[cporro]

mackie hr842 are my primary monitors but was going to pick up some
avantone mixcubes as secondaries.

turns out no one has the active cubes...but i can probably find a
passive pair (or maybe a single one). thing is i know very little
about pairing amps with speakers.

there seem to be 2 schools of thought on this. you want the thing to
sound real world or bad so any amp is fine. and it's worth getting a
nice amp for better monitoring and ease of listening.

i don't plan on using the mixcubes for a real world check...i plan on
doing a lot of mixing on them.

any opinions on this one from people who have tried out a few things?
i've seen the bryston 2bs mentioned, the crown d75 but i really know
little about power amps.

i was thinking something around $200 that way the passives + amp would
cost the same as the actives i had budgeted for.

and how come there isn't a single thread on the avantone mixcubes?

[Mike Rivers]

On 5/25/2011 1:40 AM, cporro wrote:

there seem to be 2 schools of thought on this. you want the thing to
sound real world or bad so any amp is fine. and it's worth getting a
nice amp for better monitoring and ease of listening.

i don't plan on using the mixcubes for a real world check...i plan on
doing a lot of mixing on them.

That really isn't advisable, but if that's what you're going
to do anyway, you might as well get a decent amplifier so
you won't inject other forms of distortion that aren't going
to be "fixable" in your mixing.

any opinions on this one from people who have tried out a few things?
i've seen the bryston 2bs mentioned, the crown d75 but i really know
little about power amps.

Bryston - good. Crown D75 - not so good. There's an Adcom
555 I think that Scott recommends. Maybe you can find a
Hafler DH-220 or DH-225. A bit of an outlier but would
probably work just fine is the Alesis RA-500. It's a
discontinued model but I picked up a used one for $90 at a
local Guitar Center on the recommendation of a trusted
engineer friend when I needed something to tide me over
while I troubleshot my Hafler. I compared them after I fixed
the Hafler and they were equally good driving my KEF monitors.

and how come there isn't a single thread on the avantone mixcubes?

Because it's a very limited demand product.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[Scott Dorsey]

cporro wrote:
mackie hr842 are my primary monitors but was going to pick up some
avantone mixcubes as secondaries.

turns out no one has the active cubes...but i can probably find a
passive pair (or maybe a single one). thing is i know very little
about pairing amps with speakers.

there seem to be 2 schools of thought on this. you want the thing to
sound real world or bad so any amp is fine. and it's worth getting a
nice amp for better monitoring and ease of listening.

i don't plan on using the mixcubes for a real world check...i plan on
doing a lot of mixing on them.

any opinions on this one from people who have tried out a few things?
i've seen the bryston 2bs mentioned, the crown d75 but i really know
little about power amps.

The horrortones are very easy to drive and since they have no top or bottom
end, they don't put a lot of stress on an amp.

i was thinking something around $200 that way the passives + amp would
cost the same as the actives i had budgeted for.

There's a Symetrix A220 on Ebay with a $90 buy it now, and a Symetrix 420
with a $100 buy it now. Both are STK module based things, basically consumer
receiver output stages in a nice rackmount cabinet. They aren't very high
fi, but they are no worse than the D75 (can anything be worse than the D75?),
they are cheap and reliable, and they will be fine driving Horrortones.

and how come there isn't a single thread on the avantone mixcubes?

Because they are basically clones of the original Auratone cubes, or they
try to be. There used to be a lot of Auratone threads.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[cporro]

mike, so what's not advisable? spending lot of time mixing on them?

scott, i think these are supposed to be updated and better then the
horrortones. but then again the website says they are "full range" and
i don't know what they mean by that. i'll probably never A/B them
with the originals so never know for sure. i have noticed a few people
mastering with them as secondaries. they make a powered version but no
one has them in stock and can't find them used. but i think i can pick
up the passives.

so i take it you are both in the drive crap with crap camp. ha.

the bryston b2 i'm looking at is $365 and looks to be prehistoric. all
it says on the front is bryston and i can't tell how you control the
amp level.

[Scott Dorsey]

cporro wrote:
mike, so what's not advisable? spending lot of time mixing on them?

I think he believes that it is not advisable to use them as main mix
monitors. I would agree with that.

scott, i think these are supposed to be updated and better then the
horrortones. but then again the website says they are "full range" and
i don't know what they mean by that. i'll probably never A/B them
with the originals so never know for sure. i have noticed a few people
mastering with them as secondaries. they make a powered version but no
one has them in stock and can't find them used. but i think i can pick
up the passives.

