In modern recording anyone wanting a pair of half decent studio monitors has almost limitless choice, it seems every man and his dog makes at least one pair.
However, at the beginning of the home recording revolution things were a little different. For a start, active monitors were few and far between. The choice of home studio monitors was small, in fact for many of us the most home studio monitoring solution might surprise you.
First, the early contenders for pro studio monitors were limited, it was a handful compared to the hundreds available today. We counted over 700 pairs of active near field monitors on the Thomann web site. Here’s some of the most commonly available at the time.
Tannoy Stratford
First released in 1983, the Tannoy Stratford were affordable at £140 per pair, that’s about £380 in today’s money. Reviewed by Home Studio Recording magazine at the time they said;
“For it's price, the Stratford is strongly recommended. To begin with, unlike some 'here today, gone tomorrow' Japanese units, it'll remain serviceable for a long time. Few other manufacturers have the skill and expertise to produce a £70 speaker which will handle 110dB SPLs with little detriment to the other qualities. The horn tweeter is its biggest strength, and at the same time, the only area of reservation, but perhaps only if your ears are used to hearing horn-loading in more exotic and elaborate tri-amped systems.
Finally, do bear in mind that all speakers are dependent on room acoustics, and to get best results from them, some experimentation with siting and listening positions is essential. In our own evaluation, the Stratfords were best — indeed spectacular — at close range, and also when spaced away from the wall (as recommended by Tannoy). So mounting them on either side of a largish mixing console is worth trying.”
It’s worth remembering that these were passive speakers so a stereo amplifier was required to use them. At the time two favourites were the Quad units, one of which the 405-2 sold for £247. That’s nearly £700 in today’s money!
Tannoy made a series of monitors during this period, including the Gold and Red series. The Red offered a dual concentric speaker set-up, which at the time was considered something of a technological milestone. Tannoy were enormously popular speakers during this period, especially for those building more comprehensive home studios or a low budget commercial studio.
Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube
Often referred to as ‘Horrortones’ because of their extremely limited sound, the Aurotones were already a staple of pro recording studios at the time. Used to replicate the sound of radios and other none hi-fi units. This was because a lot of the music in this period was listened to on AM car and home radios, few had the luxury of listening to the top songs on stereo hi-fi units.
Some found their way into home studios, but given their almost intentional colouration, there was another route most took, more on that later.
Yamaha NS10M
Now legendary and a a staple of many modern studios, the Yamaha NS10 wasn’t the home studio monitor of the day in the 1980s. The Yamaha NS10M started life as a hi-fi speaker and didn’t do very well commercially. The logo on the originals is positioned to read correctly when the speaker is mounted upright. However the speaker found its way into recording studios, but the tweeter was too bright for some mixers, including Bob Clearmountain. He resorted to putting tissue paper over the tweeters to try and deal with the brightness.
Yamaha found out that the NS10M was gaining a cult following in recording studios and so released a redesigned NS10, the NS10 Studio, identified by the badge being turned 90 degrees so it reads correctly when the speakers are mounted horizontally. It also had a redesigned crossover to deal with the bright twitter issue. If you want to read more about the story of the NS10, then check out Phil Ward’s excellent article written for Sound On Sound.
With all that said, whilst the NS10 was becoming a cult classic in big studios, few home studios were investing in them.
JBL 4401 Monitors
Another brand making headway into studio monitors for home use in the 1980s were JBL. The 4401 was an adapted version of their broadcast 4301 monitor. It was also quite affordable at the time, but still out of the reach of many home recording enthusiasts. This is what Home Studio Recording said about them in 1984;
“The 4401's exude character and imbue music with vitality. They're enjoyable to use, and undeniably addictive, but their idiosyncrasies make them a poor choice for a main monitor. Sound balance is likely to go astray without a more accurate reference, though with experience, it's possible that you'll learn how far to compensate. In common with other small speakers, the 4401s strengths come from imaging, in particular, these ones have a cherished ability to display the full colours, texture and spatial characteristics inherent in the stereo picture. The weak point is the hard bass sound and the very limited ability to handle low bass (below 100 Hz) at high levels. When auditioning, you should spend a long time before deciding to go into wedlock with these speakers, for whilst you'll find their qualities initially very attractive, you'll have to ask "can I live with these for X years?"
JBL speakers in the 1980s were commonly regarded as very bright, someone once described them to me as “a shower of razor blades.” Even though the user could attenuate them, it was still not the most pleasing sound.
The Monitoring System Of Choice
Given the limited selection of speakers, most of which were passive and required an amplifier, you may be wondering what most people used to mix their tracks on.
I asked some of the Experts contributors to tell us, their answers may surprise you.
Engineer and studio owner Steve DeMott; “When I started recording on my 4-track I had it hooked up to my Onkyo stereo system with Infinity speakers.”
Post professional Neil Hillman named Wharfedale Diamonds as his speaker of choice. Mike Thornton also used a pair a Wharfdale speakers the Wharfedale Dentons.
Engineer and producer John Cornfield; “Sansui hi-fi amp and a pair of Marantz hifi speakers all bought from the local second hand shop.”
Australian producer and engineer, Michael Costa had a similar story; “Luxman hi-fi amp running into locally made hi-fi speakers. Soon augmented by NS-10s that I still use 35 years later.”
Producer/Engineer Mike Exeter; “Tannoy M20 Gold with Audiolab 8000 amp. Basically ran my studio stuff though my hifi system.”
Musician and producer Luke Goddard; “Pioneer SA506 into Kef 2 ways. Amp and speakers were in my setup for ages and ages... Still alive today on TV duties.”
And me? Well I had a Sony hi-fi amp I bought second hand that ran a pair of Tandy Realistic Minimus 7 speakers. I later upgraded them to a pair of KEF speakers that had elliptical cones.
So yes, the most common monitoring system in home studios in the 1980s was running it through a hi-fi amp and speakers. Few of us had what could be described as pro monitor set-ups. Most of what we had to mix with could be replaced today by a pair of active speakers costing less than £200!
It’s worth remembering when considering a home monitor system today, that the selection is vast and the price a bargain compared to what was on offer in the 1980s. Like DAWs, plugins and even hardware, the technology has progressed considerably offering incredible gear at a fraction of the price!
What was your first home studio monitoring set-up? Let us know in the comments.