0ptik Posted July 21, 2005 Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 MediaDesk 2.1 system 2 x 4” 2-way satellites, with one inch soft dome tweeter 1 x 8” powered subwoofer 2.1 bass-management Subwoofer and Master Volume, located on the back of the Subwoofer 3 x 60 Watts (60 Watts for each SAT & 60 Watts for the SUB) I decided to upgrade my monitoring, mainly because I was going into A+R offices and hearing my music in a new light. I was in one office that had a pair of huge Genelec speakers in their listening room - all you could hear from my tracks was a load of rumbling bass. My setup at this time was consistent of 2 good quality bookshelf hi-fi speakers, ported, with 4" drivers driven by a Cambridge audio amp. I thought this was good enough, as my stuff sounded pretty good on most systems; damn was I wrong. My stuff sounded OK, mainly because I was playing it on similar systems to the one on which it was produced - most hi-fi's have pretty much the same speaker specifications give or take a few Hz - a sharp roll off at about 70 Hz and a nice brightening of the sound in the mid and high range. It was where the music encountered a decent system that the troubles occurred. Anyway; I looked into sub £200 powered monitors. I read hundreds of reviews on the net before I started to listen - eventually settling on a few pairs: Samson Rubicon 5a Active Studio MonitorBehringer B2031A Truth Active MonitorsAlesis M1 Active mk2 Biamp Monitors and went down to my local store for a listen. The shop's reference system was the Blue Sky Media Desktop - something I would not have considered before as I've never liked sub-woofers - the ones I'd heard before always gave out muffled, indistinct bass - but this system sounded amazing. As we switched the speakers, we'd always put the Blue Sky Media Desktop back on whilst we wired them up. And every time we switched back, I realised just how crappy the pairs I'd chosen to audition were; weak bass, distortion and lack of stereo image. I understand that monitors are not designed to sound good, but to give an accurate representation of the recording - but even on my reference CDs (those I'd chosen with a reputation for great production) sounded poor on the cheaper speakers. The Blue Sky shone through - beautiful clear mids and trebles meant you could accurately position instruments in the stereo field and the bass levels were just right - low enough to give you the feeling of bass in your stomach, but in no-way affecting the accuracy of the reproduction. The major dis-advantage of the cheaper speakers is the use of a bass port - a way of garnering extra bass from smaller drivers. Each of the speakers listed in this review except the Blue Sky Media Desktop are ported. I'd taken a CD of a sine wave portamento through the low Hz range, from about 30 Hz up to 600 Hz. playing this on the speakers was very telling - each of the ported monitors had a hot spot at a certain frequency - meaning the bass would get perceivably louder. This is a serious problem when producing dance music, that lives and dies on it's bass/bass drum combo - and could lead to you eq-ing out key sections of your track, just because the bass port has over-emphasised it. I was starting to really warm to the sub-woofer; as it did not exhibit this trait. Another nice bye-product of the sub is the seperation of bass and mid leads to much better detail and clarity - think of it as a crossed-three way system - big bass notes (like the bass drum) do not intefere with the mids, as they are coming from a seperate diaphram. Everything about the Blue Sky system said build quality - they are really solid things. They are also very nice to look at, even if they don't have lights all over them. The quality of sound, and the accuracy and honesty of the speakers got even better when I installed them in my studio (yep, I couldn't not buy them - even if they were a lot more than my original budget) Suddenly, it became really clear what to eq and what not to eq - I've found it much easier to just decide which frequencies need to go as I can actually hear them all. I was still daunted by the amount of bass that the sub is able to put out, but the unit has rotary controls to define the level of bass/mid/high, so tuning the system to my room was an absolute breeze; and now it's set up I just leave it alone. The satellite speakers sit at either end of my desk, and the sub is under to the left. Playing well recorded sources on these things is an absolute experience - if you combine the pro-tools d/a converters that are on my Emu 1212m with these things you can get quite lost in how nice it all sounds - play something badly recorded and they bite you - sounding truly shocking. Going through my back catalogue of tracks was a horrific experience (I'm sure that many of you would find that even with perfect mastering though) - I have some serious mastering work to do if I'm ever going to send those tracks out again. How about some tech specs: MediaDesk Satellite Speakers Lacquer finished baffle Low diffraction front baffle design with flush mounted drivers Solid 3/4” MDF enclosure with 1” MDF baffle Weight 5 lbs. 1/4”x 20 inserts for attachment of OmniMount 3/8” x16 insert for attachment to microphone stand with adapter (adapter not supplied) 4” cast frame Neodymium