Home Stereos With Known Issues

Home hi-fi speakers are designed to "flatter" or sound good... rather than being 100% accurate.


Take the same mix, but drop the level of the sax say 3dB.
Get the client's input on that change.

I have some Bose stuff at home, including for the TV.  I have tried listening to some of my mixes on them and they can really throw the frequencies around - to the point that you can get depressed about the mix.  Bass is certainly pushed, particularly as the sub-woofers are adjustable, and mid-range can be interesting.  They also tend to get placed in corners so you have all that colourisation going on as well.  Flat they are not - I wouldn't trust them in isolation when testing mixes.

sharke


I have a pair of Bose speakers and I've given up trying to get mixes to sound good on them. They have a tendency to low-mid mud and boomy bass, and I actually find that upper mids sound too far back on them. Whenever I play a mix through them and get depressed, I just throw on some Steely Dan and smile as I realize even that doesn't sound too hot on them. 

Hey sharke, whenever I want to find out what a mix should sound like or compare  on any give speakers I put on Steely Dan... For the life of me I can't get my mixes to sound like that.

I can attest that Bose is really flat and uninteresting to my ears, but when it comes to say, the 901 Series, which used to be their masterpieces (maybe still are) they utilize reflections like you wouldn't believe! Plus, instead of really designing the speakers to be perfect, they use other technologies to enhance the frequency responses of the drivers/speakers so that they can get away with fundamentally flawed designs (like smaller speakers, for example). This isn't intended to be a slam on Bose. They have a market they shoot for and they do VERY well at filling it. But as discovered in most situations, the Bose systems tend to sound a bit different than other systems and for good reason. 

I own a pair of Polk SRS-SDA 2.3TLs and love them for what they do. They're not perfect, but they do widen the soundstage more like headphones will, and the bass frequencies will go very low without a sub (like 25Hz!) if placed in the right room with bracing. However, the mids are sometimes a bit warm. So, I do have to get integrity-checks on other systems. 

I think there isn't really one speaker for everyone, and I suggest definitely let your client have you over and let you hear his setup. It could be ill-placement, to some degree, or you'll get some insight to what it is he's missing or hearing wrong. 

Best of luck!

I think that if you can't get your mix to sound decent on any system then your not doing something right. It's just a matter of finding the right balance.

Recently, Bapu made mention of lowering the volume of playback so you can barely hear the mix. You should be able to hear all of it. Maybe not the real lows and real highs as your ears hear things different at lower DBs as it does higher DBs. Then check it at a high volume then at all different volumes. You would be surprised at what you hear.

Paul P


A trick I often see mentioned is to go outside your control/mixing room (like out in the hall) and listen to your mix from there.

Guitarpima


I think that if you can't get your mix to sound decent on any system then your not doing something right. It's just a matter of finding the right balance.

Recently, Bapu made mention of lowering the volume of playback so you can barely hear the mix. You should be able to hear all of it. Maybe not the real lows and real highs as your ears hear things different at lower DBs as it does higher DBs. Then check it at a high volume then at all different volumes. You would be surprised at what you hear.

two really good ideas I will be putting in my mixing toolbox.

I find listening with the volume way down really helps me hear what the compressor is doing, when sometimes I just can't hear it at a higher volume. 

So Noel, you have two sets off them?

It is all too easy to lump all Bose speakers together. I had a friend in a previous city I lived who had those amazing Bose 901's but also driven from that monster Bose receiver. The sound was breathtaking. A good mix is a good mix and a good mix sounded killer on those. My mixes sounded killer on those too. But I do agree I would never mix on them though. They are simply not designed for it and no studio that I ever encountered had them as their monitors. 

But saying that I think the 901's were an exception and probably the most expensive model they made at the time and now they could be very different and the cheaper Bose models are probably nowhere in that class. But I have found once you get a great mix it does sound good everywhere and on any hifi system too, cheap or expensive.

There are ways of ensuring your mix translates well and I have been saying for years listening on a single Auratone type speaker in mono way down low is a good start. I suspect you still have not got your mix right.

Put it up on Soundcloud (wave not mp3) and make it downloadable and I would be happy to check it for you and see if there are any glaring issues that you may be overlooking.

I remember the first time I heard those 901's, it was like wearing a pair of 501's, eating at the 99, listening to 107.3 fm, drinking a 7 up and a steak with A-1 sauce.