Studiospares SN10 - anyone?

[LimitedHeadroom]

I just noticed that studiospares are selling SN10 speakers here , guess what they are supposed to be like? They are only £102 though and I was thinking of getting myself some grot box speakers. I was thinking of going with the Pyramid Tripple P, reviewed by SOS a few years back, however these being about half the price will leave me more money for a better amp to drive them from, rather than the dennon hi fi amp I would have to use to start with.

Anyone got any opinions of these?

[Zukan]

Hi Ltd,

It might be worth reading this and this.

A search will yield even more results.

[Arpangel]

Well, I cant find anything thats any good at a price I can afford, so I'm going to take a risk and buy a pair of these SN10s, I like the fact that they are a sealed box design, which are always more tolerant of less than perfect rooms, another reason is I actually liked the original NS10s, for there lean sound, I'd rather have that than too much bass. I'll post a review later.

Tony.

[Evie McCreevie]

Personally, I think they're cack. Fine maybe if you're a hobbyist, and not particularly ambitious. But anyone even half-serious about their monitoring would end up upgrading within a few months.

Monitors should either be vibey and inspiring, or accurate. Preferably some measure of both. (Which is why I love my Genelec 1030A's).

Buy cheap, and you'll buy twice.

[Arpangel]

I think they're cack. Fine maybe if you're a hobbyist,

Mmmmmm ? I'll bare that in mind. How many records have you had in the top 20 ? as many as me ?

Tony.

[Evie McCreevie]

I think they're cack. Fine maybe if you're a hobbyist,

Mmmmmm ? I'll bare that in mind. How many records have you had in the top 20 ? as many as me ?

Tony.

Less than a dozen, but more than ten.

[Arpangel]

13 ?

Tony.

[Evie McCreevie]

13 ?

Tony.

Since when is 13 less than a dozen?

[Stevedog]

Woah lads . Lets keep this on track and conducted in a civilised manner.

The truth is with monitoring there is no truth a tall, at least not, in a finite and measurable sense.

One of my favourite"Hi FI" albums John Martyn's Solid Air was mixed on a monitoring system that was about as flat as a spotty adolescent's face.

Monitoring is about what works for you as a person. Some very well regarded engineers do most of their critical work on near fields that are frankly, pretty rubbish when you measure them. However, nous garnered from experience lets them see past the inherent weaknesses and compensate accordingly.

There is one huge name producer who uses a pair of old 70s hi fi speakers for all his critical mix decision making.

Mixing is, within certain limits, totally and utterly subjective. There are a pair of brothers, who are idolised on some forums, whose mixes I find spitty, bass shy, congested and tiring to listen to after about 3 minutes. Hasn't stopped them garnering great praise from the great and good and all and sundry after having hit after hit.

My own opinion is that. The venerable NS10 was never worth more than a hundred quid and Yamaha just ,cleverly admittedly, used engineers *snobbishness* to get away with charging a fortune for something that was, actually pretty rubbish.

When someone asked me what i thought best drove NS10s my reply was. " A tank and over them"

However, that is me, others love them and have produced , literally, 1000s of hits, mixing, virtually wholly on them.

I've mentioned this before. A mastering engineer once asked me what gear a friend of mine had in his studio as in their words.

"Of all the material I master, theirs is consistently the least I have to work on".

They took some convincing I wasn't winding them up that, it was a Mackie desk, Nad Hi Fi amp, 25 year old Tannoys and that. The most exotic pieces of outboard they owned was a 300 quid Drawmer compressor and an old PCM 70.

There are many many people who have rake loads of hit singles whose attitude towards mixing is little more than a hobbyist attitude. There are also those who have had relatively little commercial success, who have constantly turned out, some jaw dropping recordings.

[Arpangel]

13 ?

Tony.

Since when is 13 less than a dozen?

What sa dozen ?

Tone...y

[Arpangel]

Woah lads . Lets keep this on track and conducted in a civilised manner.

The truth is with monitoring there is no truth a tall, at least not, in a finite and measurable sense.

One of my favourite"Hi FI" albums John Martyn's Solid Air was mixed on a monitoring system that was about as flat as a spotty adolescent's face.

