How important is to have studio speakers for music production at home?

Steinberg Lounge
101

Well, today I did some non-scientific testing just to get an idea of the sound when both the T7Vs and the A130s are sent a flat audio signal, and then EQ’d to my preference. I played a few different selections, like “Gangsta’s Paradise”, which like I said has an excessive amount of bass, the second half of Foo Fighter’s “But Here We Are”, and now I’m playing some Michael Giacchino, who not only is one of favorite composers, but like I mentioned has the best sound engineers.

I had a feeling that the problem with the T7Vs wasn’t the woofer or the acoustics of the cabinet, but the preamp in them. Because even with the +2 dB switch on, any instrument I would play in Cubase that had anything below 200 Hz would almost disappear. If any of you have Arturia’s CS-80 or Moog’s Mariana, you know those can produce a sick amount of bass. Mariana is mostly a bass synth. Before I got the T7Vs and I mixed with either of the two options I mentioned, either one had a crazy bass when using either of those synths. It went down a really low end.

As for the JBL A130s, I changed the configuration in the receiver to just stereo, and set the sound to Pure Direct, which turns off every single sound manipulation, total straight signal.

So I played all three, still listening to Michael Giacchino, and my take is that when the T7Vs are fed a high quality signal, they can sound really good, and produce a very adequate bass for a 7” woofer. The ribbon tweeters also produce very nice and clear highs. In fact, when sent an EQ’d signal, the T7Vs sound better than the JBLs, with a caveat.

Like I said, this is not a scientific test. I’m not plugging these speakers back and forth. The audio interface has two XLR outputs, and four RCA unbalanced outputs. The RCA ones are set to the highest level but the XLR outputs can be controlled from the interface. So I have the XLR ones going to the T7Vs and the RCA ones going to the Pioneer receiver. So I’m not doing a perfect comparison, but disabling any sound processing in the receiver and setting it to stereo is a fair comparison, especially when the JBLs are currently sitting right on top of the T7Vs, so when I sit between them, I get the same staging with both.

Now, the predicament in this. It’s obvious to me that with the flat EQ in these I can’t mix very well, because I would artificially make all the high frequencies higher so I can hear some detail, and bump the bass quite a lot. I mean, this is the EQ curve I used for the Coolio song:

Screenshot 2025-11-14 125452
Screenshot 2025-11-14 1254522187×472 111 KB

And this is the one for the Foo Fighters songs:

Screenshot 2025-11-14 134336
Screenshot 2025-11-14 1343362264×603 122 KB

But if I mix so that to me it sounds like that (which is my normal), then when I export it and put it on CD, Blu-ray, media server, whatever, it’s going to sound horrible, because it’s going to be basically the same EQ curve twice. I could put an extra EQ filter in the Cubase final output just for monitoring and disable before export I guess. I just with that the T7Vs had an app or setting to change their internal curve, because they are excellent speakers, but too flat for my taste.

So, after watching more videos on this topic I ended up ordering two of these:

They have a small LCD screen in the back with a wheel that allows you to switch between different EQ curves, which is a great feature.

But, just in case I also ordered this guy:

So I’ll decide between the T7Vs and the RP8G5, and uncle Jeff will happily take back the pair I don’t want.

102

This is what Control Room is useful for. You can set up B-chain processing (i.e. correction of monitoring) using the preferred inserts and that would never “touch” the actual mix, it would only be adjusting for monitoring.

2 Likes
103

Excellent tip, thank you!!

104

My 4K Blu-ray player has two XLR outputs, and since I have several audiophile Blu-rays, I thought it would be a good way to judge the T7Vs. So I started playing the Steven Wilson mix of the latest Tears For Fears album, which has some choices of versions, including a 24/96 mixed by Wilson, so I started with that, and played the 4 studio songs and now the live songs.

It sounds very decent. Still below my preferred sound quality, but it doesn’t sound terrible like I would expect of just a player connected to speakers. It’s a nice sound, it just needs a little treble and bass, but on the other hand, the mids are not exaggerated like I would expect from such a simple connection with just the speakers. I mean, if I were to play this on the Pioneer receiver set to Pure Direct, the JBLs would sound like royal crap, while these sound pretty well, and the bass is not wow but it’s not like the tiny bass coming from the Behringer interface.

