Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions M22 for recording studio?

Sutter - not saying it's a BAD idea... just to make sure that the recording also sounds good on the average person's thuddy, muddy, and uh, gruddy Aw3s0mE Brand Ster-E-O 'n a Box speakers too.

Bren R.

>>just to make sure that the recording also sounds good on the average person's thuddy, muddy, and uh, gruddy Aw3s0mE Brand Ster-E-O 'n a Box speakers too.

Well, this would be the case with any high end studio monitor used for mastering. It is always common practice to make a mix, then try it in your car, your friends sterio, on your TV speakers with a cd player...

Anything that you can get your hands on to ensure the the mix is done well.

My first experience mixing myself was taking 2 on-stage monitors (used for vocal monitors during a performance, not the best speaker for mastering) and mixing a hop hop song.

Since the monitors have really crappy response to bass, almost not even there, the final mix was actually distorting my car sterio.

When I told a recording friend of mine what I mastered it on, to say the least, he laughed in my face!


John and John,

Thanks for your input, JonhK, do you have any pics of your setup that I would be able to take a look at? Are you wall mounting your M22s?

Hi all,

I recall the first time I toured some big studios in Toronto, and lots of them had these wretched little Auratone speakers perched on each end of the console. I wonder if they are still around? They simulated the sound of a typical portable or car radio of that time. ('60s, '70s).

Then the annoying Yamaha NS-10 found its way into lots of studios, usually with kleenex taped to the tweeters to reduce the high-frequency output. I've never figured out why that Yamaha became popular with the studio crowd.

I've known about Mackie powered monitors for years but I've never heard them. I just spent a weekend in Woodstock, NY, and toured Levon Helm's recording facility there. The recording engineer used the Yamahas, a pair of Dynaudio models (small, with dual woofers and a tweeter in the center, like our VP centers) and a powered system I'd never heard of. He said he used all three and would be open to trying some Axioms when I suggested it.

By the way, Levon Helm and his various band-members and backup singers were in great form.

As to Axiom getting into powered monitors, it's unlikely at this time. Powered monitors tend to sell very poorly to the consumer market, and the pro market is a very big undertaking.

Not wall mounted, Robb. Mid-woofer cones about 1 1/2', 2 1/2', and 3 1/2' from three nearest room boundaries.

Alan,

Thanks for the feedback, I think the M22s will be fine studio monitors. Not sure about mastering though, but its always nice to try!

Now to my next question, I want to get a cheap amp that will really only be used for the M22s. Can any of you suggest one?

Oddly, just saw the NS-10/Genelec pairing again yesterday... it's the Genelec 1031. A Google shows the 1531 was the US model number on the CBM C2N - the Commodore VIC-20 datasette. Oops. Too many numbers in my head.

Bren R.

I use M22's as "near field monitors." They are amazing for that job.

Also, the M22's, in my opinion, are much better for M3's if you were doing studio work because the M22's are unforgiving on poorly recorded material. If it's recorded well, it will sound great on M22's. If it isn't, well it will sound like crap, or not as good as all the other well-recorded stuff.

Yea, I literally sit on top of my HSU STF-2 and maybe 2-3 feet from my axioms. It is a great experience. Sometimes it can get a little fatiguing listening to the M22's at louder volumes so close, mostly because I think your ears (at my sitting level with my office chairs my ears are at the exact same height as the M22' tweeters) will pick up the tweeters before the woofers because they are just a little closer. Sometimes it helps to back up a couple feet for me to really enjoy a song and higher volumes. Other than that, they are GLORIOUS for listening.

Yes, if I had to make a recommendation for placement, do a perfect triangle with the speakers and you. For instance, I am 3 feet away from each of the M22's, so they are 3 feet away from each other.

Also, I don't know if any of you other guys do this, but at that listening distance I use the M22's cabinet design to easily make the listening angles of the M22's the same. Since they cabinet shape has the 2 sides tapering in like so: /_\ (view from top of the M22). I just align the outside side of the M22 so that it is perpendicular to the desk or whatever it is on, do the same for the other M22, and they are angled exactly the same. I find it quite handy especially because my M22's are moved around a lot in my room switching from movie to computer setups.

If you are going to use this in a recording studio, you probably are going to be running the sound from your computer. In which case, I HIGHLY recommend you do not get a sound card and use the analogue output from it. Rather, get a soundcard that has SPDIF (or a digital out) and get a receiver that takes digital (or coaxial) input, and the sound quality will be leaps and bounds better than what the analogue quality would be, especially from certain sound cards.

If you really want to go for a clean audio route, get an external DAC (digital to audio converter) which will plug in to the USB port of your computer and convert the audio to a clean digital signal. They are quite popular among headphone enthusiasts, so you probably will find the better ones and good opinions on some if you looked on those types of websites. www.headfi.com is a great forum to start.

Good luck!

very interesting danmagicman7

I work in recording production and maybe M22+ep500 con be a mastering setup with low cost

Have you tried this?

cheers