Dynaudio Or Genelec Monitors?, Which are the best and why? Options

[dave-g]

I've narrowed my search down to these two pairs of powered monitors:
Dynaudio BM5A
Genelec 1029A

I going to be doing some acoustic instrument recording and then mostly midi, loop/sample based electronic music in a medium sized home studio with concrete walls, tile floors, 15ft wood ceilings. I'm pretty psycho about sound quality and know that these 2 brands have very high standards so I'm sure either would be a good choice. however since they are both pretty heavy and I'm not in the states, having them shipped and then returning them isn't an option. I'm hoping someone here will know how these may perform in an environment similar to mine. I've started working on some acoustic panels for the walls but I've still got a long way to go.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

dave-g

[flemming]

I've got two sets of NS10s here, one in my control room and one in the keyboard room. I agree with you, they aren't GREAT speakers. In fact, for a very long time I felt the same way as you do, but then I was mixing an album with a mate of mine from Massive Attack and he SWEARS by ns10s. And all of a sudden I understood. Obviously, you shouldn't use them as your only speakers, I'd say I use mine around 30-40% of the time whilst mixing, and the Dynaudio M1.5s the rest of the time. But NS10s are really good for some things. First of all, with great speakers like the dynnies, a lot of music sounds really good just because of the speakers, and some times you need to be able to find the stuff in a mix that DOESN'T work. The NS10s are really good for that. If you've got the balancing wrong, stuff will jump out of the NS10s like mad. They are also very very good for checking vocal levels and riding vocals because of their kinda nasal quality. And for tracking, well let's just say I wouldn't be caught dead without a pair of NS10s tracking vocals now. They are BRILLIANT for checking vocal pitch, nothing beats them there. So, until you've actually worked on a combo of NS10s and good midfield or main monitors, don't diss it! Again, they won't cut it on their own. But as a supplement they are great. Great for checking bass/kick balance too, but you need one HUGE amp strapped on to them for that.

As for your remarks about the small Genelecs, I'm a bit confused. You talk about the MUD of the Gennies. Mud normally means a loss of high end. That's not how people normally would descripe the sound of (small) genelecs. They are very hard and thin sounding, have a very drilling high end. Whereas the BM5As are much more balanced and musical. And less shrill, and thus (in a sense) more muddy. Then again, most speakers sound more muddy than the small Genelecs ... which is a good thing! :-)