Studio Monitors Big and Small

In this picture they look almost the same size!

When we built the Omni recording studio years ago, we bought a pair of Tannoy "Big Red" speakers and hung them on the wall. They're really big, and looked really impressive, although we had to really tweak the heck out of the equalizers to get them to sound good.

For another reference, we got a pair of NS-10 studio monitors from Yamaha. They were a little harsh to our ears, so we did what a lot of studios did - hung some thin tissue paper over the tweeters to cut the high frequencies just a bit.

And so we recorded for years, going back and forth between the two sets of speakers, neither one really doing the job.

One day a visiting engineer brought in a pair of small Genelec speakers for a project we were doing. I was completely blown away by the warm, accurate sound. We worked all day, and never got tired of listening, as we had with both the Tannoys and the NS-10s.

I bought my own set of small Genelecs, eventually moving up to the 1031A's I have in the studio now.

I can't say enough about these amazing speakers. If you want to hear music the way it sounds when we record it, I highly recommend getting yourself a pair. Your ears will thank you!