Mastering with audiophile speakers?

[Rhetro]

Mastering with audiophile speakers?

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Hello.

I'm just starting discern the chasm between the art of mixing and mastering (including the associated gear), and i've come under the ( probably incorrect) notion, that a lot of the lower level / project house mastering speakers are somewhat audiophile-ish. Mind you i realize that the industry makes speakers designed specifically for mastering -but these seem very different than those for mixing. For instance, i have a pair of Yamaha NS10s and a pair of JBL 4311 that i use for mixing. From what i've read, these are to be avoided in a mastering situation. If this is true, why???
Does this have something to do with the position of the mastering engineer vs the mixing engineer? I.e, What's the point of near-fields if your 15 feet away from your speaker grills? Or is this to accomodate the natrual build up of lower frequency waves with respect to distance that you won't get from a near-field pair? I don't understand.

A lot of the listening/audiophile rooms that i've seen have more of a Mastering room touch than a mixing room touch i.e. the lack of furniture, gear clutter, etc.

I have a pair of audiophile Infinity Modulus speakers with the sub and crossover all placed in a separate listening environment. What about using these for mastering? Just a thought!

Thanks in advance!

[daniel.sneed]

Not sure to help, but this could make sense.
Consumer and monitoring speakers are not intended to work at the same SPL level. Average silence and room acoustic are way apart.

BTW, mixing and mastering are very level dependent.
Try to set a mix between a single voice and a complete band, while at different listening levels. You'll end with very different results.

Setting a SPL level reference in your studio is very helpful.
Bob Katz's books have good informations on this subject.

[n2mpujack]

Audiophile speakers are far from having a flat response which is what you want in mastering speakers. For the average Joe home-mastering his work a good pair of near-field and mid-field speakers with ruler-flat response will do the job. You'll also need a room that's properly treated and equipment that has as no coloring in the circuitry. Note that some hardware companies make mastering versions of their regular mixing hardware.

All audiphile speakers are good for are as a check that your mix sounds good on different speakers systems. NEVER use them for mastering. Generally, if you can get a mix that sounds good on a variety of systems, especially the NS10's then mastering will be easier.