Following on from our article Experts Name Their Preferred Control Surface we have collected the current monitoring preferences of the Experts team to see if there are any trends or surprises in there. Configurations, brands or models. Are there any trends to identify in this collection of busy audio professionals?

William Witman

JBL LSR28p 2 way rear ported 8” bass/mid driver

Working at home I still use my JBL LSR28p powered monitors.  They’re the original JBL powered speakers, and they’ve made many iterations and variations since these came out in (so believe) 1999, but none that I’ve preferred to these.

Monitor speakers are a very personal thing, it’s only about what they ‘make’ YOU’ do. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa, but these JBLs tick the boxes for me, in that I find them easy to listen to, AND they translate perfectly out of my room to Sterling Sound, who do all of my mastering.

James Richmond

ATC SCM45a 3 way front ported dual 6.5” woofer, 3” midrange, 1” tweeter with PSI A225M subwoofer & Trinnov MC8 Pro room correction.

My main set of monitors at the moment are the simply wonderful ATC SCM45A’s. I can’t say enough good things about these monitors, especially midrange. They are ruthlessly honest and brutal with bad mixes which is what I want. The PSI sub was recently added and I am very happy with it. ATC’s are known for having a tight bottom end, I just wanted a bit more information down below where the SCM45’s can reproduce.​ I have a second set of monitors in the studio which are Neumann KH80’s. They sit on the desk that houses the Eurorack modular that I spend an inordinate amount of time on. The Eurorack is positioned 90 degrees to the mix position so I can stay facing the modular when working with stereo patches instead of twisting in my seat to hear what I am doing. 

Audrey Martinovich

B&W 808 Passive 2x12” bass drivers, 2x4” midrange drivers 1x soft dome tweeter, front ported

Yamaha NS10 Passive, 2 way sealed box, 7” bass/mid driver

Genelec 8040A 2 way rear ported, 6.5” bass/mid driver

B&W 808s with an SVS sub are my studio’s main pair of monitors. Since our control room is deeper than it is wide, these monitors suit the room nicely with the high-range drivers on the outer side of the midrange drivers. These can get incredibly loud, but still sound just as balanced, honest, and detailed as they do at lower volumes.

We’ve also got Yamaha NS10s, which I like to use to quickly check for problems in the midrange that can be less apparent on a system with more bass. The Genelecs 8040As are pretty detailed and a good “little sibling” to the B&Ws, though I tend to mostly listen on the B&Ws with occasionally swapping to the NS10s for an ear reset. 

Lastly, we also have a pair of old desktop computer speakers by Realistic just to hear mixes on a less-than-awesome system, and a pair of JBL 4212As in the live room for communications.

Luke Goddard

Acoustic Energy AE22 2 Way Sealed Box 8” Bass/Mid Driver

My active AE22 boxes have served me well for the last ten years or so. I bought them at a time when anyone looking for non-ported monitors with less than 1k to spend had a very short list of options to choose from. Why non-ported? The ported options available at the time that came in on budget never really grabbed me, especially when it came to the 'blowing over a bottle' low end performance. 

The AE22s have a tasteful extended bass and a pretty steerable top that responds well to positional tweaks when setting up. The trim and tilt controls are basic but they work.

Avantone MixCube Single 5.25" driver sealed box

It's said that "the message is in the middle". If that's true my Avantone MixCubes are the ultimate choice for judging the balance of lead instruments and voices. They tell it like it is, and their single driver design makes NS10s sound positively refined by comparison… The MixCubes are an essential part of my loudspeaker experience that I absolutely could not be without.

Mike Thornton

PMC LB1/TB1/DB1

Having worked in broadcasting all my working life, I started very early on and bought a pair of Rogers LS3/5a BBC reference monitors. When I moved to 5.1, I was able to buy a second pair but ended up using a Rogers C33 (a dedicated centre channel speaker which had a remarkably similar character and that served me well, but I was conscious that my LS3/5a speakers were getting past their sell-by date. So what to replace them with, I looked at Dynaudio BM5 Mk3s with BM Compacts, or the new (at the time) AIR 6s with a Base-12 for the LFE. 

Then in 2015, I was offered a secondhand PMC 5.1 system comprising 3 LB1s and 2 TB1s. This was a no-brainer. It gave me a monitoring system I could not afford if I bought it new and so I jumped at it. 

Roll forward 5 years and I now wanted to upgrade to a Dolby Atmos system but I really did not want to move away from PMC, but what to do. I looked at the PMC Wafers as well as other current models but all were outside my budget. So I researched buying secondhand. For me eBay is excellent for buying secondhand equipment as long as you don’t want it tomorrow. So I set up a number of ‘watched’ on eBay and sat back and watched. Prices varied significantly, but I got a sense of what a fair price was and ended up with another pair of TB1s as my side surrounds, matching my existing rear surrounds and 2 pairs of smaller DB1s for the height channels. All of these needed amps and so I looked around for suitable amps without fans, and for me the cost-effective solution was the Samson Servo-125 and again set up a watch and acquired 4 of these giving me 8 channels of amps. Why 8? Because my LB1s came with Bryston amps and the amp I was using for the TB1s was unreliable.

