What Does It All Mean To You?

What can you do with all of this? Naturally, you are working within your own significant physical constraints and budget limitations, and your dreams are different than mine. So, I don't expect or advise you to do what I'm doing. It works for me, but that's beside the point. The point is that based on this kind of reasoning, you should probably try to improve the quality of your listening, and there is a wish list of things for you to consider, learn about and try, to make this happen:

• You should consider using multiple speaker systems all the time;
• You need knowledge and control of Sound Pressure Levels;
• You need a reasonable reverberant space with reasonable symmetry on either side of the median plane;
• You need at least one set of decent full-range reference speakers, in addition to your other speakers.
• You should consider developing the capability for easily listening in mono, A-B and at a variety of known levels

Just so you know, Floyd Toole, a leading researcher in loudspeaker performance, defines "excellent" as plus/minus 1.5 dB from the speaker's low frequency limit to 20 KHz. on axis, plus good dispersion (AKA power response). Not cheap. Not easy. Further, and this is tougher, you should strive for an acoustic noise floor at least 50 dB below your nominal working level (60 dB down would be better, in this digital age). This means paying real attention to the residual noises in your environment. If you are recording digitally, you will probably have an electronic noise floor 75 dB below your nominal level. If you can't hear the problems down there, then the first people who will are your fans. Not good.

Your monitoring setup wants thinking about, as well as care and effort in making it work right. Remember, the loudspeakers are your musical instruments. Don't settle for a Farfisa when you're hearing a Steinway in your head.

Happy mixes!