Focal Professional SM9

[o0OBillO0o]

77lbs each, Be Tweeter, built in EQ, & 600 Watts per channel!?

Focal SM9



So, is this cheating or what? Skip the Diablo Utopia, because most modern albums were mastered on these?

[HiFiGuy528]

I had the Twin6 BE and they ROCK!

[doggiehowser]

I loved my solo 6 Be as well but it had a relatively low input impedance that made it difficult to partner with my Ayon CD5S

[o0OBillO0o]

I would like to know where these compare to the Focal Diablo Utopia. As far as looks they fall short, still they pack a whole lotta customizable features.

[o0OBillO0o]

The debate of studio monitor / studio main vs home speaker debate has be hashed out everywhere. Still, if music is mastered on monitors like these, why aren't we seeking to own these kinds of monitors?

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by o0OBillO0o

The debate of studio monitor / studio main vs home speaker debate has be hashed out everywhere. Still, if music is mastered on monitors like these, why aren't we seeking to own these kinds of monitors?

My response to the last part is that I really don't care how the music I purchase was mastered, I just want it to sound good to me. We all tailor our systems to our tastes whether it is in the gear we choose, the cables we prefer or for some the tubes the roll.

There far more qualified individuals here but I am guessing that most music is mastered with a near field speaker set-up, not now many have their rooms set up.

Jim

[o0OBillO0o]

Nor should you care how your music is mastered. I am talking about what monitors was your music MASTERED ON.

You could go out a limb as say the Yamaha NS10M was a tool used to evaluate the quality of the sound on low fidelity systems. Yes, I would not use them as THE speakers I listen to music on. Furthermore, the main studio monitors, like B&W 802 or Wilson Audio Grand Slamm, may be used in most instances for the majority of the recording we listen to.

The conundrum is we evaluate music that was created with a highly variable set of microphones and the mastered on a another highly variable set of monitors. It's that circle of confusion the folks at Harman International and Floyd Toole have been talking about for years. Even more so we all listen differently, have different educations on how to listen, and even like to judge with our eyes AND ears.

Check this out.. where are you in the tree of life?

[doggiehowser]

I remember reading an article comparing the design of monitor speakers used for studio monitoring and regular speakers.

One of the things that struck me was how robust the speakers/amps were. They could be overdriven (as they sometimes are during recording) from mic/amp/speaker feedback etc etc. but designing such failsafes often has a detrimental impact for sound quality.

Besides I believe a lot of the times, the mastering stage also uses headphones to cut out room effects.

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

I remember reading an article comparing the design of monitor speakers used for studio monitoring and regular speakers.

One of the things that struck me was how robust the speakers/amps were. They could be overdriven (as they sometimes are during recording) from mic/amp/speaker feedback etc etc. but designing such failsafes often has a detrimental impact for sound quality.

Besides I believe a lot of the times, the mastering stage also uses headphones to cut out room effects.

Do you have the references point to the fact that the robustness or fail safes negatively effect the sound?

Do you have the references and example to show that mastering engineers are infact using headphones?

You could be right, I just need a wee bit more to believe you.

[doggiehowser]

I am just repeating some thing I read before in a magazine about buying studio monitors for use in monitoring vs using regular speakers and how they are designed differently. I used to read some of the old music recording magazines in the UK.

The other factor also had to do with differences in crossover designs to account for near field listening.

And for the record, I had the Focal Solo 6 Be so I have nothing but respect for those types of speakers. A friend of mine who owned the Solo 6 before me also owned the Focal 1007Be and it's not funny how close the two sounded despite a big disparity in pricing.

But the 1007Be did have the edge when it came to overall extensions in both extreme frequencies and it was able to resolve more complex passages. This was in partnership with a set of Karan power amps and the whole Electra/Karan combo is probably close to 6x the price of the Solo6.