Which leads me to something else. Like I mentioned yesterday I wonder if a better interface would give me that bass that apparently the T7Vs have, but from the computer I can barely hear.

105

Just an observation. In the Adam T7V frequency response chart we can see the roll off starts around 60Hz. Compare this to your EQ settings we can see you only had a minimal boost on the 64Hz and a extreme boost on the 32Hz.

It’s possible that your expectation for bass reproduction on 7" speakers is simply unrealistic. Most 7" speakers will struggle to reproduce low end below 60Hz and 8" speakers will struggle to reproduce low end below 50Hz.

I’m not exactly sure how companies measure their frequency response specifications because the lowest frequency always seems to be measured at around -6db.

This is why I was surprised when you said that the JBL Stage A130 5.25" speaker produces “way more bass” as I would assume that the roll off on them would start around 70Hz+. This is just an assumption though.

For the desired outcome that you are looking for, I think you will definitely need a subwoofer.

It’s either a subwoofer, or start looking at speakers in the $5,000+ range.

106

I know what you mean, but the reason for that EQ setting in the Apple Music app is because those apps don’t come with all the choices we usually have in more pro EQs, with Q factor and all that. So for these, if you want as much low end as possible, you need to raise the 32 Hz even if you know that the speakers won’t go that low, because that frequency, with the Q factor that Apple sets in the code, makes a difference.

I know what to expect from 7” drivers based on many speakers I had that would go down to 4”, and my JBLs I think you or someone else said here that they were 5”, and when pushed, they deliver. I know they will never offer the low end a proper subwoofer will, that’s why I ordered that JBL sub.

Well, I think I was wrong about that because I was comparing the JBLs EQ’d to my taste via the Pioneer receiver to the T7Vs connected to the Behringer interface, but without any more EQ than what I had in Cubase, and lately I’ve been mastering in Wavelab Pro 12, so I my output in Cubase wasn’t even that EQ’d to begin with. I would just use the EQ in Stereo Out to do a high shelf and sometimes a low shelf and that’s it, then apply all the mastering plugins in Wavelab Pro 12.

But Mattias gave me the best advice with the Control Room thing, because I hardly ever used that, and I changed the outputs to it, then started experimenting with inserts, and I thought that I had the best with the FabFilter Pro-Q3, but what really brought the speakers to life was Steinberg’s own Frequency2:

Screenshot 2025-11-14 174658
Screenshot 2025-11-14 1746582271×1508 476 KB

That brought the T7Vs to life. Now they are the speakers that everyone is raving about. It also showed that I really need to learn the Steinberg plugins better, because while the Fabfilter one and 1,000,000,000,000 more EQ plugins I have are very good, Frequency2 is giving me excellent sound quality.

1 Like
107

Yes, it’s like I mentioned previously you can setup any EQ profile that you want to make the speakers sound however you want to make mixing a more personal / customized / enjoyable experience. But you need to also build up an understanding of how your mixes translate to other systems and a understanding on where to compensate while mixing.

This is why MattiasNYC recommended to setup the control room processing chain however you want the speakers to sound and then to A/B your mix with this processing chain enabled and disabled so that you can gauge the direction of the mix a little bit better.

It’s difficult to reply because your story drastically changes with each of your responses. Are you now saying that you are satisfied with the Adam T7V low frequency response with the EQ and will not need a subwoofer anymore ?

108

Subwoofer for mixing…dunno… a friend producer had one and his mixes lacked bass, he was happy with his stuff, but for me the bass wasn’t really there.

I think they are good if one is working with scoring tools such as sub-hits and Hans Zimmer-type ultra low synth bass sounds, but for normal mixes….hmmmm…not sure it would work for me.

109

I produce EDM styles. I personally have never used a sub woofer either. However, my room is still not acoustically treated and I still primarily use headphones. I use analyzers to help assist me with setting the low end, then try to check the mix on other systems when I get the chance.

I have spoken to some other EDM producers over the years who enjoy using a subwoofer though.

