The way you just said that audiophiles don't know a thing about audio at the beginning was amazing. LOL.

This just made me realize why many seasoned mix engineers mix at a low volume, but occasionally crank up the volume to see how it "Feels". What they're really doing is checking how the midrange sounds when the woofer is displaced; which is a valid thing to do since most people like listening to their favorite music loud.

Demonstrating the frequency ranges was really enlightening! Honestly, I’ve never heard any of those ranges isolated like that. The midrange really does a lot more of the heavy lifting than I realized.

Before upgrading your monitors, always make sure to have at least a basic acoustic treatment setup in place, with all First Reflection points covered and some bass trapping. After you room is sounding good, you can then invest more in speakers. A better sounding room will make your current monitors to sound better as well.

Thanks for keeping us informed Michael. Appreciate the video!

The main drawback of two way systems is intermodulation, which is higher on wideband drivers. Using a dedicated midrange in a critical range between 1k and 4k reduces intermodulation where it matters and that's why this config works. Without the split between bass and midrange, the distortion of the midrange rises every time the speaker is reproducing bass at the same time. The displacement of voice coil from the magnetic center is very bad for linearity of higher frequencies. There are other things too but this is one that gets overlooked.

3 way is a fortuitous optimisation that moves the crossover out of the pinna activation region. Going to 4+ way re-introduces the issue again, with the exception of dealing with large monitors that have both a midwoofer and subwoofer for LF reinforcement

I recently got the avantone mix cubes to isolate the mid range and i have to say i am astonished by how easy they make the process of finding out the weak spots in a mix. I really love those speakers and can safely recommend them to anyone who wants to clean up their mixes. However, i found myself overdoing the mid cleanup as consequence of my new setup, making my mix feel too clinical in the end. I am now trying to focus more on reference songs combined with reference speakers and i‘m convinced this will lead to a nice balance between a clean and a natural result. I find it funny how fixing one problem immediately leads to the next one. Guess that‘s a neverending process and part of being a human.

Appreciate this brother I always learn something from your vids and im a huge fan of monitors! Happy holidays to you and your family 🔥🎯💯🚀

Great information. Congratulations on the 1 mil subscribers!!! Love this channel

What a 3 way also does is massively reduce intermodulation distortion in the mids. Especially since the non-linear distrotions get a lot worse the more the speaker has to move, getting that away from the mids just helps so much. That goes doubly for passive speakers where the crossover puts a huge dent into the damping factor.

Your videos are a treasure trove. Thanks so much for the time and effort and for sharing your expert knowledge!

love the breakdown on what the different parts of the speakers are for. its like i thought i know and u just gave me a complete tour through the rabbit hole basically

Great video! Always nice to learn something new here!

Great video (as always). Thank you for the information!

Hi Michael, another great, informative video. By the way, I have owned your plugin "Reviver" for over a year and absolutely love it. It's one of my go to plugins for my Mix Buss 👍

Great guidance; thank you. The video on one vs two subwoofers would be really interesting.

I remember reading that the more holes in the speaker, the more source points for audio waves and thus the more waves interferences. So I always thought a 2-way speaker was in fact by default less worse than a 3-way speaker. The fact that engineers can design around that is amazing to me.

It's not just that. Big drivers have narrow directivity and in order to keep sweet spot wide, midrange driver is necessary. The bigger the cone, the lower off axis response starts to go down. But in terms of the topic of the video: Very well 2 way monitor with really good quality drivers and REALLY GOOD crossover job can be as revealing as a decent 3 way system. I've spent last 2 years designing such monitor system for myself

I have a pair of Kali three-way IN-5's strapped to a Kali WS-6.2 sub woofer, effectively a four-way system. It sounds great and gives me very precise monitoring set-up for my small garden mixing studio. The beauty of the WS-6.2 subwoofer is that it's actually two speakers in one cabinet, so effectively a stereo two-way sub in one box. Amazing! 😎

This video was awesome! I love these kind of discussions

Please make the video about 2 subwoofers. Very interested!

I'd be interested to hear how you would set up a stereo subwoofer system for room listening. And would that setup work for multiple listeners, or just the center.

Great video, thanks as always!

I just got the VSX headphones and am SO excited for them. Thanks for this video!!!

