Quested F11 Monitor Bass Response

[news.easynews.com]

Hi,

I own a pair of Quested F11 powered near field monitors and I have had
trouble mixing the right amount of low end in my mixes. I usually add to
much low end.

I took an oscillator (compliments of my eventide eclipse) and a decibel
meter and the bass completely drops out 65 Hz. To my ears however the bass
really dropped out quite significantly below 150 Hz (I guess that's because
of the equal loudness principal since the dB meter stayed the same).

I also recently renovated my home studio following the Personal Project
Studio plan outlined in "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget". This
actually reduced the amount of bass I am now hearing from the Questeds. The
oscillator test above was done after the room modifications.

Should I get a sub woofer? Quested makes the F19 sub, a compliment to my F11
near fields. Does anybody have any sub woofer suggestions? Or other
suggestions to improve this setup?

Thanks in advance,
Jon

[Scott Dorsey]

news.easynews.com > wrote:
>
>I own a pair of Quested F11 powered near field monitors and I have had
>trouble mixing the right amount of low end in my mixes. I usually add to
>much low end.
>
>I took an oscillator (compliments of my eventide eclipse) and a decibel
>meter and the bass completely drops out 65 Hz. To my ears however the bass
>really dropped out quite significantly below 150 Hz (I guess that's because
>of the equal loudness principal since the dB meter stayed the same).

What if you move them closer to the wall? What if you move them away
from the wall?

>I also recently renovated my home studio following the Personal Project
>Studio plan outlined in "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget". This
>actually reduced the amount of bass I am now hearing from the Questeds. The
>oscillator test above was done after the room modifications.

That might be good or might be bad. Reduced bass is better than lumpy bass.
What if you move around the listening position and the speakers?

>Should I get a sub woofer? Quested makes the F19 sub, a compliment to my F11
>near fields. Does anybody have any sub woofer suggestions? Or other
>suggestions to improve this setup?

The sub will give you more extension if you need more extension, but it
will just make room problems worse.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Jay - atldigi]

In article >,
"news.easynews.com" > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I own a pair of Quested F11 powered near field monitors and I have had
> trouble mixing the right amount of low end in my mixes. I usually add to
> much low end.


It's a little speaker, so that's not too surprising. Some manufacturers
hype the low end to try to get it to extend a bit more and feel a little
more powerful than is realistic for a small driver in a small box, but
Quested usually prefers to stay a bit more neutral and realistic. I
agree with them. I'd rather have the box reproduce accurately what it is
capable of rather than trying to fool me into thinking there's more bass
by distorting the picture of reality before it drops off. Often you can
still get the bass right with small speakers as so many close field
toting mixers can attest to, but it is also quite easy and common to
make mistakes in the bass with small speakers, even for some experienced
mixers.


> Should I get a sub woofer? Quested makes the F19 sub, a compliment to my
> F1 near fields. Does anybody have any sub woofer suggestions? Or other
> suggestions to improve this setup?


A sub can help. Of course you want to be sure that it's not more a room
issue than a speaker issue, and also that exciting the low end with a
sub in a room, especially a small one, won't highlight additional room
problems that were not obvious to begin with. After worrying anout that
issue for a while, a sub can be a good thing if you set it up well and
use it sparingly to even the response. Using it for aesthetic pounding
won't help your mixes, will annoy your neighbors, increase room trouble,
but at least be a hell of a lot of fun when watching Jurassic Park.

I haven't heard the little Quested companion sub, but I'd expect that it
would work well if designed to accompany the F11. Another maker to
consider is REL. These are the best subs available in my opinion. The
smallest and most affordable one in the "S" series is the Strata, now in
it's third version I believe (Strata III - around $1,200 I think). The Q
series is also good, but a little more "versatile home system" oriented.
The "S" boxes (Strata, Storm, Stadium, Studio, Stentor) are the real
music machines.

--
Jay Frigoletto
Mastersuite
Los Angeles
www.promastering.com

[Chris Smalt]

Jon wrote:

> I own a pair of Quested F11 powered near field monitors and I have had
> trouble mixing the right amount of low end in my mixes. I usually add to
> much low end.


The magic word is: compare with CDs while mixing. If you still get too
much low end, your room might have problems. Try changing the position
of the speakers, or your listening position. Make sure you're not too
close!

If you still feel you want to hear a different kind of bass, maybe you
should set up some hifi speakers next to the Questeds.



Chris