Whatever kind of music you listen to, chances are the mix was blasted through a set of these during production.
So what's so special about them? ... THEY SOUND LIKE SHIT!!
What they lack in low end (bass), they make up for in harsh grinding mid end that literally hurts your ears. You do not want to listen to your favorite album on these monitors.
So why does every high end studio across the country rock a pair of these ear busters? It's simply because when you get the mix sounding good on these, you've achieved perfect equilibrium in your mid end and they will sound AMAZING on just about any other system.
*The More You Know*
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Ok, I know this should be a MyTake. But those are too hard to make from the app
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Also, thank a sound engineer for sitting in front of these pieces of shit for hours so you can have good sounding music 👍
@FunkyMonkee Good old Bose 901s. Yep, they were nice.
Does the reasoning on this question make sense to you? It must suck to have to listen to them, but I could see the advantage in producing a great final product.
I'm not so sure about that. If they sound crap. why would they use them to master a good recording? Seems to me, if you wanted it to sound good, you'd use speakers that sounded good. If you ran the sound through a pair of tin cans with strings attached and mastered it to sound good on those, you'd NEED a set of tin cans hooked up to your stereo to HEAR it the best it could be! I don't know what Berry Gordy's mastering set-up was like but I do know that me tried to make his records sound as best they could when played through car radio speakers. Once he got a record ready to be pressed, he'd take it out to the car to listen to it and, if it sounded great there, he sent it off to be pressed. He just figured that that's the way mostly people were gonna be listening to it at home so, might as well make it sound good when played there! Well, I don't know, seems to me that, if you know the kind of sound those speakers are gonna give you and you have to adjust the mix to sound good on them, shouldn't you be able to also figure out how to customize the mix to sound the way you want on good speakers? When XTC recorded "Skylarking" at Todd Rundgren's studio, what they didn't realize, at the time, was that Todd had reversed the polarity on one of the speakers, or something like that and, although the band didn't like the final mix, because of that, Todd was in charge and sent it out with that mix. it wasn't until about 30 years later that the band realized why it sounded that way and had the whole thing remixed the right way and then re-released it. Todd CAN be a bit of a dick! I found that out first hand! XTC were staying at his house during the sessions and they'd be in one of the buildings rehearsing and, as soon as they saw Todd coming towards the studio from his house, they'd start playing the Munsters theme song and try to have it finished by the time he got there!
@FunkyMonkee The Munsters theme song. That's funny.
Did you read the question asker's additional comments?
"So why does every high end studio across the country rock a pair of these ear busters? It's simply because when you get the mix sounding good on these, you've achieved perfect equilibrium in your mid end and they will sound AMAZING on just about any other system."
I could see there being some unique characteristics of those speakers that would make for a magical formula.
Yes, I read that. I'm not exactly a sound guy, either. If it sounds good, great! If it has problems, try to deal with them. I only got a little bit of sound guy work over the years. First with my band until the drummer finally left so I could take over and then about 25 years ago at a small major local venue helping to run sound and lights for a few international acts (like Todd, for one) and the guy that I was working with was also building a recording studio nearby and said that, once he's got it built, he wants me to work there with him. Even though I was pretty green, he thought I had some good instincts and the like.
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Interesting.
Thanks for the info.
@FunkyMonkee - Hey Funk, Were you aware of these speaker's production usage?
No but, I have seen speakers that look like these in studios. If I had my way, I'd use Bose 901's.
@FunkyMonkee
Good old Bose 901s.
Yep, they were nice.
Does the reasoning on this question make sense to you?
It must suck to have to listen to them, but I could see the advantage in producing a great final product.
I'm not so sure about that. If they sound crap. why would they use them to master a good recording? Seems to me, if you wanted it to sound good, you'd use speakers that sounded good. If you ran the sound through a pair of tin cans with strings attached and mastered it to sound good on those, you'd NEED a set of tin cans hooked up to your stereo to HEAR it the best it could be!
I don't know what Berry Gordy's mastering set-up was like but I do know that me tried to make his records sound as best they could when played through car radio speakers. Once he got a record ready to be pressed, he'd take it out to the car to listen to it and, if it sounded great there, he sent it off to be pressed. He just figured that that's the way mostly people were gonna be listening to it at home so, might as well make it sound good when played there!
Well, I don't know, seems to me that, if you know the kind of sound those speakers are gonna give you and you have to adjust the mix to sound good on them, shouldn't you be able to also figure out how to customize the mix to sound the way you want on good speakers?
When XTC recorded "Skylarking" at Todd Rundgren's studio, what they didn't realize, at the time, was that Todd had reversed the polarity on one of the speakers, or something like that and, although the band didn't like the final mix, because of that, Todd was in charge and sent it out with that mix. it wasn't until about 30 years later that the band realized why it sounded that way and had the whole thing remixed the right way and then re-released it. Todd CAN be a bit of a dick! I found that out first hand!
XTC were staying at his house during the sessions and they'd be in one of the buildings rehearsing and, as soon as they saw Todd coming towards the studio from his house, they'd start playing the Munsters theme song and try to have it finished by the time he got there!
@FunkyMonkee
The Munsters theme song.
That's funny.
Did you read the question asker's additional comments?
"So why does every high end studio across the country rock a pair of these ear busters?
It's simply because when you get the mix sounding good on these, you've achieved perfect equilibrium in your mid end and they will sound AMAZING on just about any other system."
I could see there being some unique characteristics of those speakers that would make for a magical formula.
I'm not a sound guy, though.
I found this on Wikipedia about them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_NS-10
It seems to back up the question asker's statement.
I'm not going to sit down and analyze the data myself, but I was intrigued by the question.
Yes, I read that.
I'm not exactly a sound guy, either. If it sounds good, great! If it has problems, try to deal with them. I only got a little bit of sound guy work over the years. First with my band until the drummer finally left so I could take over and then about 25 years ago at a small major local venue helping to run sound and lights for a few international acts (like Todd, for one) and the guy that I was working with was also building a recording studio nearby and said that, once he's got it built, he wants me to work there with him. Even though I was pretty green, he thought I had some good instincts and the like.
Just to be clear, they're rarely used as main monitors. Just reference monitors
Forgot to mention that lol
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