I upgraded to the rokit g10's that have a 4 way system.. coming from Yamaha's hs8s, a classic dual driver setup... and man things became so clear! They aren't as harsh in the treble so perceived details were minimised theoretically but the separation added a clean and wide sound stage that made picking out issues so much easier. As a reference, I would play some mixing games on the soundgym website and immediately after getting my 4-way speakers my scores went way up in the eq and imaging department.

Lots of good points but also a few too many generalisations. I’ve designed a few two way designs specifically for mixing and mastering duties and they have been accurate and just as insightful as any three way. I picked high efficiency low distortion designs using steep crossovers and coaxial drivers to ensure both time and phase alignment. Even vintage hpd315’s can be superbly revealing if used with a decent crossover and cabinet design. Crossed over at a khz means most of the sensitive 700hz to 5khz is handled by the horn loaded hf unit but the real issue with crossover designs is NOT that they somehow leave a gap or screw up detail at crossover. The issue is this: many audiophiles do understand the importance of time and phase alignment but fail to comprehend polar response as do many studio mixing engineers I’ve worked with. It’s not enough to get alignment right if you screw up polar response as this affects both directivity and stability of image and even phase response. This is where a 3 way can avoid the issue at the critical mid point BUT a well designed 2 way can do as good a job IF polar directivity is matched for the crossover point AND phase/time alignment is good plus sensitivities are matched. Whilst its true subs hugely improve system efficiency and can reduce distortion of two and 3 way systems, there’s no reason why with proper driver selection and cab design you cannot match or better a satellite system with sub. Subs have their own issues with room and driver integration. A good full range three way, using a good room correction like a Trinov system is the ideal but I wouldn’t rule out a two way either. There are compromises with all speaker systems which is why it is wrong really to generalise.

Michel as always you're one of the most trusted guys to talk about it, really helpful thanks for clarifying

Random question, but what timebase ppq do you use in FL studio?

Nice video! Thank you!

I add subwoofers to 3 way speakers to fix the lacking low end (most 3-way speakers their woofers are compromised to only handle mid-low well), and you basically get a 4-way solution. 😅

I always recommend having an A/B setup if it’s affordable. Even with inexpensive speakers, having 2 sets of speakers to switch between can be extremely helpful for triangulating. (Obviously you have to learn well any speakers you use, especially if they’re inexpensive.)

Great video!!! I just upgraded from a 2 way pair + 10” Sub to a 3 way Focal pair. I got rid of the sub, and also had to add more an acoustic treatment for my room, all the investment was worthy.

Interesting and makes sense. I use ADS SAT7 3-ways. They were not so forgiving at first, but using REW and Audyseey Multi-EQ to flatten them out a little it’s hard to find something that sounds bad.

Very great and short explanation👌

Recently got some Kali IN-5's, don't think I can go back to a 2-way again. Will keep those PSI's in mind when I upgrade down the road!

Very interesting, I purchased Adam A7X a while ago and added sonarworks and have treatment. Which interestingly was under your recommendation. I never regret it. Is it safe to say that they work well for mixing purposes? I mostly do production and tend to mix afterwards for my own but want to share my music in a near distant future.

Awesome demo

Wow, well explained, makes so much sense to me

Very cut to the chase and to the point. Thank you.

By no means I am an audiophile, I just enjoy listening to my favorite music and sometimes on a quality setup. However, your explanation was so good with no BS and descending tone that I instantly subscribed. Wish I could see more content from people like you👍

I want you to know, and I mean this sincerely; as far as music production tutorials go, you are the GOAT.

Hi! I have really old monitor speakers which sounds great but some of the low end is missing. It is a 3-way speaker but also has a rectifier which works opposite the woofer. I think because of that there is a phase issue creating at the low end. What can I do to improve the quality of the bass in these speakers?

Is it really always necessary to crossover if I use a sub, or the overlap will effect much!

Very effective plugin brother. I just tried it out. Super effective and clean sound!

Great demo between the different speaker types and the differences between 2-way and 3-way speakers. In some respects though, a single full range speaker without a whizzer cone is best since it's not likely to have any lobing, although it will have so many frequency response and other limitations that they're never actually used in hi-fi speakers.

Back in the 2000's I got my Genelecs 1030A, added a sub, and this is a killer neutral mixing and mastering setup. Plus room treatment, obviously.