Monitoring is about what works for you as a person. Some very well regarded engineers do most of their critical work on near fields that are frankly, pretty rubbish when you measure them. However, nous garnered from experience lets them see past the inherent weaknesses and compensate accordingly.

There is one huge name producer who uses a pair of old 70s hi fi speakers for all his critical mix decision making.

Mixing is, within certain limits, totally and utterly subjective. There are a pair of brothers, who are idolised on some forums, whose mixes I find spitty, bass shy, congested and tiring to listen to after about 3 minutes. Hasn't stopped them garnering great praise from the great and good and all and sundry after having hit after hit.

My own opinion is that. The venerable NS10 was never worth more than a hundred quid and Yamaha just ,cleverly admittedly, used engineers *snobbishness* to get away with charging a fortune for something that was, actually pretty rubbish.

When someone asked me what i thought best drove NS10s my reply was. " A tank and over them"

However, that is me, others love them and have produced , literally, 1000s of hits, mixing, virtually wholly on them.

I've mentioned this before. A mastering engineer once asked me what gear a friend of mine had in his studio as in their words.

"Of all the material I master, theirs is consistently the least I have to work on".

They took some convincing I wasn't winding them up that, it was a Mackie desk, Nad Hi Fi amp, 25 year old Tannoys and that. The most exotic pieces of outboard they owned was a 300 quid Drawmer compressor and an old PCM 70.

There are many many people who have rake loads of hit singles whose attitude towards mixing is little more than a hobbyist attitude. There are also those who have had relatively little commercial success, who have constantly turned out, some jaw dropping recordings.

Er ? yeah ! I agree with every word mate.
I'm going to get a pair of these SN10 things, I can remember the first time I worked with a a pair of NS10's, i set them up and immediately forgot about them, they just disappeared, and i could really hear into my mixes, owing to the massive mid range hump, Ok, they are all over th place in "hi-fi terms, but I find them incredibly easy to "use" Ive listened to a few pairs of current budget monitors, and they are over blown, boomy, and tizzy, you cant hear what your doing because theres so much f*****g bass ! I hate them.

Tony.

[Arpangel]

OK, so here they are, I picked them up this morning..



A review ? well, they sound "OK" a bit like NS10's, but not really ! The bass is very lean, which I like, because of my boomy room, the top end is smoother than the originals, quite neutral actually, for the money. I tested them with my rainstorm recordings, and water, and speech, which all came across relatively uncoloured. There is a steep bass roll off quite high up in the frequency range, but when playing a pre-recorded CD that I know has a lot of bass it still came across as being really punchy, it didn't sound unduly bass light. The build quallity is very good for the money, gold plated banana sockets, and they impressed me with their weight, these things are really heavy for their size !
It's going to take me a few days to get used to them, but I'm sure they'll be OK, they certainly give me the tight sound I was after.
They seem good value for money, thats all I can say. Apart from the fact that I think you should use an amplifier rated at around 75/100 watts per channel minimum, as they aren't very efficient, and would definitely benefit from a beefy amplifier. I'm using a a 50 watt pioneer hi-fi amp, and its definitely underpowered.
I conclude this "review" with a healthy.....I'd say.......8 out of 10, for value for money.

Tony.

[The Elf]

Nice to see someone with them the right way up. I get tired of other people coming into my studio and arguing I have them (NS10M) set up wrongly because the writing is sideways!

[Arpangel]

Nice to see someone with them the right way up. I get tired of other people coming into my studio and arguing I have them (NS10M) set up wrongly because the writing is sideways!

As you can see it's the only way I can have them, they still sound OK, I can't hink of anything else for that price, new, in the monitor category that would give you a nice tight sound like these, obviously they are far from perfect ! but I can't afford anything else, I tried all sorts of current hi-hfi speakers, and they all sounded so coloured and bass heavy.

Tony.

[Evie McCreevie]

Woah lads . Lets keep this on track and conducted in a civilised manner...

Was there anything uncivilised going on? Maybe I'm thick - I thought it was just banter.

Anyway, Tony - glad you're happy with your monitors - they certainly look OK, and if they do the job for you, fine.