1 Like
110

I’m saying that the Adam Audio T7Vs finally show what they are supposed to be, meaning studio monitor with 7” woofers that sound great once you adjust the EQ to your style. I was under the impression (and forgive my ignorance, I’m self-taught in every possible way except for high school) that mixing with studio monitors, you were supposed to EQ your mix so they would sound perfect in said monitors. Maybe I was wrong about that. Maybe no matter how good the studio monitor is, you’re still suppose to EQ it to your hearing preference.

I have a sense that somehow my hearing has an embedded EQ curve that is like a mountain graphically speaking, because since I have memory, I have always set my EQs to basically a mountain that is upside down to compensate for that. Added to that, I’m a child of the ‘70s, in fact I was born in 1970. So while my family didn’t have much money, I was able to enjoy an inexpensive Sansui receiver that kind of shaped my ears, and to this day, to me there’s nothing like the Sansui sound.

The ‘80’s were not bad for Hi-Fi consumer gear, but come the ‘90s they turned into crap. Everything started sounded far worse, and the mids and mid highs were exaggerated, and the bass was either terrible or overblown. Of course your experiences might differ, at least for those of you that during the ‘90s were living in North America, Europe or Oceania, but I wasn’t, and it was a country where everything is usually twice or thrice what it is in the US, something that remains to this day.

Now that as always I unnecessarily extended my reply to 100 miles, to answer your question better, I think that the T7Vs properly EQ’d are a pleasure, but today I received the JBL subwoofer and the combination is just so good it’s hard to describe. I still haven’t even opened Cubase, but I opened the Windows 11 Media Player, which has my library of mostly purchased albums on HD Tracks and Qobuz (I only buy albums in lossless formats), and I started listening to one the best jazz albums I have, with the barebones Media Player 10 band EQ, and it sounds amazing.

Screenshot 2025-11-15 165755
Screenshot 2025-11-15 1657551815×1345 169 KB

The Adam Audio subwoofer line sucks, because it’s overpriced, and the most affordable is a 10” down-firing sub, while this JBL has the most beautiful sub bass I’ve ever heard. This is an album that to me is reference sound, because I can’t imagine or know anything in the jazz genre that sounds as good. Of course the fact that these are 24-96 FLAC files doesn’t hurt :wink:. But for anyone starting out and reading this thread, which will probably take them about 10 years, after they’re done, they should know that the Adam Audio T7Vs and the JBL LSR310S subwoofer is a killer combination. I would prefer if the T7Vs had a way to adjust the internal EQ if that’s even possible, but no consumer is going to buy these, only people using a DAW, and I assume that Control Room is a feature in every DAW with the same or different name for it.

I wouldn’t be so sure. Having a 12” subwoofer in my home theater, I find content all the time that was obviously mixed without a subwoofer. I wonder if that was the case for whoever remixed Pink Floyd’s “Pulse” for the Blu-ray edition, because everything sounds peachy until we come to “Learning to Fly”, which has a percussionist that is obviously very happy to be there because he spends a lot of time jumping around, surrounded by different drums and cymbals and all kinds of percussiony things, and one of those things is a very low sounding drum. Now, I adjusted the subwoofer to the usual, and the concert had perfect bass and sub bass until that song, but when the guy hits that specific drum, my whole room shakes, and it’s an overbearing noise, kind of like a thunder next to you but in sub bass form. Really annoying, because if I lower the subwoofer gain so that that specific drum sounds fine, the rest of the song has no bass.

So that tells me that whoever mixed that perhaps didn’t use a subwoofer to mix, and because that’s a very low drum, perhaps it doesn’t come up so excessive in regular studio monitors, and the guy didn’t realize that it would sound so annoying in a sub.

And some stuff on YouTube is obviously not edited with a subwoofer and without any low shelf to avoid annoying sub bass that shouldn’t be there when people are speaking and it’s a good microphone that captures a good range. So to me a subwoofer is always necessary, and I would really recommend you and anyone else this JBL, because at $340+tax is a steal. I think I got the last one Amazon had, because now it shows as used. But I’m sure you can get it at Sweetwater, B&H, Adorama and many other places.

