I was thinking about picking up a set of these primarily to use as 'listening' speakers but I wanted to get some thoughts on how they would work as monitors? I recently started getting back into listening to music casually, or dare I say even as enjoyment (the thought of such a thing!) as I realized that for the past many of years I've been almost strictly listening to music critically, either via learning songs, for tracking/mixing or just straight out of iTunes *yuck*.
About a week ago I picked up an old vintage Pioneer receiver and turntable and some nice Polk speakers and have really just enjoyed the heck out of sitting down to dig some great classics that I grew up on either from CD or vinyl. So much better than mp3s, right?
So, to further extend that, I ran wiring from the receiver in my living room, through the wall into my studio where I have a small set of cheap-o surround speakers that I use as secondary references for mixing (currently powered via a cheap-o Kenwood receiver from the 80s). Obviously, these don't provide as good of an experience as the Polks, but the point is, I can have speakers cranking out my favorite vinyl or CD in two rooms of the house while I tool around cooking or cleaning, etc.
Now...enter the JBLs. My thought was that I could put those into the studio as my 2nd set of 'listening' speakers, being powered from the Pioneer receiver, OR I could just replace my cheap-o surround speakers with them and let them serve as secondary reference monitors as well.
Lots of wacky details here, but I guess my direct question is, how would the 4312s serve as monitors (either powered by the Pioneer or the Kenwood receiver)?
Thanks.
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Is one of my all time favorite control room monitors. From the
Is one of my all time favorite control room monitors. From the day I heard these back in 1968 when they were introduced, I wanted a pair. George Massenburg, Bruce Swedein, used them to cut some of the world's greatest sounding hits. I've used mine with Macintosh and Crown amplifiers. They sound like two different pairs of speakers with those two different amplifiers. I power some of my other 4311's with Pioneer and Kenwood, Yamaha, amplifiers. And they still sound great. They sound great on the Macintosh also but I don't quite like that sound. I like the higher damping factor obtained with the Crown DC 300 A type I I than that looser almost flabby sound from the Macintosh 2100 transistorized amplifier. Bottom line as to what I am saying is, I like a direct coupled amplifier feeding those speakers. Which are the most widely type of amplifiers produced. Home stereo systems generally don't have auto-former's feeding speakers. But McIntosh's do. And therein is where you will hear the biggest difference.
I have both the 4312's and 4311's running in parallel and simultaneously in my control room. 4311's & a pair of 4310's running on the other direct coupled amplifiers. I like that slightly extended high-frequency response from the titanium Tweeter. And I like my grills on. I really don't like to look at speakers. For a and I don't care what listening aberrations the grills impose. It's just plain fine. And when ya listen to these monitors, you're going to be hearing all of your favorite hits (from the 1970s and 80s) that were primarily recorded and mixed on these monitors. And that's a great reference to start with. You are hearing it almost exactly like the engineer who mixed it did. That's particularly important. Bruce Swedein says you can't learn how to engineer recordings by listening to recordings. I beg to differ. Actually I'm not begging, you can, I know, I did it. That's right, you listen into the mix not to the equipment. And then you just move the microphones and knobs to obtain similar results. It's really that kind of simple. Especially when you know that a good bulk of the microphones that were used were SM57's and a couple of Neumann's. Well maybe a couple of SM 7's as well. But that's almost the same thing as a 57 with fatter clothes on. Of course you are listening to API, Neve, Harrison and SSL consoles for the most part. So it's really great listening to those older classic rock 'n roll hits on 4312/4311/4310's. There's a lot to be learned that way.
I find 150 W per channel to be about adequate. More is better. They won't rot. They hardly ever blowout.
Mx. Remy Ann David
One of the best in 'old school' terms. If these are the 4312A th
One of the best in 'old school' terms. If these are the 4312A then they have that ghastly sounding titanium tweeter. Leave the speaker grills on for a bit better sound...You will want to have a LOT of power for these. Not so much for volume as they are very efficient but for the huge amount of headroom they can draw from your amp. I used a 500 watt Hafler on my set of 4311's. It was never too much.
The other thing you will experience with this move is the JBL's will slowly become your go-to monitors. Your spacial relationships throughout the entire frequency range will immediately become apparent. Run things you've already mixed on these when you get set up and you'll know just what I'm talking about.