A channel for general studio gear nerdery. Welcome, fellow nerds. I'm mostly on Instagram as @LapwingStudio.
Studio owned & run by @JackBennettUK in Walsden, United Kingdom.
Special ongoing thanks to @Studiocarepro for providing the majority of my studio support. Thanks to Sennheiser/Neumann and the team at AMS Neve for all the help.
With absolutely no bass.. but I lust after the 150p. To be honest.. that midrange is too powerfull for any of their smaller offerings. And tweeters still need improving. But even with the bad exchange rates to America, hard to beat the 150.
Will be great to heard the difference. The bock 251 is his own version view on how will sound a perfect 251 . Can you pull a video showing the difference? With a good singers and try to mix using both ? Thx
You can put a cup of water on top... and turn them right up..... you won't see a ripple on the top of that water. The cabinet is super stable and the subs completely cancel any cabinet vibration. Isolation pucks, daintily not required with these or any of the dual force Barefoot cabs.
I’d love to get hold of some!! Definitely worth an audition.. both very bright / extended top end, so have a see if you can hear them side by side! If you’re in Uk, have a word with Studiocare 🙌
This honestly just sounds like you used the camera mic. There's this weird directionality to the sound and you can't really hear them well enough to make any kind of comparison because most of your energy is being spent just trying to hear at all. I'm going to assume this is the room sound or something. My volume is maxed out and it's still low.
Soooooooo.... I've ALWAYS wanted to hear a pair of Barefoot monitors, ever since the MM27's came out. They were getting great reviews and I'm naturally attracted to expensive stuff that I can never possibly afford. After all, they're probably the most expensive monitors you can buy in that size. Story time.. Due to pandemic reasons, I was forced to work from home rather than in my studio and instead of soundproofing and treating an entire room (I live in a block of flats so pissing off my neighbours was highly likely) Along with other logistical annoyances, I decided to go totally out the box and buy Slate Digital VSX headphones that emulate monitors and rooms. Game changer... I've actually been working on them daily now since their release. I actually have two pairs because I love them so much. They're great to travel with and it makes it possible to do good laptop work. They're genuinely a great product giving great mixes and masters. Now, to the point - the people that have used them and also actually own the speakers that are captured and emulated all say that they're near indistinguishable from the real thing.. I was SO happy when I discovered that the headphones emulated a pair of MM27s in one of the VSX rooms. Naturally, I was drawn to doing all my production and mixing on the MM27s and it is EXACTLY how you described in the same words that you used. I feel completely vindicated in what I was hearing - I literally could not understand what they were throwing at me in the mid range. There is SO much top end detail, but it was driving me insane pushing the levels up and down, adding boosts and cuts from 400hz to 3000hz ish... trying to dial in a balance. Other mixed songs sounded great on them, so I just thought it was me being shit at mixing. So, I switched to another room, mix around a while, play my track back on the barefoots and it sounds great. I think the MMs sound incredible, I'm sure other people can work with them, but I was actively making worse and worse decisions because I absolutely couldn't process in my brain what information was being fed to my ears about the mids (the bottom of male vocals especially) to the high-mids just before this band of 'clarity' that is the most detailed top end of any speaker I've ever worked with. All of this leads to a discrepancy and a mental mis-match. You think you're hearing great speakers because of that clarity - but they're useless for mixing if - just below the clarity it becomes impossible to balance anything.
Ahh! I haven’t heard the genelecs unfortunately, but for the mm27 they have a very high extended top end, which I think sounds great on classic timbre and top end details. The sub/bass are greatly extended as well, in terms of separation & hearing where transients finish. But I’d say the midrange is somewhat strange.. sounds a bit “small” if that makes any sense! But at this price point, any good retailer will let you have a more extensive listening test (hopefully at your own place too!) so you can decide if they’re right for you. Ive heard the people at genelec are super helpful too! Let me know if I can help!
would i be able to get rid of my amps if i use this active speaker?...Would I be able to just go strait from the pre amp to the speaker with a balanced xlr cable...?
You wouldn’t need pre-amps with these speakers no.. but do you mean from your interface to the speakers? You’d just need line outputs of some sort yep! Let me know 🙌
ATC’s are simply a different world of monitoring. I have a set of genelec’s but I hear ATC’s often at a couple friends studios , man so open and detailed.
I have KEF r11's and share a very similar mindset because the speakers are so tall. A console being up 36 to 40 inches is creating phase and group delay issues. My desk is at 26 inches and far away from the speakers. This is kind of like a mastering setup I suppose, but the alternative is to put NS-10's on a meter bridge or way up high and learn how to work with BAD sound. no thanks.