They are full range drivers in a box, meaning there is just one driver
for the whole frequency range, rather than a 2-way system. This is what
makes them useful; low frequencies make them break up badly, high frequencies
are lost, so you can predict what will happen on TV.

so i take it you are both in the drive crap with crap camp. ha.

Not really, but I don't see any reason to spend $400 to drive crap.

the bryston b2 i'm looking at is $365 and looks to be prehistoric. all
it says on the front is bryston and i can't tell how you control the
amp level.

Most of those amplifiers will not have gain controls. The Adcom 535 and
555 could be ordered with a gain control as a special extra-cost option
but most of the used ones you see will not have them. The Symetrix units
vary; some have gain screws, some have knobs, none of them have coupled
stereo controls.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[cporro]

I think he believes that it is not advisable to use them as main mix
monitors. *I would agree with that.

roger that. i'm think half my time but we'll see.

They are full range drivers in a box, meaning there is just one driver
for the whole frequency range, rather than a 2-way system. *This is what
makes them useful; low frequencies make them break up badly, high frequencies
are lost, so you can predict what will happen on TV.

oh, that makes sense. i read that as full frequency range output.
you're saying full frequency is sent to one driver.

Most of those amplifiers will not have gain controls. *The Adcom 535 and
555 could be ordered with a gain control as a special extra-cost option
but most of the used ones you see will not have them. *

so i'd adjust the output from my converter?

The Symetrix units
vary; some have gain screws, some have knobs, none of them have coupled
stereo controls.

so you'd have to calibrate each channel?

i'm only looking into this amp thing because a few people claim they
have used nicer amps to drive these and they could tell a big
difference.

[Scott Dorsey]

cporro wrote:

Most of those amplifiers will not have gain controls. =A0The Adcom 535 an=
d
555 could be ordered with a gain control as a special extra-cost option
but most of the used ones you see will not have them. =A0

so i'd adjust the output from my converter?

Right, or from the monitor panel in your console. Or from an outboard
monitor routing box.

The Symetrix units
vary; some have gain screws, some have knobs, none of them have coupled
stereo controls.

so you'd have to calibrate each channel?

That's what you normally do... the console lets you switch between two or
three sets of monitors. Each channel of each monitor is calibrated so when
you switch from one set to the next the levels remain the same, or as much
the same as they can be when your response is rough. If you are using a
DAW with no console you get a routing panel that has similar functions to
the routing in the console master section or monitor section.

i'm only looking into this amp thing because a few people claim they
have used nicer amps to drive these and they could tell a big
difference.

They might be able to, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? After all,
the whole purpose of the Horrortones is to be inaccurate.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Mike Rivers]

On 5/25/2011 12:16 PM, cporro wrote:
mike, so what's not advisable? spending lot of time mixing on them?

Yes. The original Auratones (of which these are a modernized
version) were intended as REFERNCE speakers - to see what
gets lost when your mix is played through a typical home
system of the 70s. The Avantones serve the same purpose only
they're closer to a low end home system of the 00s.

If you mix on good speakers in a decent acoustic space
you'll get the best mix you can have for any speaker. If you
optimize your mix on crummy speakers, it probably won't
sound very good on any speakers other than the ones you
mixed it on.

the website says they are "full range" and
i don't know what they mean by that.

It means that the highs and lows aren't split to two
different speakers. A single speaker carries the full range
of whatever the system reproduces.

so i take it you are both in the drive crap with crap camp. ha.

No, drive a limited-range speaker with a decent amplifier,
but don't go overboard. Most of the audible difference
between power amplifiers is in tightness of the low bass and
clarity in the high treble regions. Since these small "full
range" speakers don't have any low bass or high treble, it
doesn't matter how good the amplifier performs in those
ranges. But it should have ample power and sufficiently low
distortion to drive them cleanly in the range that they cover.



--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

cporro wrote:

mackie hr842 are my primary monitors but was going to pick up some
avantone mixcubes as secondaries.

turns out no one has the active cubes...but i can probably find a
passive pair (or maybe a single one). thing is i know very little
about pairing amps with speakers.

http://www.thomann.de/dk/the_tamp_pm...tufenmodul.htm

would be my first choice for something matching in assumed price and quality
range.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen