn't make it to market because it was known that Behringer would clone the design ..
- alsetmusic 11y ago
  I've listened to Genelecs through a Beringer mixer followed by an Allen and Heath mixer. The former produced a weak and disappointing sound. The latter was full, detailed, and sonically impressive. The conclusion was that the Beringer mixer was a weak link. I was also disappointed by a second Beringer mixer as well as a DI box by Beringer around the same time. I wouldn't consider them high quality by any stretch of the term. They are probably acceptable when entering the market, but don't belong with components in the $100k - $1m range that this article is addressing.
- timc3 11y ago
  Behringer Truths are not bad for the price, but Genelecs are usually better for most rooms. But I think there are usually (and not in all cases) better options than Genelecs depending on budget and usage. I for instance prefer EVE, because I can’t quite bring my budget up to ATCs or Barefoots. JBL LSR range is also a low cost budget monitor champ. These are also studio monitors by the way, so they are not always great for hifi listening - I use separate speakers for that.
nandemo 11y ago
Genelec is renowned for their studio monitors. These aren't simply "high quality speakers", it's really a separate product category from the kind of audiophile-focused hifi speakers the article is talking about. > There’s a reason why experts advise against using “ordinary” Hi-Fi loudspeakers for monitoring your audio. These speakers are built to fill a living room and should be listened to at a distance. They come in fancy shapes and exotic wood finishes and are hyped for that full and rich musical sound. Hi-Fi speakers are meant to look and sound pretty. In contrast, nearfield studio monitors are designed to be placed within a few feet of you in a small room that is close to dead, acoustically speaking. Instead of complementing the source, studio monitors need to be detailed, neutral and reveal problems to the critical listener. If something sounds off, they should let you know. The difference between a Hi-Fi speaker and a studio monitor is like the difference between a fan and a friend. A fan will flatter you. A friend will tell you the unvarnished truth. That’s probably why most monitors look as sexy as a black brick. http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/12/04/the-truth-about-studio-monitors/ http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/12/04/the-truth-about-studio...
bostik 11y ago
Heh, I considered Genelecs when I was setting up my home audio. This was a few years back, around the same time Genelec started to diversify towards more mass-market equipment at their lower end. Couple of slightly audiophilic friends commented that I probably wouldn't get full value for my money. The room around the equipment has an effect too. So they all recommended I look at Amphion instead: http://www.amphion.fi/ http://www.amphion.fi/ (Another reasonably high-endish Finnish loudspeaker manufacturer.) A pair of their monitors was more than enough for a straightforward home sound system, and it took my wife's complaints to eventually add a subwoofer to the mix. Even this pair is accurate enough. We can hear a botched mixing, which arguably may not be beneficial when the audio track is from a classic 80's or 90's TV show... And the price at the time? €300 per monitor. Genelecs would have started at ~50% more.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
  I've been moving around a lot and I set up a temporary budget home studio here recently, with JBL305s. They're insanely good value - not perfect, but considering they cost as little as some PC speakers they're better than many of the entry/semi-pro near fields I've heard costing high three figures per pair. I'm slightly biased against Genelecs. I think they're expensive for what they are, and I've always found the sound distractingly clinical rather than reassuringly objective. I wouldn't recommend them for home listening. They do appear in studios, but maybe more often in university/research labs. They don't have a lock down among studio owners, who have a lot of other choices. Room sound is totally a thing. High end studios can literally spend more on acoustic treatment consultancy than speakers. Low/mid studios won't spend that much, but anyone who's serious about monitoring will put up bass traps and absorbent panels to try to tame the more obvious resonances. You'll get objectively measurable benefits that will do more to improve the sound than magic oxygen-free mains cables and hand-knitted USB leads will. That makes the mega-speaker audiophile thing kind of ridiculous. If you spend more than $10k on a system without treating your room at all, you're simply wasting your money.
  - timc3 11y ago
    The LSR 305 is an excellent speaker, and I too shy away from Genelecs because I think they sound rather terrible compared to their competition. I do wonder if studios actually compare monitors before just putting in a low-range to mid-range Genelec setup. Totally right about the room. It’s the number one factor.

by vlehto 11y ago

cJ0th 11y ago

There is a German firm which goes by the name Beringer. They cloned a genelec model: http://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_b2031a_truth_aktivmonitor.htm http://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_b2031a_truth_aktivmonitor... Many people refuse to acknowledge that you can work professionally with their products. However, I've seen those speakers in many studios where professional work gets done.

vlehto 11y ago
I have audion engineer friend who has love/hate relationship with Behringer. Some years back they had quality problems. Good behringer is good, but you might get a bad specimen too. I have experience with their cheap end mixer, and it was good until it started to slowly break down. One component at the time. Luckily it had some excess potential, so in terms of play hours/price it was still OK.
- radiowave 11y ago
  My assessment of Behringer is much the same. Sometimes it's fine to use their stuff, sometimes it's worth paying more. One problem though is that the existence of a company like Behringer making cheap products that are often good enough, is that it can tend to destroy the mid-market stuff that used to exist. Once that happens, your choice is either to buy something dirt cheap, or some ridiculously expensive "boutique" item, because there's nothing left in between any more. (I'm not suggesting this is Behringer's fault, it just seems to be how things go when a mass market comes along.)
conradfr 11y ago
To add to what vlehto said : Behringer was somehow the "China of the music & audio world" : cheap clones of more expensive pro gears. While usually visually decent, it could be hit or miss soundwise. Mic preamps, guitar pedals or cabinets were bad for example while monitors (like the one you linked) were OK for the price. Recently they bought companies like Midas and TC Electronics and I think their products have been getting better. Not enough for me to consider them usually but still :) About speakers the real problem will only be the room and the benefits of expensive speakers are usually wasted because of that. There is only so much you can do treat a living room without cluttering it. The WAF of bass traps is not high.
- fit2rule 11y ago
  The reason Behringer is so loathed in the pro audio community is that they are notorious for cloning other peoples products - literally opening up the competition, seeing whats inside, and reproducing the design - with cheaper components - "in China" and so on. So while we do get cheaper products that are 'good enough' from Behringer, for a long time they had a deleterious effect on the industry - I know of a number of products that didn't make it to market because it was known that Behringer would clone the design ..
alsetmusic 11y ago
I've listened to Genelecs through a Beringer mixer followed by an Allen and Heath mixer. The former produced a weak and disappointing sound. The latter was full, detailed, and sonically impressive. The conclusion was that the Beringer mixer was a weak link. I was also disappointed by a second Beringer mixer as well as a DI box by Beringer around the same time. I wouldn't consider them high quality by any stretch of the term. They are probably acceptable when entering the market, but don't belong with components in the $100k - $1m range that this article is addressing.
timc3 11y ago
Behringer Truths are not bad for the price, but Genelecs are usually better for most rooms. But I think there are usually (and not in all cases) better options than Genelecs depending on budget and usage. I for instance prefer EVE, because I can’t quite bring my budget up to ATCs or Barefoots. JBL LSR range is also a low cost budget monitor champ. These are also studio monitors by the way, so they are not always great for hifi listening - I use separate speakers for that.

nandemo 11y ago

Genelec is renowned for their studio monitors. These aren't simply "high quality speakers", it's really a separate product category from the kind of audiophile-focused hifi speakers the article is talking about. > There’s a reason why experts advise against using “ordinary” Hi-Fi loudspeakers for monitoring your audio. These speakers are built to fill a living room and should be listened to at a distance. They come in fancy shapes and exotic wood finishes and are hyped for that full and rich musical sound. Hi-Fi speakers are meant to look and sound pretty. In contrast, nearfield studio monitors are designed to be placed within a few feet of you in a small room that is close to dead, acoustically speaking. Instead of complementing the source, studio monitors need to be detailed, neutral and reveal problems to the critical listener. If something sounds off, they should let you know. The difference between a Hi-Fi speaker and a studio monitor is like the difference between a fan and a friend. A fan will flatter you. A friend will tell you the unvarnished truth. That’s probably why most monitors look as sexy as a black brick. http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/12/04/the-truth-about-studio-monitors/ http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/12/04/the-truth-about-studio...

bostik 11y ago

Heh, I considered Genelecs when I was setting up my home audio. This was a few years back, around the same time Genelec started to diversify towards more mass-market equipment at their lower end. Couple of slightly audiophilic friends commented that I probably wouldn't get full value for my money. The room around the equipment has an effect too. So they all recommended I look at Amphion instead: http://www.amphion.fi/ http://www.amphion.fi/ (Another reasonably high-endish Finnish loudspeaker manufacturer.) A pair of their monitors was more than enough for a straightforward home sound system, and it took my wife's complaints to eventually add a subwoofer to the mix. Even this pair is accurate enough. We can hear a botched mixing, which arguably may not be beneficial when the audio track is from a classic 80's or 90's TV show... And the price at the time? €300 per monitor. Genelecs would have started at ~50% more.

TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
I've been moving around a lot and I set up a temporary budget home studio here recently, with JBL305s. They're insanely good value - not perfect, but considering they cost as little as some PC speakers they're better than many of the entry/semi-pro near fields I've heard costing high three figures per pair. I'm slightly biased against Genelecs. I think they're expensive for what they are, and I've always found the sound distractingly clinical rather than reassuringly objective. I wouldn't recommend them for home listening. They do appear in studios, but maybe more often in university/research labs. They don't have a lock down among studio owners, who have a lot of other choices. Room sound is totally a thing. High end studios can literally spend more on acoustic treatment consultancy than speakers. Low/mid studios won't spend that much, but anyone who's serious about monitoring will put up bass traps and absorbent panels to try to tame the more obvious resonances. You'll get objectively measurable benefits that will do more to improve the sound than magic oxygen-free mains cables and hand-knitted USB leads will. That makes the mega-speaker audiophile thing kind of ridiculous. If you spend more than $10k on a system without treating your room at all, you're simply wasting your money.
- timc3 11y ago
  The LSR 305 is an excellent speaker, and I too shy away from Genelecs because I think they sound rather terrible compared to their competition. I do wonder if studios actually compare monitors before just putting in a low-range to mid-range Genelec setup. Totally right about the room. It’s the number one factor.