Great speakers man . I need help with picking out some new actives for around £ 3 - 5k to pair with a Chord Hugo TT2 DAC, i prefer a warmer signature, do you have any suggestions? Have you heard ATC paired with any of Chord electronics gear? Also have you heard those large Genelecs with the 8" woofer ? Nobody seems to have put any reviews up bout them last time i checked anyway.
Hey Jonny! Unfortunately I’ve not yet tried anything there! Genelecs are typically “cleaner” which might feel flatter. But ultimately, if you did want to look at buying a set of any, I’d definitely get in touch with a preferred dealer, and if they’re not happy to let you audition the speakers - go elsewhere! Most of the shops selling good quality monitors at that price point will be open to an email or call about you listening to them properly! So definitely try that out 👌 good luck with your search! 🙌
@@lapwingstudio thanks for the comment back man ill take that advice and try and speak to some dealers who can advise me further . So much stuff to research and consider before spending loads on a new set of loudspeakers i wanna be sure .
@@Joe-mi4jw is that comment a joke? but yeah anyways. All ported speakers behave the same way, there are factors you can change. And like in ATC's its low Q. But there are many many other similiar ported speakers and subs.
I love anything audio, home, studio, pa, in car, iv been wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on speakers in all forms for 30 odd years, believe me the last 10-20% is where all your money goes. In the never ending path for sonic bliss! All I’ll say is it’s all relative to a previous benchmark, stop listening to more before you completely run out of money 😂 A pleasurable journey though for sure ❤
Hahah! I totally hear you! That still sounds great though.. other than the finances of course! I’m glad it’s always improving (sort of!) and thanks so much for the comment and experience 👍
Red sounds brighter to me. Prefer the sound of it in the clean but not in the distortion. That’s what i think my brains saying anyways 😂 Tweed seems overall a bit more clarity but not as bright as the red
Ahh!! Interesting! Yeah it’s a weird one. If you’re ever down this way. Try them out playing wise, that was the most noticeable to me strangely but harder to describe 😂
All I can say is a lot of people are talking/trying to describe these speakers but the reality is, you absolutely can't even imagine what it sounds like until you've heard them.
And completely new level of perception after some time spent working on them. Kii Three forced me to become much better in what I'm aiming for in music production. Real benchmark in every sense.
@@sonolumina yes you really need to work on them few hours before your brain really understand what's going on with this ultra fast response time and all the details.
An interesting speaker, which I have heard, and your idea of nothing in front makes a lot of sense. However, as you have a studio I can't understand why you don't show measurements of the difference with and without the BXTs and with and without the console in front pf the speakers.
For doing what I do in working, I can personally get better result with the kiis. But for listening to music in a wider sweet spot, like a cinema or for tracking music.. it’s hard to go wrong with the Atc monitors mate. But at this level, there’s definitely a big part being “personal taste”
Two completely different worlds. Kii's response time is wayyyy faster with 0 distortion. Plus you have this on the entire frequency band. ATC are cool and pleasant to ear. Kii give you the reality
I tracked a record on ATCs at redbull studio Berlin (130k ATC rig with dual subs). I also did the premixes there. Once I got home I had to remix everything on the Kiis and we even retracked the vocals at mine.
What distance do you have between them? and what distance from twitter to your ear? Where is the tip of the triangle? How do you set them up? You can describe pls?
It’s about 1.5m from each other at the tweeter and I’m a bit closer like 1.2m at my head. They’re angled a little bit inwards. But this is only for my room, and that’s the best for me personally! It will depend on each room obviously and how wide you might want to hear something! 🙌
@@Dav7Music nope! Can’t stand them for my room personally! And the amount of suggested boost and cuts to make it flat, was a couple of db or more, and it was sounding a bit funky to me.. and also turn off all the room control contour settings for boundary walls. Not keen on them either! But again, just for my room
Interesting observation comparing the home vs the pro version. In the image, the blurb on the home version says it uses the SH25-76S tweeter but the image is not the SH25-76S.
Hmm I’m not entirely sure which site or year model you’re looking at currently? But the S spec tweeter is the most recent of the speaker designs on the tweeter I believe. So if it’s not that tweeter specifically I’d imagine it would be an earlier model. For example the atc 25 has now just had the upgraded S spec tweeter included I think since 2022 or so? You can tell by the housing around the tweeter. And they call it the mk2. Otherwise the same speaker (albeit a slightly bigger cabinet - but not much bigger at all). I’ve auditioned the pair of the mk1 and mk2 - they’re very close to me personally - but the highs sounded a touch wider on the mk2. Though if the price difference on the 2nd hand market was big enough, I’d grab the mk1 for sure! The midrange is the driver you’re paying for anyway!!! Just the S spec on the mk2 is now joining that same family as originally was only in the 45ASL and up!
Hey, great video! I've recently had a chance to listen to an ATC speaker (20ASL) for the first time in my life (after wishing I could hear one for a good part of a decade). Wife and I loved the sound! Can you use these in a home stereo setting? Thanks!