Excellent vid, thanks. I have the Focal Trio6 Speakers and yes, I have two subs!! That is so right on, best and most accurate bass for sure. Also, a key thing when I had my speakers installed, was that the acousticians were able to set the distance and timing when things hit the listening spot, using a DSP (after physical setting). This is super important if the subs are not the exact distance as the mains, or rear speakers are not exact distance as fronts. Interestingly, these Focals were not perfect; the tweeter was hitting early. However, it was so close they actually just tilted the speakers back a very tiny bit until the reading was good. Also, I wondered your opinion on the design of having a 5" woofer as the mid? The main woofer is 8". They also have a "Focus" mode to switch to just the 5" and tweeter. It's a major brain squeeze when you do it though, especially for bass and kicks!

Hi Michael, I have a question (away from the topic though). Seems to me you majorly use FL Studio for your music work. What made you settle with FL Studio and not the other popular DAWs out there?

hi is it worth it to buy a used dynaudio air 20 used for 15 years in good condition??

Appreciate the video! I see you have the Barefoot Footprint01s in your picture at the very end of the video. How would you say they compare to your PSIs? Thanks and all the best

I got 2-ways myself due to cost considerations. However, I'm pleasantly surprised as to how good the mid clarity is vs my older 1990s design monitors. I use Neumann KH120A with the KH750DSP sub. I've never had my mixes translate so well to many different systems, and yes, they don't make mixes sound good by default. Most mixes sound pretty poor on them, but a few mixes sound absolutely excellent. That's certainly the character of a good monitor system. Of course, I'd have gone for the KH310A instead if cost wasn't an issue. Good call about using 2 subwoofers. I currently use 1 (cost again).

Gorgeous pair of A23Ms there 👌🏾

I found this useful, thanks

Love your thorough review, can you do one on your Orange box speaker behind you?

Great video!

Thanks for the Video its helpfully for me to understand the 3 and 2 way speaker. Greetings from Germany Wuppertal : )

Directivity is also a big reason why, with drivers starting to beam as they're pushed into higher frequencies. An 6" has really dropped off axis by 1500hz

Good information

Hi I am trying to use ASIO4ALL v2 and it keeps crashing my FL Studio any ideas on how i can get it to work?

Oh ! didn't know that. Very informative

Hiii what are those 3 way speakers in the video?

MY big issue with most studio monitors is indeed the crossover. They tend to have VERY high order units (i've seen 48db/oct) which smear time and phase HORRIBLY. A 3 way design, as noted, can have better mid range, but my experience is they generally are worse. This is due to the afore mentioned phase shifts or time delays caused by the high order crossovers as well as the additional crossover parts needed to build a 3 way network. Every single part, even a single capacitor, will alter to some degree, the sound. Nowhere in the recording chain, nor in the playback chain is the timing split between highs and lows, or the polarity, or both. This is purely a speaker phenomenon/distortion. The higher the order of the filter, the more time delays the speaker suffers. One can learn to recognize that, the way an amplifier designer can hear if someone's amplifier needs a bigger transformer- it's a unique sound distortion. What you call revealing is simply additional distortions introduced by the speakers crossover. This is why music which is very complex or has a lot going on will also sound less good on most studio monitors. With high order crossovers, the first energy to arrive from that step-input is upwards-going, as it should be. A moment later, the late-arriving, inverted-polarity tweeter shoves (sucks) that initial positive air-pressure-increase down into the negative-air-pressure portion of the graph. The tweeter's dome then returns to rest from its full "-" excursion, because the crossover cannot pass the "DC" to tell it to "hold your position, albeit sucked in". The air pressure then returns to the positive from the mid range tones' positive-pressure continuing to arrive. All the match fully supports my claim. I know you feel audiophiles are clueless. Not all of us are. My studio monitors are very simple 1st order designs, 3 way. VERY difficult to achieve in practice.

I have Yamaha HS8 and would like to upgrade to 3 way but there is big price gap. I mostly use it to play guitar thru audio interface and PC. Should i stick with 2 way? Upgrade to a better 2 way? Any suggestions?

Great breakdown of the concept here. I would definitely like to see a review of those speakers, including your use case for them and why.

Fascinating stuff. I would love a video showing how good or bad the same sound treated room can sound based on the positioning of everything.