1 Like
111

I’m glad that you ended up being satisfied with your purchases.

As long as you know how the levels of the mix should sound with the EQ profiles it shouldn’t be much of an issue, and it will only get better as you gain more experience on learning how your mixes translate over onto other systems. It’s just about knowing where to compensate with the levels during the mixing process really.

Apparently sub woofers are important for surround mixing too which I think you mentioned that you were interested in doing sometime in the future. So enjoy it :+1:

112

I’m very glad too. I hate spending time trying to figure out what to buy, and I like to spend more time creating or doing productive stuff.

I forgot to mention, I also connected my good old Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 that I had bought in 2016 to digitize some of my records, and it seems to me that it might sound slightly better than the Behringer.

1 Like
113

“Better” in what sense ? and how old is this Behringer device ? I’m curious to know.

114

I can’t say, just a feeling from comparing the two briefly before adding the subwoofer. It wasn’t a scientific comparison. It just seemed to me that way.

This the Behringer:

Amazon.com: Behringer UMC404HD Audiophile 4x4, 24-Bit/192 Khz USB Audio/MIDI Interface with Midas Mic Preamplifiers | For Recording Microphones and Instruments : Musical Instruments

115

According to the internet the Behringer UMC404HD and the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 both use the Cirrus Logic CS4272 DAC/ADC chip.

116

Meaning the feeling that the Focusrite sounds better is pure imagination on my part, or is that chip not the only component that determines the sound quality?

117

It’s possible that you might be hearing noise floor or distortion or something of this nature. I don’t know exactly as it’s beyond my expertise.

118

For anyone who’s following this, and hopefully someone trying to get an idea of what these monitors are like, today I received the KRKs I mentioned before: Amazon.com: KRK RP8G5 8 Generation Five 8" Powered Studio Monitor : Musical Instruments

I only opened one knowing that most likely I wasn’t going to keep them, but it was too late to cancel the orders when I realized that the T7Vs were what I needed. So I figured I would open at least one, to try that internal EQ thing that most monitors don’t seem to have beyond a simple boost switch.

I didn’t spend much time with it, I simply replaced one of my T7Vs with the RP8G5, but before that I shot video on my iPhone of the Adam Audios playing white noise, and then shot another video of the KRKs playing the same exact thing. Then I played my Prokofiev track from Wavelab Pro 12, which I turned to mono temporarily so that both the T7V and the RP8G5 would be playing the same exact thing.

I would say that the KRKs are good speakers, but they seem to push the mids more than the Adam Audios. The latter seem more flat in comparison, and the highs seem more pleasant in the T7Vs as well. I’m not sure if that is because of the ribbon tweeters or not. The KRKs are not bad at all, they are really well built and are obviously larger being an 8” woofer.

But, I hate that yellow woofer. It’s an eye sore in this room where most electronics are black, and certainly all the speakers are. But most of all, they didn’t show me anything better than the T7Vs, so for anyone looking to buy decent monitors, the combination of the T7Vs and the JBL subwoofer is killer. I bet the T5Vs are better if you have the sub because the sub gives you the low end and you can save a few bucks. As for me, I’m more than happy with the T7Vs and the JBL LSR310S. The bass in that sub is beautiful, and unlike the JBL studio monitors with that awful looking tweeter, the sub looks great.

119

I wonder if anyone can tell me this… How can I match my home theater EQ to the EQ of the studio monitor setup? Of course I don’t mean a 100% perfect match, but something close, so if I mix something with the studio monitor setup (the T7Vs and the JBL subwoofer) then I know that when played on my home theater, it will sound more or less the same, with the difference of the added channels of course.

120

Hi,
first of all - “remotely close” is the best thing you can hope for because an EQ can not compensate the differences (each speaker comes with unique sonic qualities, placement, surround vs. 2.1 etc).
What kind of EQ do you have at your disposal and how is it integrated?
Depending on these answers there are different options. One of them would be Sonarworks w. microphone.

Here’s another thought: Since you are familiar with that system why don’t you keep it as is and use it as a control system? You wouldn’t want to EQ your audio system in the car if you check your mixes for translation, right?