Who says studio monitors are "cold and analytical"?

What artist wants playback to be anything other than sonically extraordinary?  

Most commercial pop records have levels that are clipping and the artists dont care. All they want is the loudest mix so that it stands out. Quantity over quality. These pop recordings are enjoyed by millions of people on their ear buds or phones or laptops. Sound quality does not enter the equation. As long as it sells its considered a success. 

Most artists and musicians are not audiophiles. Ive said this before. They do not belong in our world nor do they understand it. 

Studio monitors are tuned in a certain way to focus in on certain areas of the mix. The NS10 is tuned to the mids. ATC are also similar in that respect. That is why every monitor sounds different. 

An audiophile speaker is designed for pleasure only. If mix engineers wanted to use audiophile speakers they would. But they dont want a good sounding speaker they want a bad sounding one. Hence the emergence of the studio monitor market.

If ATC were that good they would be the only choice. But there are dozens of monitors on the market and every engineer uses multiple monitors because each monitor is tuned to different parts of the spectrum. 

Theres plenty of complaints about ATC online you just need to do your research.

It’s a shame people cannot see music in the different realms they are created and envisioned in. Pop music is completely different from something like Lenny Kravitz or Tom Petty or John Williams or James Newton Howard. If audiophiles throw everyone into the same basket that’s sad and not at all what the artists have in mind. Imagine looking at modern art and saying a Picasso is the same as Dali -they are “paintings”.

brad

@m-db --

Much appreciated, and the same to the both of you.

The contention that since studio monitors are used in a studio, they must be super accurate is not correct.

Engineers use them as tools, and each individual engineer has specific things they want to hear. In fact, they will often switch between monitors, since some say, have a forward sounding midrange, and that is what they are trying to get ’right’ on the recording.

The other thing about studio monitors, is that they tend to be designed so they sum frequencies fairly close to the speaker, since they are usually hung on a wall or on the back of the mixing console, which are not the ideal listening position. While home speakers are usually designed to sum their frequencies at a normal listening position.

Imaging and soundstage is hardly ever taken into consideration on studio monitors.