FWIW I used (the same pair of) NS10s for twenty years, and it didn't do me any harm, even though they're more than a bit crap.

Get on with the music, and good luck...

[Evie McCreevie]

I think they're cack. Fine maybe if you're a hobbyist,

Mmmmmm ? I'll bare that in mind. How many records have you had in the top 20 ? as many as me ?

Tony.

OK I see the 'uncivilised' aspect now...

Tony - I meant 'fine if one is a hobbyist' etc. Not - 'Tony, you're just a hobbyist'.

I think that's quite obvious really. Maybe you're being a touch over-sensitive?

[Arpangel]

I think they're cack. Fine maybe if you're a hobbyist,

Mmmmmm ? I'll bare that in mind. How many records have you had in the top 20 ? as many as me ?

Tony.

OK I see the 'uncivilised' aspect now...

Tony - I meant 'fine if one is a hobbyist' etc. Not - 'Tony, you're just a hobbyist'.

I think that's quite obvious really. Maybe you're being a touch over-sensitive?

Evie, don't take any notice mate, I can be a c**t sometimes. especial;y when Vodka is involved

Tony.

[Arpangel]

Actually, chaps, I've been thinking about this monitor situation and come to the conclusion that it's all taken a bit too seriously. I have a great hi-fi set-up, old, but good, I play my stuff in the car, and on other systems, and it always sounds the same to me. By that I mean it always has the same character, I heard what went in, and I'm hearing the same thing coming out ! it sounds as I expected it to.
Now the most important thing about this is that I've used all sorts of different speakers over the years, all sounding very different from each other, but my music still sounds the same. I think the importance of a so called "good monitor" whatever that is, is very overrated. Records have been produced over the years on speakers that would be regarded a utter crap by todays engineers, but they still sound good. Its nice to have as big a window on the sound as possible sure, but I can listen to some of my favorite music on a little transistor radio and it still moves me in the same way that it would on a good system, the ingredients that go to make up a good recording go way beyond what a speaker can reveal.

Tony.

[Arpangel]

The jury is still out...
The more I use them the less I think of them ! Initially they sounded OK, but I've been using them a lot, and they have a very steep bass roll-off, after which nothing seems to get through at all ! When you are playing electronic instruments your only windows on the sound are your speakers obviously, and if you don't get the right feedback from them it affects your playing. There's something very flat and uninspiring about the sound, after listening to a variety of sources. And I am finding them very tiring to listen to for long periods. The original NS10's I found were fine, they had something about them that was exciting and revealing, and you could hear the effects that you were adding to your music. Dave B mentioned the fact that he couldnt hear effects through NS10's, like reverb, I never found that to be true at all, but with these it most definitely is, I cant hear what I'm doing in fact, the reverb seems to be very recessed, and difficult to hear.
I have a 7 day return period, so I've got a couple of days to make up my mind, to make things worse a friend is going to bring round his ATC SCM20's today, great, just what I need !

Tony.

[Zukan]

Don't listen to the ATCs.

It will be a painful experience both emotionally and financially.

[Stevedog]

Of all the *budget monitors* the closest to the ATC family of sound are the Blue Sky Media Desks... They have that lovely slight *plumpness* that makes the mids *bounce*. The treble is a tad *one note*, but of all the modern budget monitors, the Blue Skies are the only ones I have heard that have that *Old Codger* voicing to them.

[Arpangel]

Well, I'm not sure what listening to the ATC's will achieve, as I definitely can't afford them, but it will be interesting to see what they sound like in my room.

Tony.

[Jim Y]

I'm only an interested amateur, but I would have though something like these SN10's are intended as a "grotbox" mixing tool. So, don't you need something else to get a big, detailed & inspiring sound for tracking anyway?

I've heard enough about the Blue Sky systems to put them at the top of my list when I get around to replacing my Event TR8's. I don't really have space for 2 sets of nearfields, so an affordable set that can do both tracking & mixing is perhaps the only sensible course for me at least.

Jim

[forumuser695516]

By & large, you get what you pay for.. These things are £100 a pair.. No? What would you really expect for that money?

Paul