Does Anyone Use Pro Audio Speakers as their Main?

@engineears

All in all my experience is tremendously positive. Studio monitors are cheap, they take insane amounts of EQ without batting an eyelash, have fantastic off axis response, are amazingly detailed. I’ve stuck with this system for 20 years and find it is more convincing to listen to than friends’ systems costing an order of magnitude more.

Thank you for that.

That was exactly what I was looking for, first hand experience.

If I were to upgrade today, I’d just get better monitors from Genelec or Neumann.

Perhaps I’ve dropped by the ASR forum a little too often but I’m beginning to think the same.

I’m sure it would be interesting to see the likes of these going up against the great and the good from domestic audio.

@cd318 

Just know that studio monitors are pro gear and many, especially the smaller ones, are voiced for accuracy in near field monitoring. So for example, the Yamaha's have non-linear response to gain; as you turn them up, the bass doesn't increase at the same rate as the higher frequencies. This is because they're trying to keep bass from becoming too loud when you're sitting close. I had to take mine apart and modify them to stop this behavior, which involved literally snipping components out of the active crossover. Non-trivial.

Bigger monitors geared toward mid-field listening or main monitors shouldn't have that issue, but they're not cheap. Just don't think that you can get away with the little desktop monitors in a full sized listening room.

For me, monitors aren't a way to save money, they're a way to get better accuracy and more control. With DSP (mine don't have it onboard, but many monitors have this built in) I was able to get mine within ±0.5 dB of the response curve I wanted at the listening position. The imaging I get with stereo, 5.1, and 7.1 is insanely great, but it took years of monkeying with settings and a lot of learning to get my gain structure and room/speaker correction where it needed to be.

@engineears 

Bigger monitors geared toward mid-field listening or main monitors shouldn't have that issue, but they're not cheap. Just don't think that you can get away with the little desktop monitors in a full sized listening room.

Agreed.

Anything that's only for for near field listening is hardly going to work in a domestic setup and anything that can't get down to a solid 40Hz is probably going to need a sub.

For me, monitors aren't a way to save money, they're a way to get better accuracy and more control.

Yes, good loudspeakers do not come cheap.

Good accurate loudspeakers even more so.

But it's that word 'accurate' that's rarely ever mentioned when it comes to domestic loudspeakers.

As for on board DSP, I can see nothing wrong with having that option. In fact it's a growing trend for many domestic models these days of having some limited way of adjusting treble output built in.

Perhaps yet another approach is to look out for brands that produce models for both markets eg ATC, PMC, JBL etc?

no , too much treble usually ,, make the ear bleeding

@fac 

Surely that can't be right for all pro audio speakers?

Some of these manufacturers pride themselves on having the flattest possible frequency response that would make many domestic designs look positively skewed.

Their opinions are usually backed up by plenty of data too.