A hair more gets you into the Mackie HR824's, which are quite a step up from the 624's, to the point that a subwoofer may not be needed at all.

I have had a pair of HR824's (the MkI's) for about ten years, and they have garnered a lot of praise from industry pros and other musicians. In fact, the first thing they ask is 'Where's the sub?!'

Gary,

First of all, I don't sing, so acoustic feedback is not a problem for me. Actually I have two headphones (Grado SR 80 and Sennheiser HD 497), but -even if the Grado is considered Hi-Fi, usually it's not recommended to use headphones to record or mix down a song because the perception is very different from that of a person who listens through speakers (be it a car stereo, a TV set or an Hi-Fi system). This is the reason why in a recording studio they have different kinds of loudspeakers (including very cheap, Lo-Fi radio ones) to have an idea of what the average Joe will hear, in his usual listening environment.
But... Colin came up with (maybe) a brilliant solution to this problem: the Focusrite VRM.

(Quote from the Focusrite site):

We’ve all burned CDs of our mixes so that we can listen to our latest creation on as many different systems as we can: the living room HiFi, the television, our friends’ studio monitors and so on. Then the process of improving the mix based on what we’ve heard begins. We might burn another CD to check the updated mix on the same systems in the hope that it sounds better second time around. We may not realise it but we are now ‘reference mixing’. This is why most studios have multiple pairs of speakers; so the engineer can reference the mix on more than one monitor. For most of us this is tough, due to space or budget constraints. That is until now…

The Solution?

Introducing VRM Box. The high-quality USB headphone interface with a difference. VRM stands for Virtual Reference Monitoring. It gives you the option of listening to your mix on multiple sets of speakers, in different rooms, just using headphones. This helps to overcome the problems associated with creating a mix that translates well on many speakers. Burning CDs to listen to your mix in different environments will become a thing of the past.

Mix anywhere, any time

There’s no substitute for mixing on high-quality monitors in a well treated room, however sometimes this ideal scenario is not possible; we might be on a train, in a plane, in a hotel room, on the tour bus or simply at home late at night not wishing to disturb anyone. VRM allows you to make critical decisions on your mix, knowing for certain that it will translate well in many environments.

Choose from 15 industry-standard studio monitors and speakers, in three different rooms

(End of Focusrite quote)

Now, Colin's solution is (theoretically) really brilliant, and I would hear more from him: in other words, does this VRM Box deliver what promises?
Come on, Col, spill the beans! (...or whatever you say in Lancashire)

A few YouTube videos about the Focusrite VRM:

Mackie HR824 Mk 2




Sound on Sound review of the Mackie HR824 Mk2

Col is a pretty smart guy, and I for one would heed his advice..

Good Luck,

Gary

Andrea,

I'm not sure if you've had your fill of "research" by now. By coincidence, I clipped out this article on "choosing studio monitors" from the December issue of Electronic Musician. It's been sitting on my desk waiting to be read.

Here's a link to the article "online."

Mark

http://www.emusician.com/prntarticle.aspx?articleid=153461

Thank you, Mark: a rather generic but still useful article.

Colin,

How do you know your are not tone deaf like me and I have nothing between my ears to make sense of it all, the world has gone mad Col. You might set it all up with your gizmo's and it might sound tinny to me. Your song is still ringing in my ears Colin that's what it is.

Dreamer. The Electronic Musician article is spot on with it's information participially about speaker placement is correct.
I'm now retired but most of working life I worked within the Hi-Fi Speaker manufacture. We also produced two models LS3/5A. LS5/8 Monitors for the BBC. I occasionally sneak a pair home for the weekend.

Hi Graham,

yes, I remember you working in this field.
What do you think of the Adam A7X (or the Adam speakers in general)?
Is their excellent reputation deserved?