You can absolutely use them in a home environment! In fact if I had the budget I’d get Atc speakers everywhere I’m watching TV and things like that. The midrange feels softer and more listenable over a longer amount of time to me! So it’s good option! Just depending on your size of room and where you position the speakers in there, to get the best bass response and overall sound
Without an example WITH music, these type of test are always incomplete. Its one thing to hear the mics in contrast to each other acapella, its another thing to hear how they perform in real life context. I'm always interested in hearing sample in context with the music. I've shotout over a hundred mics and preamps, and its never mattered what they sounded like acapella (unless your doing acapella music). Choices were always made with respect to how the mics fared in musical context.
I hear where you’re coming from, but all the mics required different and more importantly preferential treatment to what I personally like the sound of.. so I didn’t want to colour the sound at all with any unintended bias at all. Purely just to show what they sound like without anything else other than the mic at play, from an engineering point of view 👍
@@PoppybLuntz The u87AI is the biggest scam ever, it costs around 300$ to produce them and they're selling it for around 3k, that's crazy, the news u87 sound like crap, I suggest you to sell it ASAP and get that FLEA you won't regret it.
i find the bock to be dark and needs a lot of eq ! in the high end but it has a huge low end ,too big really ,very flat across the mids .bit boring overall but useful on lots of sources
Thanks for your thoughts Stu! The weird thing with this, if you check out my other video of the actual singing. I swear my own bock is way brighter than other peoples 😅🤷♂️ I’ve heard before people saying the bock is a little darker, but I haven’t personally found that with mine! I’ll be interested to see what UAD do with their bock recreation too..
nice vid dude, so many dipshits out there saying id get this cheap sounding crap, that why society ends up with mp3 garbage over cd or wavs, beeeecccaaaauussseeeee music fukin matters init lol, i can only sell one kidney which one i have a tele 251, im looking for that 15 percent
The Bock is more modern sounding. The FleA and the Tele are very similar sounding, with the FleA being a touch warmer; a little more midrange, a little more mellow on top. That FleA is definitely what I'm looking for.
@@timcampbell3904 hah! Well the capsule does sound incredible 🥹 I think the mid range has the best translation for whatever reason, on the flea. And I had to do way less de-essing to flea, as it sound smoother on the top end. I did think they all sounded slightly different though - but more of a “preference” than ever a problem 🤔😅
@@lapwingstudio I agree. I have shared this link. I think that it's great that you are enough brave to share such raw performances. This is really what we need to hear to truly be able to judge
@@timcampbell3904 hah thanks Tim, I was very close to not posting this because of my tuning and things, but ultimately this is what I’d want to hear objectively when I’m searching RU-vid myself! So I stuck with it! I also started doing a processed with full instrumental, but then processed the mics all differently, so it started to get even more “what I personally would do to each mic”, as opposed to someone else and their own treatment preferences! Thanks for sharing too 🙌 feel free to reach out any time! LapwingStudio@gmail.com - have a good one!
@@realtalkroscoeg on this particular session! I preferred tele 251 on male vocals and flea 251 on female.. but I own the bock 251 and I genuinely think you can make great records with all three, just more of less EQ and de-essing.. so take your pick! 😅
Absolutely! 2nd best to these in my opinion! But they’re a good bit smaller - albeit still a big monitor! They’re more suitable (just about) for the near fields if you’re looking down that route. The front facing bass ports help as well somewhat, and the sweet spot is super wide on the 45a possibly better than any atc, up to the 200 kind of level, dual mid cone set up! The dispersion feels really solid, and the S spec tweeter shares from the 50 as well. The amp pack changes on the 50 however! It’s basically under powering the 50, so they don’t have to work as hard seemingly! The 45a however are plenty loud enough and 100% worth an audition if you get the chance!
@@lapwingstudio Is it worth paying the extra few k for the 50’s? I should have made it clear, I was trying to get more info on the 50’s in comparison to the 45’s , because I own the 45’s. Thanks for your input though!
@@MrDddrrrggg ahh ok! Yeah so the 50’s generally; a fair bit heavier, upgraded amp pack (which sounds awesome), the footprint is obviously different with them being portrait as a opposed to horizontal, though I’d still say the sweet spot is still very wide (and wider than I’d expect from a sort of line array layout). If I was to have them straight into my set up - I’d much prefer to have them soffit mounted personally, to have the bass a touch more controlled and focused. Though I’ve seen people with 110’s free standing, so I guess it depends how big/the shape of your room as well! Is there anything else you’re looking for with these? And depending on where you are in the world, you might be able to get a pair to audition in your room!
It’s been a month already . Any singer that can do just one take using both mics at the same distance with same brand preamp . How hard it’s that? Where you live so I go and sing on the mic ?
