6 Studio Monitor Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Dave Pensado interviewing Dave Malekpour from Augspurger.

Dave Pensado sat down this week with Dave Malekpour to talk about 6 important things you should know about studio monitors.

Malekpour works with Augspurger, a company that develops high-end studio monitors in the $20,000-40,000+ price range. It goes without saying that he probably knows a thing or two about studio monitor design.

Pensado starts off by asking Malekpour about the difference between hi-fi speakers and studio monitors. According to him, hi-fi speakers are not necessarily built to withstand the high dynamic range present in uncompressed audio, and that studio monitors allow you to make better mixing decisions based on their construction in this regard and others. (He also mentions that there’s a massive difference in price based solely off of the number of middle-men involved with the consumer market versus the pro audio market.)

Responding to a question about placing large monitors in a small room and whether it’s a wise decision, Malekpour says that today’s sounds, which rely so heavily on low-end frequency content, make it extremely important for a studio monitor to be large enough to produce adequate low-end, regardless of the size of the space. The studio monitors in Pensado’s studio are quite large, while his room is relatively small, but Pensado brags that “we’re essentially flat 20 to 20k,” which is due heavily to room tuning. It’s clear that Pensado and Malekpour believe that under the right circumstances, large monitors can work very well within a small room.

Other topics that come up include monitor placement, using one versus two subs, the importance of the type of material used in the construction of studio monitors, and the reasons why some monitors have front ports while others don’t. Watch the full interview with Malekpour via Pensado’s Place to hear the verdict on these intriguing monitor topics.

Charles Hoffman is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer at Black Ghost Audio. After graduating from the University of Manitoba with an English degree, Charles completed his education at Icon Collective in Los Angeles, CA.

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