As you can read in one of my acoustics and studio design articles, I have a suspended ceiling in my studio with 6-inches of Rockwool lying on the tiles.So the challenge was how to mount the ceiling speakers. I could attach brackets to the actual ceiling and then make holes in the ceiling tiles to allow the brackets to come through but that would have meant that the speakers would be below the ceiling and I didn't really have the height for that. In the end I decided to replace 4 of the tiles with a piece of 12 mm birch ply, with a CNC machined hole so that the speaker so the at the ceiling speakers would effectively be soffit mounted. I also mixed some dry sand with some paint and painted the ply to match the finish of the ceiling tiles as closely as possible and it has worked remarkably well. In fact when it came to me setting up the SPQ card the height channels needed the least amount of processing because there were no nasty early reflections of the studio furniture.

The outcome is I have a high quality monitoring system, that I could not afford to buy new, but by buying second hand I was able to get a standard of monitoring that far exceeded my budget, if I bought new.

Julian Rodgers

Neumann KH310 3 Way Sealed Box 8” Bass Driver, 3” Midrange

We all know that you can spend a lot on monitors and if your pockets are deep enough you can get some really (and I do mean really) nice monitors. However even those of us with access to tens of thousands of pounds usually waste it on necessities like food and accommodation leaving less than we’d like for necessities like studio monitors. For a long time I had access to quality monitoring in studios at my workplaces but after many years of holding off upgrading my ancient Genelec 1029a’s, a couple of years ago I moved to a pair of Neumann KH310s. Having tried many monitors during tests for Production Expert I came to the conclusion that I like compact 3 way designs. I’ve tried a few of the contenders in this category like the Dynaudio Core 47, the HEDD Type 20 or even the bigger ADAM S3V but I decided on the Neumanns because I really like their tight, dry bottom end, a consequence of their sealed box design meaning that deep bass starts and stops impeccably. Well designed ported monitors shouldn’t suffer too much from the dreaded bass overhang of over-ported designs but sealed boxes bypass porting issues entirely.

Combining this excellent timing with great midrange performance courtesy of that big, soft dome midrange driver and a monitor which is compact, and light enough to be mounted on desktop stands on my sit stand desk, ensuring that my monitors move with me between sitting and standing makes these the best solution for an unusual set of requirements.

Russ Hughes

Kii Three 4x 6.5” bass driver, 5” midrange

I am using the Kii Three and Kii Control. Julian asked me to write some words about why I use them and it’s a pretty simple thing to explain.

In the several years that I’ve owned the Kii Three speakers I’ve not had a single mix returned for amends. This means that what I’m hearing is translating to client systems, irrespective of what speakers they listen on. For a professional that kind of mix confidence is worth its weight in gold.

When I first installed them I spent days listening to tracks I’d loved for years, I was amazed at how much I’d missed on mixes from songs I thought I knew intimately. I also listened to my own old mixes and felt like crying.

A Kii Three system is not cheap, it’s perhaps the largest single investment I’ve made in my studio in the last few years, but to have such trustworthy monitoring makes them a no brainer.

One word of warning, don’t demo a pair if you can’t afford them, you’ll want to keep them!

Graham Kirkman

Dynaudio LYD 8 2 way rear ported 8” bass/mid driver

I was using the Dynaudio BM5A MKII’s before but wanted to upgrade to a bigger bass driver for my newly built studio. Lots of my professional friends were telling me to get Genelecs, but I’ve never really liked them, so knew I was sticking with Dynaudios. The LYD 8’s were the biggest from that range that I could afford so bought 3 of them for the front and moved my BM5A MKII’s to the surrounds and sides.

The 8’s have a beautiful, rich sound and the top isn’t too painful after a long day. They also seem to translate beautifully into much bigger studios that I’ll go to sometimes. 

Korey Pereira

JBL LSR 708P for LCR. 2 Way Front Ported Box 8” Bass Driver, 2409H High-frequency compression driver

JBL LSR 705i (8) for surround and overhead channels. 2 Way Front Ported Box 5” Bass Driver, 2409H High-frequency compression driver

JBL ASB6115 Subwoofer for LFE and optional bass management for surround and overhead channels. 15" Differential Drive front loaded woofer with a dual voice coil and dual gap.

I was previously using a 5.1 set of the JBL LSR4300 series monitors. When upgrading to Atmos, I decided on the JBL 7-Series because you could easily mix and match between the larger 8” and smaller 5” configurations as well as have the option to go passive or active. I opted for powered for the LCR and passive for the surrounds and overheads because the passives are a good bit shallower than the powered versions, therefore making them easier to mount. It also meant only needing to run speaker wire to each location. They sound great. Especially when hitting them harder, the compression drivers still sound super clean. I trust what I am hearing and have translated very well to larger rooms. Compared to other monitors I have worked on, I appreciate that they are not fatiguing after a long day.

Steve DeMott

At home & in the Remote Truck:

Dynaudio LYD48 3 way, rear ported, 8” driver, 4” midrange, 1” dome tweeter

At the studio:

JBL 4315 4 way 12” driver, 8-inch midrange, 5” HF, compression driver/Diffraction horn for 8K & up

JBL LSR4328 w/ LSR4312 subwoofer 8” driver 2-way powered system with 12” powered & matched subwoofer

Avantone MixCube 5.25” drives, sealed enclosure

In my home mix room, I have Dynaudio LYD48s (which I also spec’d for the remote truck). I like these speakers a lot. They are very neutral through the midrange & have a really solid (yet unhyped) low end response. I find everything I do on these translates very well to other listening systems. This is where I spend most of my mixing time. I also have them set up a good 4-5’ from all walls and focused at the 38% point of my room in an equilateral triangle (yeah...I’m THAT guy). You would swear the band was there in the room with you. It’s unreal. I’ve also been playing with the Dynaudio Core 47s, but am having a hard time committing to them.

In the studio we have a JBL 4315s (passive), JBL LSR4328s (active with a LSR4312 subwoofer) and Avantone cubes.

The 4315s are nothing short of stunning themselves, but I find them a little light in the mids. They don’t have the “immediateness” of the Dynaudios. They are my preferred tracking monitors because they are very revealing.

The LSR4328s are definitely more mid-forward than the Dynaudios or the 4315s. The subwoofer helps to keep the low end from rolling off & becoming a guessing game, but they are a tad on the “hyped” side. I use them on and off with the 4315s to give myself a little more “modern” perspective to what’s playing.

The Avantone MixCubes are just fun. Great for checking the overall mid focus, pretty much the same you would with NS10s.

Ufuk Önen

Dynaudio LYD5, active 2-way, rear-ported, 5" bass LF driver and 1.1" HF driver.

I think LYD5 is a winner when it comes to price x performance. The low-frequency response is not that strong as you would expect from a 5" monitor, but it is ideal for small rooms and home studios. As a full-range speaker, it is well balanced. When you find the sweet spot, it delivers precise stereo imaging. 

Genelec 8010A, active 2-way, reflex port design, 3" bass and 3/4" treble driver.

These are great for portable A/V laptop-based workstations. They are well-built and, although they are not lightweight, easy to carry around. Considering their size, they are accurate and have an impressive low-frequency response.

Michael Costa

Event Opal active 2-way 8”

Yamaha NS-10 Studio

Avantone Mix Cube

When I first heard the Opals many years ago, I just 'got' them and felt everything they touched made me mix better. But later, after some translation issues (I imagine largely room- based) I began to rely more on the NS10s. I then decided to swap them and use the NS-10s as the main console top monitor and focus most of my time on those.

As anyone who has tried this can attest, it feels much more encouraging switching to the 'bigs' after a long NS-10 stint than the other way around. Sure, I'll hear some extremes that need work, but the middle generally gets sorted out nicely.

I was in love with the Opals for many years, but I'm in the market for a change up now. They still sound great, but I now want to up the ante in terms of resolution and room control.

Damian Kearns

Genelec 8320A, 7350 Subwoofer, 8351B

Studio monitor preferences are one of those things that can inspire hot debate, intense scrutiny and a lot of jealousy. Personally, I  just buy what I think will sound best for me and last a long, long time.

8 years ago, on advice from a friend, I bought five Neumann KH120’s and the magnificently powerful  KH810 subwoofer. They’ve never steered me wrong. As a 5.1 surround array in my studio, they’re about the exact right set for me. However, I mix mainly off near field monitors and to this end, I initially located a nice, barely used pair of Genelec 1081A’s because this is what I know to be a solid set of nearfield stereo monitors. I had used 1080’s and 1081A’s for many years so I know the sound very well. 

During Covid, I decided to outfit my recording booth with another monitoring system for socially-distant playbacks and editorial overflow work. My booth is connected via ethernet to my control room, as well as by an HDMI splitter and XLR and 1/4’ trunks. The notion was I give my clients and my editors the option of working mask-free in a great little space, completely separated from me. 

In Autumn 2020, it took a bit of time to fill my order for the booth monitors, due to what many of us now know to be a Covid Era supply chain backorder bottleneck. I only wanted a small set of monitors for the booth so when I asked my local supplier, Long & McQuade Pro, for options, they managed to sell me on a set of Genelec 8320A’s they had in stock at another store elsewhere in the country. Canada is a very large country so it took a couple of weeks but I had the speakers. The subwoofer took two more months to arrive so the system wasn’t set up for a while. I went with the equally modest 7350APM subwoofer. And I bought the GLM loudspeaker management kit, since these speakers and this sub can be software-configured to my room via the GLM program Genelec provides.

These speakers imply Genelec’s Smart Active Monitor (SAM) technology. The loudspeaker management kit (sold separately) consists of a mic, a USB interface and an ethernet cable. The SAM speakers also come with one of these cables each. The cables tether the speakers to the USB interface and allow the GLM software to use the mic and program the speakers, based on tone sweeps at desired positional reference points in the studio. The result of this configuration is the speakers are ‘optimized’ for the studio environment, rather than having to optimize the studio to the speakers. This is a major evolutionary step forward for monitor technology and other brands like Neumann have rolled out competing systems to achieve the same end result. 

Some time around the end of 2020, I decided I finally had a bit of a break to set the system up and program everything. After the software did its thing, I piped in some vinyl and then some CD’s to my booth. And then, I decided to sell my 1031A’s. This new system was giving me more balance than I’d ever achieved in my home studio and in fact, a better balance than I hear at a lot of studios I work in. The bass is tight, the top is smooth and the midrange isn’t honky. 

I sold my 1031A’s this Spring and temporarily moved my newish booth system into my control room. The 8320’s were giving me good results but not great! I wanted great. The GLM software had me convinced that the future of studio monitoring is in programmability and I stand by this opinion. 

I started researching my options and ended up buying a a set of Genelec 8351B’s. These are pro studio quality main stereo monitors. They’re the perfect fit for my space and my listening taste.  I think these points are fundamental considerations when buying monitors: What sounds good in my space? How do I like things to sound?

The problem I was having with the 8320’s is for my post audio work, I really hate using bass management and those speakers need it. They’re too small to mix off because they can’t push the bass out without help from a sub. The 8351’s by contrast are perfect. They’re perfect! I mixed an album for Eliana Cuevas called “El Curracha” last year and finally, I can really hear the work the mastering engineer did to properly balance the work I had done on the  old 1031A’s. Those monitors weren’t perfectly mated to my room and I found myself constantly flipping between the Neumann KH120s and my little Avantone Mix Cube to compensate. I don’t do this anymore except for balancing 5.1 elements.

As a business case, I was able to justify the purchase of the 8351B’s because I had two major clients simultaneously sending me TV series work and couldn’t afford any issues to tie up my intense production schedule. 

I got what I paid for. Not only did the Genelec 8351B’s supply the “WOW! factor” for my playbacks, none of my mixes has had any issues translating to other environments. I’m doing a horror series right now and playing back downtown at a popular studio facility and in two episodes I have not touched my EQ once. Not once. I have never been this confident and when one is balancing post production audio schedules on a tv series, two podcast series and commercial work simultaneously, removing this sort of hand-wringing from my life is liberating. Great monitoring  is, in fact, liberating. 

I’m ordering the 7370A subwoofer now to mate with my pair of 8351B’s. I want it, as much as for anything, to listen to music in my studio when I’m not working hard. The ONLY criticism of this Genelec system I can muster is they need to offer up a remote that can kick bass management in and out because I don’t want the ethernet cables permanently dangling off the backs of my gear. It’s fine to use the software to switch calibration profiles between bass management or not but I’d rather have a remote. So Genelec, if you’re reading this, I’d love a remote that offers a CAL setting (so I can adjust volume for fun and then reset to the stored calibration level) and bass management. 

The KH120’s still get regular use. And now, thanks to this new Genelec system, they’re likely to last years longer, as I have one really good set of truth monitors. The way I figure it, the Genelecs saved me from buying an entirely new surround system AND from having to pay to get my room properly acoustically treated. The peace of mind though, is worth far more. Good speakers make for confident deliveries. 

Conclusion

If there are any trends which stick out here it is that JBLs are popular in the states, we knew that already but JBL aren’t all that common in the UK. The LYD range from Dynaudio are a particularly popular choice, it appears that they strike something of a sweet spot between performance and price. The last observation I’ll make is that while plenty of people don’t use a ‘B’ pair of monitors, quite a few do and apart from the deservedly ubiquitous compact Genelecs, quite a few of these B pairs have a midrange focus. NS10s and Avantone Mixcubes are well represented and their usefulness in concentrating on the stuff which really matters appears self-evident.

What do you currently use and would you make a change, if so what to? Share your thoughts in the comments.