A three way system principally offers lower distortion from all drivers, particularly intermodulation distortion. Intermodulation distortion (modulation of one tone by another tone) is a huge part of why speakers sound like speakers and not real sound. When I have been able to work on three way speaker designs, they always sound clearer, more natural, and more transparent to the source. This is because when a woofer gets a strong signal and its cone experiences significant movement, that movement also modulates the magnetic field responsible for producing the midrange sound. You can hear this in action if you play a 20 Hz tone (at the threshold of audibility) while also playing a tone at 1kHz; the 1kHz tone will sound like it is warbling, and even very expensive mid-woofer speakers will do this. But this is also happening at other frequencies that are closer together, and it produces a 'jumbled' sound. When you can free a speaker from the job of producing lower frequencies that create a lot of this intermodulation distortion, it produces clearer sound. So you get a more transparent lens into the original performance. The problem with speakers that have many passbands is phase. The crossover filters produce phase rotation between the passbands of the crossover that has to be managed, because it is a delay in the sound, expressed as 'degrees' of a wavelength where one wavelength is 360 degrees. Crossover points work best when they are placed where the phase of the sound coming from a speaker overlaps with the phase of the same frequency coming from another speaker in the adjacent passband. Also, if passbands overlap with non-adjacent passbands and produce significant output, they produce strong off-axis directivity lobes because one speaker is interfering with a speaker that is farther away on the baffle. This is why concentric speakers are prized - because the system behaves with less phase alignment issues at off-axis angles, and produces a pattern of directivity that is always symmetrical.

Hi I'm thinking to switching from Ableton, so I ask if there's an autosync audio loop feature like ableton does, either when you drag a sample in the grid or if you prelisten a loop when your song is played, ableton always put the right bpm. There is such thing in fl studio? Thanks

SO glad to found this video, as electronic eng. i always told that 3 way's had to be better for mixing so i made my own spikers and use them, but that irritates some people who claim that 2 way or even 1 way is perfect.

I took a little different approach to connect my subwoofer - yes, I use only one, but the same would apply to a pair. My passive monitor controller has two separate stereo outputs that can be turned on and off. On the first I connected my 2-way monitors, on the second my subwoofer. So I can easily turn on/off both and listen how a mix translates to both of them. Of course on both the monitors and subwoofer the volume knobs are adjusted so I rarely touch them. Also the crossover frequency on the subwoofer is adjusted to match the monitors, even if they aren't connected there. And on both monitors the highpass filters are turned on.

Hii Bro, I have a big issue with my final output. I have tried many ways but I can't able to find what is my mistake. My output was doesn't be a good mix. If I focus on voice the vocals sound is higher than the instruments. And if I focus on instruments my vocals sound very low than my instruments. Can you please help me to find my mistake. Or give any tip to fix this issue.

Best explainer of technical stuff on the internet. Thanks Michael.

great video, thank you have you had a chance to listen to the Acoustic Research AR 9?

Hey Michael, what’s the name of your speakers in this vid?

Anyone’s help is appreciated , When I try to record with the metronome on, the recording picks it up and it’s annoying, how do I turn it off ?

Thank you for explaining this in great detail, i have various speakers to test, hi fi , DJ monitors T-10 laptop computer with tweeters and others have them too & Karoke system, so what you’re saying is the bass should sound good 50hz - 60 - 100 hz , I do have portable speaker system with two sub bass’s, got me thinking test my track on this two, thanks you for your help

That dual sub suggestion is very interesting!!

What if I put a 3rd speaker ontop of the standard monitors and then change the signal to send low and mid to the standard Monitors and then have the additional 3rd speaker to do the top end? Would that have the same effect as a 3 way system?

Man I've started producing from scratch 6 years ago and Michael has been my go to person since then and I've grown so much and know alot because of Michael.. thank you bro. Never let me down since day one. Your content is worth more than gold in music production.

I am just researching the topic and funny enough, right after your video I stuck upon this article on amcoustics which explains Double Bass Array and why it works: It's quite easy to absorb such a flat wave front with the exact same loudspeaker array on the other end of the room. Remember that swing at the beginning of this article? How do you stop it? Exactly, when the kid is on your side you try to catch it, absorbing the kinetic and potential energy in the system. The same happens when some speaker cones move away from the wave front the moment the wave front arrives. Normally the wavefront would hit the wall, building up pressure and because of the fact that air wants to be homogenously distributed it would move back to release that pressure at the wall. But as the membrans of the second speaker array move away at that very moment the pressure can not be build up and the wave is not reflected. It's kind of sucked up by the speakers.

Excellent 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I have my system set up with my main 3 ways on A, and a set of 2 way's on B. Can play either set and yeah I notice on some music the two- way sound more pleasing and other music my main speakers. I'd never thought about it from your perspective but geez.. it now makes more sense to me. I just thought it was the particular drivers and not the design limitations.. but it appears both !

