In my opinion (and remember I'm an "endorser" ) they sound pretty good.
They are easy to listen to, which is a big help in monitors and very musical sounding.
They are NOT as good as the LSR 28p's, if you ask me, and of course you'll need a power amp, and the quality of that amp has a BIG effect on the sound of the speakers.
That's one reason why so many people switch to self-powered speakers.

But the 4408's are pretty true to life.
They certainly compete well with NS-10's or other speakers in their class.

The 4408's and the 4410's were the best sounding in that range. The 4408 is a good A/V editing suite speaker. When I was selling those, I always paired them up with a beefy Crown or a Bryston.

There is a 4208 range, which has a tweety from the home stereo line. It is the speaker with the bulging belly. They sound very different from the 4408. To me they are dance mix speakers.

The new LSR's are ok. I think that the 28's are a bit tuby for me tastes. I do however like the 32's and sub. That system gets loud, and the tone doesn't change much. You definately can't say that about most three way, or two way systems.

The LSR's (including the 32's) certanly sound bassy when you first put them up.
yet oddly , after a short time, you seem to get used to them and they seem to translate really well (i.e. not bottom light, which one would expect from a bassy speaker)

I actually quite ike the 4208's as well for small speaker listening.
but then i so most of my work on big speakers (i don't like the whole bookshelf thing)
As you point out, a Bryston makes a big difference (on ANY speaker).
you cannot cheap out on the power amp and then blame the speaker.

i disagree, on the other hand, with the idea that you pick a speaker for a ype of music.
that's a bit like picking eyeglasses based on what you want to see.

I think monitors are about what YOU get on with well.
If you find that a certain speaker makes you add too much bottom or not enough middle or whatever , then it's clearly not going to work for you.
Once you find the one that DOES work for you it just works.
*I* need to knoww that in dance music i'll want to beef up the bottom. But unless you actually mix on club-like speakers you are always adjusting in your mind. The monitors only need to tell me what i'm really getting.
So again that comes back to the speaker i feel comfortable with.
Picking speakers for genres sounds a awful lot like marketing.. not engineering.

The 4408's have good imaging but the HF tweeters killed my ears. My ears fatigued at a fast rate with them. I now have the 20/20BAS monitors and I can listen to them for a long period and I like the results better. I don't feel like I had nails driven into my ears. YMMV.

jason

Thank you very much for the responses guys. I wonder how mix done on 4408s translates on other speakers. Is it as accurate as NS-10?

tnx,

chris

For ME (and in my experience, lots of other people too) NS-10's do NOT translate well.
if i mix on them my mixes come out with no mddle or presence in them and with light bottom.
That's because they sound so nasal and low end can easily clap out the woofer when you play them loud.

If you're Bob Clearmountain, they work GREAT.
That doesn't make the perfect (or even passable) for lots of other people.
I've heard LOTS of awful recording done on Yamahas.

I agree by the way that the 202/20bas Events sound really good. I mixed a Shawn Colvin track on them once (they were John Leventhal's) and I really liked them.
But tome that's a similar sound to the LSR28p. (another self-powered monitor)

ANY speaker is just a matter of how YOU get on with it.
you must try it and see.
Do a mix or two on it and see what happens.
That's really the ONLY way to tell.
next best thing (but only next best) is to play a mix on them that you have done that you LIKE and that you know well. Would you mix it that way AGAIN listening like that? Or do they make you want to start changing things?

I have to disagree. But to each his own. In my experience, NS 10s tell all the ugly truth and they are one of the most linear sounding monitors available. I also don't ever have a problem with the woofer "bottoming out". But I don't mix at 110dB! I don't want to start another "monitor wars" thread but there must be a reason that you see NS10's in almost every pro facility on the planet. At 85 dB NS10's work fine. I always go to the big mains to check for the ultra low end as the Yamahas don't do too much below 65 Hz but then neither do most home speakers, car systems or portable stereos. If it sounds good on NS10's it usually sounds good on anything. This is the first time I have ever heard anyone say that NS10's don't translate. I have heard people say they didn't like how they sounded and I have heard complaints about the lack of low end but I have never heard anyone say they didn't travel.. my 2 cents. Kurt