hemispherical woofer 1” fabric dome Neodymium tweeter Fully video shielded Satellite Low frequency crossover 110 Hz Tweeter Crossover Frequency 2.0 kHz The following specifications are measured using the MediaDesk Amplifier: Frequency Response Satellite +/- 2.5dB 300 to 10 kHz +/- 3.0dB 110 to 20 kHz Voltage Sensitivity (at reference gain) -12 dBu = 90dB SPL @ 1MBalanced Input attenuator set to +12 dBu 1 dBu = 90 dB SPL @ 1MBalanced Input attenuator set to +24 dBu 240 mV = 90 dB SPL @ 1MRCA input 4 ohm nominal impedance MediaDesk Subwoofer Fully video shielded. Vented motor Foam surround Coated non-resonance paper cone Solid 3/4” MDF construction with 1” MDF baffle Flush mounted driver Isolation feet are included. Inserts for optional attachment of spiked feet provided Dimensions: 16” H x 14” W x 15” D (including heat sink and grille) Click Here to View Weight 45 lbs. Frequency Response Subwoofer:Anechoic Response:35 to 110Hz +/-3dBTypical In-Room Response:20 to 200Hz (3000 Cubic Feet) Summary: These things sound amazing with well recorded sources - but will show up the slightest mistake in a mix. They are leaps and bounds ahead of the cheaper monitors listed here - and if you are intending to buy a cheaper system, I hope that you don't listen to the Blue Sky system - cause you'll be annoyed for ever that you didn't just save up some more money and buy it. I've used these for a couple of months now, and the improvement of the sound of my tracks on other systems is amazing - I can be confident that when it sounds right on these, it'll sound right in the car, through my MP3 player and on big ass Genelecs. We need to start producing for different listening equipment - the days of stereo are numbered, 5:1 systems allways include a sub, so if your monitors aren't capable of going down to the 30 Hz range, you risk leaving big chunks of sub bass in your mix - more importantly though, you are unable to use that range of bass to any effect. Highly recommended. footnote: The other nice thing about this system is it's upgradability to a 5.1 system. you can purchase three extra satellite speakers, and three extra amps that fit neatly into the sub when you make the move to surround (as we all will have to soon) The speakers come with a world power supply (built into the sub) - contrary to some reviews - you can use them at 110-230V web link:http://www.abluesky.com/p_s_gb/p3s7.html price link:http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=blue...off&sa=N&tab=wf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codetheeves Posted July 21, 2005 Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 Very nice review Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bording Posted July 21, 2005 Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 interresting reading mate... I've always thought that you shouldn't be using a subwoofer for studio monitoring...but maybe that isn't true anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0ptik Posted July 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2005 interresting reading mate... I've always thought that you shouldn't be using a subwoofer for studio monitoring...but maybe that isn't true anymore? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> same impression I got - these changed my mind - bear in mind that this system is designed for monitoring. one thing I forgot to say was that the seperation of bass and mid leads to much better detail and clarity - think of it as a crossed-three way system - big bass notes (like the bass drum) do not intefere with the mids, as they are coming from a seperate diaphram. I guess as well, we need to start producing for different listening equipment - the days of stereo are numbered, 5:1 systems allways include a sub, so if your monitors aren't capable of going down to the 30 Hz range, you risk leaving big chunks of sub bass in your mix - more importantly though, you are unable to use that range of bass to any effect. I can't wait to hear what my mix of spin me round sounds like on a club system with decent sized bass drivers, controled sub-bass... mmmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeman Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 very nice......350 quids though i guess that it's best to invest in this first before investing in any other production hardware, such as a midi controller ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0ptik Posted July 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 very nice......350 quids though i guess that it's best to invest in this first before investing in any other production hardware, such as a midi controller ?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> nope - I'd invest in this when you get going a bit more I'd go: decent PCdecent sound cardmidi controller (but then I play piano, a bit of a waste of time if you don't - or don't intend to learn)--------------wait a while--------------decent headphonesunderstanding your softsynths/eq/effects--------------wait a while--------------decent monitoring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 id say decent monitoring after decent soundcard, thats they way im going to do it when i get a new setup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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