I'm curious about how you decided on your pair of speakers. Where did you find the relevant information?

I agree with you, though I have no experiences with studio monitors. For mixing and post processing, I use the Sony MDR-7506 Studio Headphones, which have a rather dominant enhancement of the mids instead of a nice flat frequency response. In that range, the most impurities occur, let alone the battle between bass and kick drum. So, for me that is perfect.

i do all of my mixing through headphones. although i know this probably isn't the best way, i don't believe my current equipment would lend itself to mixing any other way. i have thought about what sort of monitors i might get if i were to go that route. i would most likely go with a 3 way system after watching this. although i think it might be interesting to watch you do an in-depth on those monitors, i think you made it clear that it's a perfectly simple by-product of the crossover technology that is in play here. that's also what i appreciate most about your channel. you're not trying to sell us on gimmicks or tricks. you explain how things work and include when/why they would be desirable. i for one really appreciate it.

You mentioned the sub way too much that I had to sub to your awesome channel Thanks alot man

You always explain better

Appreciate this explanation here. Subs: I’m rarely sure I’ve properly balanced and melded the subwoofer with my mains. There always seems to be too much bass. Any tips?

I use to daisy chain Bluetooth speaker through the 3.5 mm jack specifically you can control the volume on each one, and once you balance everything, the image of the sound sticks out and you can have this amazing experience.

would you reccomend the krk rp10-3 g4 3 way monitors the same for critical mixing?

Thank you for a clear, concise, no nonsense explanation :)

That was invaluable information. So what you're essentially saying is that two way systems can obscure issues that will then jump out and bite you when you try the mix on a different system, but those issues will be much clear with a three way system? How about those cube style speakers the some people use? They have a single "full range" driver, but really they are mid range focused and don't produce as much top & bottom.

I have 2 ways monitors and all of my mixes translate very well. However I do want to upgrade to the 3 way kali audio in8s

I lived with a Hi-Fi reviewer for many years. & yes the more crossovers you have the more points where you are not getting a clear response as the cost of less clarity. I use the test my mixes on a 70k system. It was a huge eye opener. I would take a 3 way over 2 way any day!! I use to love building a track on the big system. The sound design choices I would have made changed. The effect racks changed.. Now I have a tiny room & some old but I still love Dynaudio BM5a MK1s More than plenty for my current needs. But we’ll treated room that is harmonically corrected is amazing!

Hi Michael i have a cheap interface that only goes up to max( 16bit/48khz and i can select 256 buffer without pops). And the only way for me to reduce the output latency and record in real time with my plugins "on" is changing my FLStudio sample rate to 96khz that reduces my latency from (11ms to 7ms output and allows me to select a buffer size=80) reducing my plugins latency to (0ms). Is there any problem doing it? Also i was thinking about just recording in 96Khz and resampling to 48khz using Izotope RX to finish my mix. OBS* My compressors have 1ms latency if i use 48Khz with the autotune=3.30ms. BUT if change the FLStudio to 96KHZ all compressors go to (0ms) and the Autotune=2ms.

Not me happy to see Michael post a video😭... Thank you for the insight

Seems sensible. I was taught how to set up my guitar tone years and years ago by not scooping the mids. Because as you say the guitar resides mostly in the mids and a guitar amp mostly only really reproduces mids well. Of course you can engineer even lower-fi guitar tones by scooping the mid range which can be agreeable in some situations.

Getting my first pair of monitors very soon. Focal Alpha Twin Evos, which are technically 2.5 way. But they have dedicated low and mid woofers and a tweeter (of course!).

Well, my decission at this point was really easy: Years ago at the music trade fair in Germany I saw the most showmen with that yellow monitors on the dishes. So when starting do DJ'ing two years ago, I decided to buy the KRK RoKit Classic 5. The selling points for me were: Literally the word "classic" in the product's name, showing that this is something traditional industry-strandard over the years and the good product's description at Thomann... At this time, I had less knowledge about all that things, but not a bad decission at all and I love them. Usually, I don't like to bring it to gigs but for small birthday partys, small pubs they also fit well, even though they are near field monitors, but they have a lot of sound output and can be very loud which is impressive for that small / mid-sized speakers 🙂

yo bro @in the mix, what are your thoughts on IEM's that have 5 drivers or so, they are also crossovered in a similar way so are those not as good if the crossover isnt done clean as compared to a 2 driver IEM?