Jimbo21


 Just got "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior and right in the first section he talks about unless you have really expensive monitors the low end transients are fairly skewed in that the "porting hinders the monitor's ability to track moment-to-moment changes in the mix signal. Specifically, the port causes any spectral energy at it's resonant frequency to ring on for a short time, and while it's this resonant buildup that generated the port's flattering low-frequency level boost for a constant noise signal, the same quality also adds short resonant tails to fleeting percussive attack noises (transients)". He also points out that "the resonance not only disguises the true decay attributes of the sound itself, but it can also make it difficult to judge the character and level of short duration studio effects (such as modulated delays and reverb), which are useful at mixdown".

He forgot to add the words at the end of his paragraph - "only heard in my head and no one else's head".
 
The amp damping factor, transducers, and crossover networks, and everything in the chain is an electrical circuit, and unless it is specially designed with everything in mind, there will always be trade-offs in the sound produced. Ported designed cabinets for transducers theory came out in 1961, and basically has not changed much over the years and although you can have a sealed cabinet (infinite baffle designed cabinet), the sealed cabinet can take more amp power to produce the lows, be -3dB lower in output, heat up the voice coil of your transducer for the low end, and blow your transducer and amp to melted remains with the way some transducers are made at any time in the past to the present day. While the ported enclosure adds +3 dB to the low end only around the resonant frequency and the port only works below that seemingly if using a transducer that usually has a resonant frequency of arond 35Hz or lower with an adequate low frequency transducer.
 
Is the subwoofer in a different cabinet? Yes! There is no bleeding over with a proper crossover network of any frequencies in the high end that end up not being there because the transducers are not in the same enclosure anymore. Besides cabinet size of the enclosure for extending the low frequencies down about another 1/2 octave where the port works in the first place, perhaps other acoustical engineers really don't know what the heck he is talking about at any time. With improved 4th order crossover networks, even the frequencies around the crossover are cancelled out and come out with the same loudness and variables in frequencies that no one can hear it anymore.
 
Or just perhaps buy JBL transducers and be done with it!
http://www.jblpro.com/products/recording&broadcast/index.html
 
Just my personal preference and annoying opinion.
 

Does anyone else here think that the KRK Rockits really just sound like consumer speakers and don't really deserve the label of 'monitors'?

I would not disagree with that assessment. At least at the low end of the product line. One test I read (SoS? Don't remember) showed a problem with frequency response shifting as the voice coil heated, suggesting that it really doesn't qualify as a studio reference monitor because it's not consistent over long periods of use.


Aside from any technical specs, I just didn't like the sound of them. Especially the 5-inch model, but then I've never heard a speaker with a 5" woofer that I felt was adequate.


In fairness to the brand, we should note that the Rokit products are meant to be entry-level and represent the extreme low end of a very broad product line (that includes full-range monitors that cost as much as a car). 

It's interesting the bias that the Sound on Sound people have against ports. I've seen some reviews by them that say something along the lines of "even though they are ported speakers, they have excellent low frequency tightness". Maybe that should indicate to them that ports aren't the problem, it's the overall speaker design that actually matters. There are fantastic ported designs, and there are terrible non-ported designs.

If correctness was ever done in the speaker (transducers) department than long ago I would have bought the electro-voice 30" woofer because low frequencies actually only depend on speaker cone size and really nothing else. But I think there may be a 24" speaker and well there are 18" speakers as long as you feed your gorilla to carry it around or move it around for ya with the cabinet and all.

You can't get around the physical requirements for the internal volume of the speaker cabinet. If you want a non-ported box with good bass, it's gotta be large. Larger than you probably want on your desktop or on little speaker stands. 

All speaker designs involve compromises. Want a wide sweet spot? Add waveguides - and compromise linearity in the highs. Want it to be cheap? Use coated paper cones and live with the IM distortion.  Want it to be lightweight? Make it out of plastic and don't mention the ringing. Want it to be compact? Add some ports. 

No-compromise speaker systems do exist, but you and I cannot afford them.

bitflipper

Does anyone else here think that the KRK Rockits really just sound like consumer speakers and don't really deserve the label of 'monitors'?

I would not disagree with that assessment. At least at the low end of the product line. One test I read (SoS? Don't remember) showed a problem with frequency response shifting as the voice coil heated, suggesting that it really doesn't qualify as a studio reference monitor because it's not consistent over long periods of use.


Aside from any technical specs, I just didn't like the sound of them. Especially the 5-inch model, but then I've never heard a speaker with a 5" woofer that I felt was adequate.


In fairness to the brand, we should note that the Rokit products are meant to be entry-level and represent the extreme low end of a very broad product line (that includes full-range monitors that cost as much as a car). 

Entry level, yes. I have only heard the VXT4's in action and my god those were amazing. KRK can definitely make good monitors. But damn they do get expensive. I'd be interested to hear the EXPOSE vs the VXT8s, but have not had the opportunity.




And like you say, all speaker designs in the average person's budget will have drawbacks. You can't get around it. So just get as good a monitor you can afford, have a listen to a few in the pricerange, and be happy! It's going to have flaws, but learn your speakers and your environment, forget the maths and make some good mixes!!!

Speaking of monitors, Adam have a new F-Series coming out in late 2012. Let's just say I'd be damn excited to hear them.

...It's going to have flaws, but learn your speakers and your environment, forget the maths and make some good mixes!!!

Well said Matt! I totally agree. I think people are getting way too technical and scientific about the whole process. As I have said before use great sounding reference material and the importance of the speakers and the room diminish.

I have just recently mastered an album by Dan Lethbridge that was mixed by Shane Omara. Shane uses a pretty ordinary set of Fostex monitors as far as I know in what is probably a very ordinary room yet the mixes are very very very good. Excellent in fact. World class. There you go. It's all about the mix engineer not the room, not the speakers. Sure we don't want to mix in a terrible room but I think most of us are in reasonable situations already good enough to get on with the job of mixing well.

Matt I must catch up with you sometime. I might be able to catch up with you at SoundCorp or something, maybe we can have a coffee! I am not that far away from there either. (Kensington) Or I could come over and visit. It's pretty rare to meet someone on the forum who lives in Melbourne.

"I think people are getting way too technical and scientific about the whole process. As I have said before use great sounding reference material and the importance of the speakers and the room diminish."

I agree with this as well.


In fact, the only reason everyone got technical is that someone introduced an idea that some author somewhere said that ported speakers are basically junk or something like that.

all the best,
mike

In fact, the only reason everyone got technical is that someone introduced an idea that some author somewhere said that ported speakers are basically junk or something like that.

I recently heard someone say that about ARC too...when in fact it supports this idea very well.

"I think people are getting way too technical and scientific about the whole process. As I have said before use great sounding reference material and the importance of the speakers and the room diminish."

I found it a shame that guy couldn't apologize to the other guy who claimed that very product was actually helping him toward that exact same end...