Mackie HR824 MKIIs. First proper set of monitors I’ve owned. Currently in an untreated room but this will change once we move. Partner currently has the HR624 MKIIs for her setup. <3
They do have a bass cut on the back but I feel weird about hitting that switch… like will I be adjusting the EQ to make it sound better in my untreated room and therefore be inaccurate most everywhere else? Iunno, gonna do the rear foam and go from there. Also not putting KRKs down across the board, those monitors definitely sound nice but their “color” was very apparent to me in that scenario.
On a related note, I’ve had a pair of ATH-M50’s for quite a while that finally fell apart, so I’m in need of new monitoring headphones. I just got a pair of DT770’s in the mail and I’m burning them in. While they are more comfortable and sound nice, they seem a bit too scooped?
Like I can simultaneously hear more detail on the 770s but feel like I can’t hear the mids as well compared to the M50’s. Does that even make sense? I’m still gonna keep burning them in and listening to records I know well, but does anyone have experience with these headphones / similar alternatives care to comment on this type of frequency response?
If you have the speakers close to the wall you will get a 6db boost in the lower frequencies. Don’t think foam will do much unless it’s very thick.
Genelec has some very good manuals on how to set up speakers and placement. The physics is the same for all speakers so I recommend checking it out. They also have some graphs showing the correlation between distance to the wall and cancellations in the frequencies.
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No no, that’s not how it works 
I know that’s how it might feel. The trick is you need to change it to the right amount manually. Those eq’s are there to correct the room. If it translates ok as is, I’d just leave it.
The 770’s aren’t really scooped as such, the mids are flat enough, just the bass is a few dp up of the flat axis and the highs are around a certain range. I’ll try and find the website with all the graphs. It’s partly psychoacoustic, because the lows are a bit higher, along with part of the uppers the mids will sound quieter, like when you lower a high shelf to make a sound that tiny bit thicker.
The m-50s have pretty good mids anyway. I would say better than average at around that price. I think that’s something to do with the drivers being angled, not 100% sure.
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Just bought some Focal Alpha 50’s. I had Adams TV5 before and my goodness. The Alphas low end is huge in comparison.
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Same! My last pair of monitors were Focal Alpha 80’s (loaned em to a friend) and currently using Shape Twins
uffffff shape twin 
can’t imagine ever being able to afford those hahaha but the CMS65 are killlller cult favs.
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CMS65’s are awesome! I got a really great deal on my Shape Twins. They were a demo pair at a music shop. Last year I decided to set aside the dough to up my audio game. Mainly the Focals and a Lynx Aurora (n)16TB interface. Also co-owned 8 custom made pre amps using the schematics from the original API 312, four of which were modded with John Hardy op amps. My old studio partner let me buy out his half.
I’ve been using the trial of Sonarworks Reference to show the before graphs to compare how flat various candidate headphones are. I already have some KEF M500 which are marketed more to consumers than for studio use, but it turns out they’re a lot flatter than I was expecting. I was thinking the Beyer DT 770, 880 or 990 would be much flatter but it’s not actually the case. Both the DT770 and ATH-M50x do a good job of not letting the highs above 10kHz roll off, but they’re also a bit pronounced at certain high frequences upto 6db. I really like how flat the Senn HD 600 are, keeping their deviations from flat within 3db between 50Hz and somewhere above 10kHz.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll stick with my KEF M500 and have put a parametric EQ on the master buss to reduce the lows a little, increase the highs and tackle a couple of the more pronounced humps. That has helped to stop me making my mixes too bass light and gives me better insight into what’s happening at the top end enabling me to clean up any harshness, while still retaining a sound signature I’m familiar with. You can of course do the same with Sonarworks, but I like the simplicity (and freeness) of just putting a plugin on my buss to enable when I’m using my headphones.
To your point about not hearing the mids as well compared to the M50s, the graphs seem to back that up. The 770s have a dip around 1.0-1.35kHz between 3 and 5 db, that isn’t really there on the M50s. Plus the midrange seems to have a wide band drop of about 1 to 2 db. Combined with more pronounced highs, I think the 770 would make critical listening in the mid range more difficult. But it’s horses for courses really, if you’re wanting to make sure your highs work well then the 770 may make it easier to “look into” them. Neither headphone has high end or low end roll off that would make me worried I was missing content in my mix.
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API is so droolworthy with everything they do. just got the vision channel strip UAD plug… hope to one day own the real deal … and maybe some neves while we’re dreamin hahaha
actually my next upgrade has to be an apollo x8 or rack otherwise. sick of not being able to multi-track record my hardware gear jams. was thinking of a Lucid 88192 since they’re amazing and great value, but figured i’ll just save and get the apollo. pretty sure i still get a discount from UA for design work hehe. hope so.
nice one on the upgrades. proper good direction there!
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Oh, There is quite a dip on those 770s. Hmm, I remember the bass bit poking up a bit more and the mid being a lot closer to 0. I knew the highs were like that though.
The 50x defo has a bit of a bump on the bass compared to the old 50.
The site was graphs.headphone.com but it seems to be gone now.
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Focal CMS50! They are wonderful
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I have a pair of Mackie CR3’s in an untreated room. Would JBL 305 be a big upgrade?
I’m currently using Adam A7X with a Adam Sub10 mk2 subwoofer, but I’m toying with the idea of switching to Genelecs… Good idea?
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I don’t think so from my research. I guess if you were buying the more pricey Genelecs it would be a different story maybe. They have quite a range.
After going round and round and round, trying to choose a new pair, I’m going to go for Focal Shapes, 65 if I can fit them. 40hz, none ported… down to £1,000 a pair now as well. That should be quite a contrast to the Yamaha MSP5’s.
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Yeah maybe I’ll keep my Adam’s for now… why change if it still works good right? I’ve only seen Focals 65 in person and they look reeeeal nice 
Fluid Audio FX80
My first coaxial speakers.
Other options was alphas80 and Kali LP8 but I’m glad of my choice.
These monitors are absolutely gamechangers in terms of stereo imaging. My coaxial ears likes it a lot
If somethings, good enough, I’ll just work with it and learn it. I’m keen to see the bass response on none ported and I’m not sure of anything else none ported in that range. So, I’ll just stick with that choice, Focal make some of the best Audio gear out there at all prices. I think there were £800 each at one point, but I don’t feel they got the hype in the media that the Focal CMS did.
I defo won’t need a sub with them.
I saw Alan Braxe using a pair of Behringer Truths recently and I’m pretty sure he could buy whatever he liked. I think everyone goes OTT with monitors, but it’s nice to have fancy speakers anyway…
Sounds amazing in a club, I imagine most people will have heard it.
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The Mackie HR 624 and 824 also use passive radiators. I love my 624s
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Yeah if my focal Alphas ever die, I will probably go for the Shape 65’s to replace them.
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