What's the difference between monitors for music and sound post?

Question

I'm planning to buy a LCR Setup for my little home studio. Mainly I will do all works of sound post (dialogue editing, Ambience/SFX, sound design, foley as well as rough mixes). Critical mixing decisions would be made elsewhere. At first, I wanted to get 3 Genelec 8020's but since my room is not ideal and untreated my go-to sound guy told me to save the money and recommended JBLs and a good pair of headphones.

On my search I found the JBL LSR 305 monitors which are very affordable and get many positive reviews. However, I only found reviews in music forums not concerning sound post in particular.

So my general question is, what are the different requirements of music monitors and sound post monitors? Are monitors which are praised in music forums generally also good for film sound or does it depend?

For my case, does anyone have an opinion concerning these monitors for sound post?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Sound post as other audio production generally favors "uncolored", flat in frequency response and true sound. The idea is that the speaker system would be very truthful to the source audio and not making it sound better than it actually is or hindering problems such as overbassiness, noisiness, too much mid-range or overtrebleness.

However this is not the only way to approach it. Some think that using the same speakers that the majority of the listeners will use is more beneficial, since that way one gets a reference of "what it probably will sound for most people".

I think the first type of speakers (truthful monitors) are beneficial for "fixing" sound or listening to the results of applying effects. The second type of speakers (what the listeners are using) are good as references for adjusting the mix to sound good on those speakers as well, not just on the more clinical ones (truthful monitors).

Some have both truthful monitors and then "consumer reference speakers".

Note also that the (surround) speaker configurations do have differences. In film the center speaker is usually reserved predominantly for the dialogue and some mono effects, whereas L and R are for music and stereo ambiences. The LS and RS are for background ambiences and surround effects.

In music one can use the channels more freely (depending on the style one wants to achieve).

The listening environments for film and music are also different. In some cases the speakers in film may be placed more far apart (a movie theater) and have more size than in music which is often listened to at home.

Answer 2

I haven't used either of those speakers but Genelec and JBL are the 2 companies of monitor I run across most often. I've used the big brothers of both of these for years and I wouldn't think twice about getting either set. If at all possible try to take mixes that you know well and audition them on both sets. I would find which set you like the best, try to tune your room a bit if possible and learn how they sound in your room. What gets boosted, what drops out, imaging etc. I personally would never make any decision while listening to headphones for post.